17 explores the possibilities for haiku as a literary art in English.* Founded by poet and author Clark Strand, the group sponsors four activities:
- Weekly Haiku Challenges with Clark Strand on Facebook
- Haiku—The Master Class, a year-long course in every aspect of haiku
- Haiku Teacher Training, a 10-month curriculum for Master Class graduates who wish to lead haiku groups of their own
- Monthly Haiku Challenges at Tricycle.org/haiku
* To view the "17 Essential Points" that inform our approach to haiku in English, you can consult the list at the bottom of the newsletter.
|
|
|
Upcoming Events
CELEBRATE THE SEASON WITH HAIKU: September 24-26 Fall Equinox Haiku Retreat (in person). Click HERE to register.
THE WAY OF HAIKU: From Pathos to Play, with Clark Strand, Natalie Goldberg, Kaz Tanahashi, and Joan Halifax: March 4 - 6, 2022 (on Zoom). Click HERE for more info.
For an article on "haiku humor" related to both events, click HERE.
|
|
|
|
THIS MONTH’S HAIKU TIP:
Essential Point #2: Sharing the Season
By long-standing tradition, most haiku contain a “season word” such as dandelion or snowflake. The season word anchors a haiku in our common experience of Nature.
For centuries, haiku poets have relied on “season words” to situate their 17-syllable verses in time. “Crickets” usher in autumn. “Daffodils” define spring. The season word grounds a haiku in Nature.
In cases where haiku poets aren’t sure which words belong to which season, they can consult a “season word almanac.” Such lists divide the words for each season into seven categories: The Season Proper, Sky & Elements, The Earth, Humanity, Observances & Holidays, Animals, and Plants. Most poets use only one season word per haiku. This helps to preserve a clear focus for their poem.
The season word lends a certain “weightiness” to an otherwise slight, often lighthearted poetic form, for which reason many poets regard it as essential. A haiku might sail off into triviality or pointless humor without the paperweight of the season word to hold it down.
Once grounded in the season, haiku poets are free to express themselves as they please. As a poetic form, haiku allows for an almost infinite range of self-exploration. We use the season word to reveal what is in our heart.
Haiku are at their best when they are not too heavy, and not too light. The point is to say something significant in a simple, almost casual way. A haiku can flutter in the breeze a bit under the weight of the season word. In fact, it should. Playfulness is essential to the art. Just don’t let it fly away.
—Clifford Rames & Clark Strand, Editors
|
|
|
This Month’s Featured Poet: Rediscovering Edith Shiffert
Once each season, 17—Haiku in English highlights the work of an accomplished haiku poet in a column or interview. This month’s column features Edith Shiffert (1916-2017). —Susan Polizzotto, Features Editor
Shiffert was a founder and editor of Poetry Northwest and a professor at Doshisha University and Kyoto Seika College in Japan for many years. She published more than twenty books of poetry in her lifetime, including three volumes of haiku, which she called “short poems.” Her longer imagist poems were widely published in The New Yorker, Saturday Review, and The New York Times, but her haiku are relatively unknown in the United States. Shiffert was born in Toronto and moved to the U.S. as a child. In 1963, she relocated to Kyoto where she resided until her death at the age of 101.
There is a simplicity to Shiffert's haiku that camouflages their extraordinary depth. Stick with them awhile, though, and you feel reverberations, as in this poem from her collection, The Light Comes Slowly:
Finding no pathway
I find myself in heavens
moment by moment
Initially, it trips off the tongue—then the earthquake hits. Here is another example:
The way of the cat
lures me still farther onward
Have I had enough?
Shiffert probably penned these words in her ninth decade of life. The haiku humor (kokkei in Japanese) lies in her comparing her longevity to the nine lives of a cat. She questions how much longer she wants to live. It’s a witty, elegant and self-deprecating turn of thought, bittersweet with a touch of senryu.
In a review of Shiffert’s book 100 Poems from the Japanese, Kenneth Rexroth praised her “all-pervasive sweetness of temper, a graciousness which comes from reverence for life and gratitude for being… Behind her best poems is the echo of the Bodhisattva Vow, and at the same time the realization that all the combinations called reality are fleeting by nature.”
In her early works, Shiffert used 5-7-5 haiku as a stanza pattern. Later, she began using it to write stand-alone poems. Nearly all of her published haiku follow the 5-7-5 form. Reoccurring themes in Shiffert’s haiku, which she referred to as “surface imagery,” include mountains and flowers, cats, Kannon Bodhisattva, and other Buddhist figures. She enjoyed walking, which she called her “natural medicine.” Even well into her eighties she walked at least an hour a day.
