Kacian the Shape of Things

7/29/2019 Kacian the Shape of Things

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Essays

essays

The Shape of Things to Come

Jim Kacian

Haiku has evolved beyond its early stages into something leaner,STRONGER SHARPER )T REQUIRES A BETTER POET TO WRITE GOOD HAIKUtoday, and more often what a poet chooses to write is less likely to beNORMATIVE /R PUT ANOTHER WAY WHAT WAS NORMATIVE TO THE BEST POETSof previous generations is no longer competitive for the best poets of

the current generation. Journals and Web sites are gradually discoverING THIS AND SLOWLY ACCOMMODATING THE NEW PRACTICES )NCREASINGLY WEfind more different kinds of haiku in these places, and readers are learning to parse them in new ways, just as poets are learning to exploit the

NEW POSSIBILITIES INHERENT IN THE NEW SHAPES .OT ALL WILL WORKSOME

will flare briefly and disappear forever. But by having a look at whatscurrently being tried, it may be possible to deduce what the new shape

of haiku is likely to be.

To begin well consider a very brief history of haiku form. This will

in no way be exhaustive, but suggestive as well as cumulative. Well folLOW WITH A MORE DETAILED STUDY OF THE FORM ) FEEL IS LIKELIEST TO BE THEshape of things to come.

,ETS BEGIN WITH THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM )T WILL BE A LONG TIMEIF EVER BEFORE THE THREELINER IS DISPLACED AS THE PRIMARY SHAPE OFhaiku in English. There are many reasons for this: history, tradition,

MIMESIS NOT TO MENTION THE WAY THE THREELINE HAIKU CONTINUES TO

!N EARLIER VERSION OF THIS PAPER TITLED h-ONOPHILIA 4HE (ISTORY AND 0RACTICEOF /NE,INE (AIKU IN %NGLISHv WAS READ AT (AIKU .ORTH !MERICA 3EATTLE7ASH ON !UG


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Modern Haiku 43.3

supply a useful combination of technical opportunities for the poet

to exploit. Haiku work well in three lines in English, and that first

inspiration to render Japanese haiku in this fashion was a gift. The

lRST THREELINERS IN A 7ESTERN LANGUAGE MAY DATE BACK TO THE Sin Dutch, but we have no records to prove this. We do know that

THREELINE TRANSLATIONS WERE BEING MADE AS EARLY AS THE S AND WEmust regard this as somewhat serendipitous, because it was no sure

thing: the Japanese originals were, of course, single vertical lines,

and if that verticality was certain to be adumbrated by our own horizontal writing process, the choice to mimic the tripartite internal

organization in three lines was not so obvious. And, despite some

OTHER EARLY CONTENDERS THE THREELINE MODEL PROVED TO BE THE MOSTGENERALLY ACCEPTED AND SO IS THE GREATGRANDFATHER OF CONTEMPORARYhaiku practice in the West.

3INCE THE THREELINE HAIKU HAS BECOME NORMATIVE PRACTICE ANY OTHERform must be considered aberrant. The onus is on the outlier to prove

the efficacy of its novelty: of course any variant form will provide a difFERENT EXPERIENCE THE QUESTION IS IS IT A BETTER ONE )F ANY POEM CANbe shown to work just as well in the normative shape, then all the variant shape is doing is calling attention to itself, and to its author. Part of

our consideration should always be, how does the shape chosen by the

poet enhance the poem? And if it doesnt, we must consider this to be

A DECISION ERROR ON THE PART OF THE POET ) URGE YOU TO EXPERIMENT WITHall the poems that follow, to see if their success is dependent on the

manner of presentation, or if they might have been just as well served

to begin life as more normative poems.

7E NEEDNT REITERATE THE HISTORY OF THE THREELINE FORM HERE SINCE IT ISprimarily the history you already know: from Aston to Blyth to Hass,

from Lowell to Hackett to Herold, up to and including the currentJOURNALS 3O LETS AGREE TO SIMPLY USE THE THREEline form as the backdrop against which we might consider other shapes that have arisen.

*UST AS REASONABLE A CHOICE IN THOSE lRST DAYS OF TRANSLATION WAS A TWOline, symmetrical or asymmetrical arrangement such as that employed

BY "ASIL (ALL #HAMBERLAIN AS EARLY AS THE S


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Haply the summer grasses are

A relic of the warriors dream. [Bash]2

Another important Japanologist, editor and anthologist, Asatar

-IYAMORI ALSO FAVORED THE TWOLINE RENDERING OF *APANESE ORIGINALS INTHE S

A fallen flower flew back to the branch!

