This blog does not need an image
because it deals with the mind images
which are called up by text
the text in this case being haiku poems
For a number of years I lived
on the edge of the desert in South Australia. Both isolated and solitary. In
this situation one appreciates visitors. Which were scarce. I remember most.
One in particular. He, in a subtle way, changed my life. He left me a gift
which, after many years, I still have. A gift of a book of Haiku Poetry. Haiku,
a Japanese form of poetry. Short intense poems, two lines in length. This gift
which, like rain, fell onto fertile ground, turned a virtual mind desert into
an oasis.
The Japanese genius for the
creation of ‘little things’ does not only express itself in today’s electronic
gadgets of the computer world, but has its tradition in a long and intricate
history. One only has to look at the exquisitely carved ivories (netsuke) or
the equally exquisite dwarfed trees (bonsai) to understand where the tradition
of Haiku poetry has its roots.
Although the outer form of the
two lined haiku poem is minute, its inner scope has the capacity to be immense.
A favourite way of explaining the essence of this short form of poem is that it
expresses “the Ahh!-nes of things”. There are many examples. My favourite was
written by a monk who, upon returning to his cell, found it robbed empty. His
response in Haiku:
“The thief, he left it
behind
The moon in the window”,
or this
“Up comes the bucket from the
well of gloom,
And in it floats – a pink
Camellia bloom”,
and again
“My ears had found the sermon
dull and stale;
But in the woods outside – the
nightingale”.
These short poems seemed to have
a direct line into our creative inspiration centre.
The Ahhh-ness of things
How could the gift of a
collection of Haiku poems change my life. It came in relation to the fertile
ground of a lifestyle of solitude. A magic combination. It taught me to focus
my mind in a different way on the environment. This created a minute mind shift
strong enough to experience a life change. From that moment on I started each
day with a short observation, often in writing, of the environment in which I
lived. From this came my interest in writing which has lived on until this day.
These expressions do not in any way copy the Haiku form, but certainly have
their roots in that gift left by a traveller all those many years. One never
knows into what any gesture of kindness may result.
Nature features strongly in Haiku
Poetry. I will finish this blog’s ‘Ahhh-nes’
with another short selection of
summer Haikus:
“The butterfly which on a poppy
clings,
Opens and shuts a booklet’s paper
wings”.
“People caught by sudden pouring
skies;
What ingenious hats they
improvise”.
“The snake has slid away: but
still its eyes,
Glare at me from the grass and
paralyse”.
“What burning stillness! Brass
cicadas-drones.
Drill their resonance into rocks
and stones”.
“The sun-shower, mirrored in a
globe of rain.
Hangs for a moment, never seen
again”.
”A moonlit evening: here beside
the pool.
Stripped to the waist – a snail
enjoys the cool”
From the Haiku collection titled:
“A net of fireflies”
'Follow
that way which experience confirms to be your own'