Jim Wilson, haiku poet and co-founder of Many Rivers Bookstore in Sebastopol, California, has described Shiffert’s style as elegant, finely wrought, and mature in its perspective. “Shiffert is a major resource for syllabic haiku poets. Her work, written over many decades, informed by a long stay in Japan, is beautiful, substantial, and inspiring.”
Indeed, Shiffert’s poems reveal a mind untroubled by death and a heart filled with equanimity and wisdom. The following haiku, drawn from The Light Comes Slowly, were selected with the summer season in mind.
For this small beetle
a lifetime on one tree trunk.
Everything is there.
Scent of grass and pines
through the screaming of locusts.
I am awake now.
The departed cat
still seems to be everywhere
as he was before.
The trees accept rain
after a long time of drought,
every leaf refreshed.
Full of bliss and clear
my mind was in the mountains.
Ferns by waterfalls.
In a mountain field
I wait for death. An ox eats
flowers, licks my face.
For further information about Edith Shiffert, including a recording of her reading some of her longer poems, see the following links:
Shiffert’s delightful sense of humor comes through in this hour-long video from a reading at the Kyoto International Community House. She was “eighty-eight and a third” at the time of recording.
Jim Wilson offers a thoughtful review of her collection Forest House With Cat.
Margalit Fox offered a moving tribute to Shiffert in her 2017 obituary in The New York Times.
|
|
|
July Highlights from the Weekly Challenge Group
Each month "17" features four haiku with commentary from our online Facebook community, Weekly Haiku Challenge with Clark Strand. To learn more about the group and how to join it, go HERE. —Suzanne Tyrpak, Highlights Editor
Wildfire: summer / the landscape
wildfires’ aftermath
leaves a cricket-less silence
that no one can hear
—Marcia Burton
Haiku poets often give us the experience of seeing or hearing something that isn’t there. In this case, the wildfire has killed many beings, but the absence of crickets has left a silence “that no one can hear.” The poet invites us to experience something impossible. The effect is utterly unnerving.
The poet uses two season words, “wildfire” and “cricket,” with the result that there is some seasonal confusion (the words belong to summer and autumn, respectively). But, somehow, she gets away with it.
I believe we are going to see more haiku like this. There is even a new word to describe it: solastalgia, “emotional or existential distress caused by environmental change.”
—Clark Strand
Lizard: summer / animals
Seen it all before
The lizards of Kandahar
Bask on empty crates
—Jonathan Aylett
Alexander the Great founded the city of Kandahar. For millennia now, conquerors and empires have struggled to control the region and its lucrative trade, most without success. More recently, three world powers have tried to gain control and establish systems of law and order in Afghanistan. Ultimately, these nations recognized the futility of protracted armed conflict.
Military forces withdraw, leaving equipment and property behind. Any lizard witnessing the cycle knows it’s only a matter of time.
The poem is particularly effective because of what’s left unsaid, allowing the images to speak. Lizards bask on empty crates, as history repeats itself.
—Susan Polizzotto
Cactus Flower: summer / plants
Poor cactus flower
Rapunzeled up there atop
your tower of thorns
—Shelli Jankowski-Smith
Have you ever seen the name “Rapunzel” used as a verb? Probably not. And yet, what a verb it is! The word calls to mind rappelling—only past tense, passive, and in reverse…climbing up, not down. But let’s not let that distract us from the image itself—that of a cactus flower stuck at the top of a thorny tower like the girl in the fairy tale.
“Poor cactus flower” the poet begins, before setting the allusion in place. The opening is funny, yet melancholy, acknowledging the flower’s isolation and apparent chastity.
—Clark Strand
Canoe / Kayak: summer / humanity
riding the current
of tragic humanity
an empty canoe
—Laurie Mansur
Masterfully crafted, this sparse haiku profoundly captures our reality. I am reminded of the recent floods in Germany, where whole hamlets in a once idyllic river valley were washed away in minutes.
There is much to unpack. “Riding the current of tragic humanity…” All of the systems and behaviors we humans set in motion, despite repeated warnings, are leading to our demise.
Then there’s that eerie, empty canoe.
Canoes are used to rescue people stranded in floods. But this one is empty. No one is coming to save us. Perhaps there is no one left.
Powerful, relevant, and timely: haiku in the age of climate crises and Anthropocene.
—Clifford Rames
|
|
|
|
Upcoming Season Words for the Weekly Haiku Challenge
For those belonging to the Weekly Challenge Group, it can be helpful to know what words are coming up over the next month, but we encourage all of our subscribers to write and share haiku on these themes. In this way, we can begin to follow the seasons together—spring, summer, fall, and winter—and share the joy of haiku together as a community. —Becka Chester, Season Word Editor
August 16 Season Word: “Floating Lantern,” mid-August / observances
O-Bon is an annual Buddhist festival. Mid-August, lanterns are brought to ancestors’ graves as an invitation to return to their family homes. The festival concludes with a ritual called ‘toro nagashi’ wherein paper lanterns are placed in rivers to float to the sea, peacefully returning the spirits to the afterlife. It is believed the veil between this world and the next becomes thin at this time, making the pilgrimage easier for the departed.
August 23 Season Word: “Shade Tree,” all summer / the landscape
Many trees function like an awning during the hot summer months. From the refuge provided by a quaking aspen to the shadowed shrouds offered by weeping willows, the cool space beneath them can be an oasis in the heat of day. “In winter we hope to bask in the sunshine; in summer we seek the shade of a tree,” writes William J. Higginson in Haiku World.
September 6 Season Word: “Labor Day,” early September / observances
In the late 19th century, trade unionists designated a day to honor the contributions of working people. Celebrated in numerous states for several years, it officially became a federal holiday in 1894. While Memorial Day traditionally marks summer’s beginning, Labor Day has become the unofficial end of summer. It is celebrated on the first Monday of September.
September 13 Season Word: “Lingering Heat,” early September / the season
“While lingering heat continues from summer into early autumn, at this time we also begin to feel the first coolness of autumn.” William J. Higginson observes in Haiku World. In the past, we would typically begin feeling relief from summer’s warmth as fall starts. However, due to a changing climate, summer’s heat now intrudes into the fall months.
This poses a challenge for plant and animal species as their life cycles are determined by seasonal changes of climate. In addition, cooling temperatures keep invasive pests away, so lingering heat can result in crop damage and loss. By the year 2100, scientists predict that summer may linger in the Northern Hemisphere for six full months.
|
|
|
Kool ‘Ku News
Haiku is the most popular form of poetry in the world. That’s why it so often appears in popular culture. Here are some of the poems that made the news in our online community—plus special mentions in the media, contest announcements, and more. –Clifford Rames, News Editor
July 2021 Kukai Results
A Kukai is a monthly haiku gathering where poets submit 3-5 poems anonymously for commentary by their peers. Participants choose the five haiku they liked the best from those submitted and explain briefly what they liked about them. Below is the First Place poem for our July Kukai, along with selected comments from our members. Congratulations to all!
A taste of sweetness:
suddenly my scattered thoughts
sink into a peach.
—Sharon Rousseau
Valerie Rosenfeld: “I feel like this haiku could be in my book of Zen poems by the old masters!”
Kelly Shaw: “The immediate pleasure of earthy groundedness over the abstract. I love how the peach overtakes the brain, at least for a little while.”
Pat Schauber: “The alliteration in this haiku satisfies as much as the taste of a good peach. I like the way lines 2 and 3 anchor back to line 1.”
Shelli Jankowski-Smith: “I find this turn of thought to be a very pleasing finish, one you can “sink your teeth into.” All distractions are focused and transformed into pure awareness by this visceral experience of a peach.”
To read all the winning poems, entries, and commentaries, you can subscribe to the WEEKLY HAIKU CHALLENGE with Clark Strand on Facebook. For information on the group, how it functions, fees, and how to register, click HERE.
Results of the July 2021 Tricycle Monthly Haiku Challenge
“A good haiku is a tiny temple with nothing in it but a tree or a frog…and a brief moment of awe.”
Congratulations to winning poets John Hawkhead and Lynda Zwinger.
standing at the edge
a summer moon falls apart
in the cataract
— John Hawkhead
in the sitting hall
black swans gliding to stillness
saving all beings
— Lynda Zwinger
To see the July results and commentary, or to submit poems to the Tricycle Monthly Haiku Challenge for August, click HERE.
To read the Fall 2021 Tricycle "On Haiku" column featuring a poem by Becka Chester, visit the magazine's website HERE.
REMINDER: Tricycle now has its own private Facebook group, the Tricycle Haiku Challenge—a place to connect with other participants, respond to calls for submissions, discuss the winning poems, and ask questions. You may request to join the group HERE.
Haiku Success Stories
More and more haiku written by our Weekly Challenge members are finding a place in the wider world. Below is a selection of publishing successes and competition wins by members. Enjoy!
A haiku by Sari Grandstaff was selected for publication in the July 24, 2021 edition of The Mainich, Japan’s largest daily newspaper. You can read her poem of firefly-induced nostalgia HERE.
The inaugural issue of Trash Panda, a print journal founded and edited by Master Class graduate Lisa Anne Johnson, was just published and has started arriving in mailboxes. We are pleased to report that many of our past and present members are represented in this lovely journal, including Clark Strand, Becka Chester, Clifford Rames, Suzanne Tyrpak, Jaeni Aarden, Resa Alboher, Mariya Gusev, Shelli Jankowski-Smith, Lorraine Padden, Kelly Shaw, and Lynda Zwinger. For more information about Trash Panda, go HERE.
Last month, Mayuzumi Madoka, one of Japan’s most widely recognized haiku poets and the foremost proponent of formal haiku in the world today, invited poets from around the world to submit haiku to her Kyoto x Haiku Project. To view haiku by our members, click HERE.
Upcoming Competitions and Submission Deadlines
The window for submissions is still open at Mayuzumi Madoka’s Kyoto x Haiku Project. You may submit up to eight haiku.
For our friends in New Zealand, Friday, August 27, is National Poetry Day. To commemorate the occasion, the The Guyton Group Trust invites poets to submit their 5-7-5 haiku to the Whanganui Haiku Competition. The winning haiku will be put on public display on an outdoor “poetry trail."
Haiku In the News
Haiku in Tashme: The Legacy of Sukeo “Sam” Sameshima
During World War II, over 2,600 Japanese Canadians were incarcerated in an interment camp at Tashme in British Columbia, Canada. Today, very little first-hand information remains to shed light on the thoughts and feelings of the camp’s inhabitants—until now. As reported by the British Columbia Historical Federation, a remarkable collection of materials—including over 600 haiku composed by members of the Tashme Haiku Club during their years of internment—was recently discovered in the possession of one of the camp’s survivors. A fascinating, eye-opening article that includes a number of poignant haiku by Tashme’s incarcerated residents.
HAIKU BOOKS: NEW RELEASES & REVIEWS
Together Apart – Haiku from a locked down Sherkin Island
This charming, limited edition collection of haiku by residents of Sherkin Island tells the story of life in a remote Irish community during Covid lockdown. Members of the Sherkin Island Haiku Group communicated with each other via WhatsApp and wrote over 200 haiku, many of which document (sometimes with added commentary) the comings and goings of birds, flowers, the tides, and even jellyfish during months of isolation. Proceeds from the sale of the book will help support other creative initiatives on Sherkin Island.
What Just Happened--210 Haiku Against the Trump Presidency, by David Starkey (Vine Leaves Press)
Falling in the category of “Popular Haiku” (haiku that adhere to the classical form but omit a season word), poet David Starkey penned one haiku a week for 210 weeks as a way of dealing with his political outrage. This book is humorous yet sometimes dark, the haiku delivered with razor-sharp wit and empathy for social justice issues. It’s not for everyone, but if you enjoy poetry that confronts difficult, controversial topics of the day, this one could be for you.
Beyond Haiku: Pilots Write Poetry, by Captain Linda Pauwels (Fig Factor Media Publishing, 2020)
Lovingly illustrated by children of pilots, this book also falls (or is that flies?) into the “Popular Haiku” category. Beyond Haiku “peeks through the cockpit door to reveal the poetic heart of airline pilots”. Compiled by Captain Linda Pauwels, a Boeing 787 instructor pilot, Beyond Haiku is an insightful glimpse into the minds of 34 passenger jet pilots. Often humorous, evocative, and playful, many of these haiku (some classical; some free form) provide a bird’s eye view out the cockpit window. Proceeds from the sale of Beyond Haiku go to organizations that provide support for pilots impacted by the industry effects of COVID-19. Watch the skies for a planned sequel: Beyond Haiku: Women Pilots Write Poetry.
Quote of the Month
“Haiku is both easy and impossible to define…flat definitions fall well short of accounting for haiku’s mysterious power to cause in the reader’s consciousness a sudden shift, literally a new way of seeing.”
—Former U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins
|
|
|
|
|