Behold! it was a flitting butterfly. [Moritake]

Two LATER 7ESTERN POETS AND ANTHOLOGISTS +ENNETH 2EXROTH AND(AROLD 3TEWART ALSO ADOPTED THE TWOLINE FORMAT 7HERE THE FORMERachieves a very sharp lucubration, as in

3UMMER grassWhere warriors dream. [Bash]

the latter chose to make something more appetizing to middlebrow

taste, rhyming the poems and pulling the teeth of their observations:

Illusion

The FALLEN BLOSSOMS WHICH ) SAW ARISE

Returning toward the bough, were butterflies.[Moritake]

)N TRUTH THE TWOLINER HAS NEVER REALLY CAUGHT ON IN THE 7EST PERhaps because it too much resembled the rhymed couplets of Augustan poetry without its familiar philosophical trappings. We do find

the occasional exception, such as work by John Gould Fletcher in the

S

2. Basil Hall Chamberlain. Bash and the Japanese Poetical Epigram, Trans-actions of the Asiatic Society of Japan, 888

-IYAMORIAsatar, trans. and annotator,An Anthology of Haiku, Ancient andModern 4OKYO #HUGAI 0RINTING #O ,TD

+ENNETH 2EXROTH TRANS One Hundred Poems from the Japanese .EW 9ORK.EW $IRECTIONS "OOKS

(AROLD 3TEWART A Net of Fireflies: Japanese Haiku and Haiku Paintings2UTLAND 6T AND 4OKYO #HARLES % 4UTTLE #O


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Modern Haiku 43.3

3NOWmAKES rise and fall on the wind:Even Winter has her white flocks of silent birds.

Robert Grenier, in his experiments with short lines that are not necESSARILY HAIKU OFFERED THIS POEM IN THE S

Pulse

howBIG A GAP CAN A LINE CONTAIN GO ON

He seems to be asking what exactly are the believable parameters for

kire how far afield can a poem go on the other side of the break? This

IS AN AGEOLD QUESTION IN HAIKU AND THE ANSWER IS ALWAYS EXACTLY WHAT THE

poem supplies in this case, all the way from the range of possibilities ofpulse to a disquisition on the nature of what? poetic practice? blood

pressure? heredity? the universe? A most challenging poem.

3LIGHTLY LESS CHALLENGING BUT NO LESS TERSE AND EVEN TANGIER IS- +ETTNERS S POEM

your hair drawn back

the sharp taste of radishes

Two LINES SEEMS EXACTLY RIGHT FOR THIS NO THREELINE ARRANGEMENT APproaches its strident acerbity.

+AREN 3OHNE PENNED THIS CLASSIC SENRYU IN THE S

androgynous stranger

winks at me

and Michael Fachertys terse

in the wood pile

the broken ax handle

*OHN 'OULD &LETCHER VERSE 6 h&ROM THE *APANESEv Visions of Evening,ONDON -AC$ONALD .

2OBERT Grenier, Sentences#AMBRIDGE -ASS 7HALE #LOTH 0RESS antantantantant $EE Evetts, ed., Woodshavings.EW 9ORK 3PRING 3TREET (AIKU 'ROUP Black Bough .


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dates from the middle of that decade. And from this new decade we

have John Carleys

sunlight spills along the canalanother breath of solvent

and this from Jrgen Johansson

a ladybird

B TO C

4HE TWOLINE POEM DERIVED FROM THE ESSENTIALLY TWOPART CONTENTwise) Japanese haiku makes some sense, even if it hasnt enjoyed much

POPULARITY WITH POETS IN THE 7EST 4HE FOURLINE VERSION HOWEVERdoesnt have the same easy continuity, and we should perhaps viewIT AS AN IDIOSYNCRATIC PRODUCT OF 7ESTERN HAIKU PRACTICE .OT SURPRISingly, it also has not been much favored. A number of early American

haikuists used four lines on occasion, notably Virginia Brady Young,

whose first lines end in a colon and read like a title, L.A. Davidson, and

LVARO #ARDONA(INE /NLY ONE POET THAT ) KNOW OF HAS MADE IT HISTRADEMARK FORM 3TEPHEN 'ILL WHO PUBLISHES UNDER THE NAME 4ITO

Further down the cobble beach

the face of anothersunwatcher

loses its copper glow

)T IS DEBATABLE WHAT THE FOURLINE ARRAY ACCOMPLISHES BEYOND AIRINGthe poem out a bit. Titos poems do tend towards a greater syllable

count than the prevailing norms, and perhaps the fourth line helps

MAKE THEM FEEL LESS WEIGHTED MORE FREEmOWING )N MOST INSTANCESTHE FOURLINE EFFORTS WE MIGHT lND PUBLISHED ARE ABERRATIONS FROM USUALpractice by their authors, and the lineage employed seems directly aimed

Frogpond *IM +ACIAN AND $EE %VETTS EDS A New Resonance 6: Emerging Voices in

English-language Haiku 7INCHESTER 6A 2ED -OON 0RESS Blithe Spirit .OVEMBER


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Modern Haiku 43.3

at arriving at specific sorts of timings for the readings of the poems.

(ERE FOR INSTANCE IS AN EARLY EXAMPLE S BY ,ARRY %IGNER

wI D E R A N G I N Gcloud oversunlit

somewhere enough for a storm

Eigner didnt call his poem a haiku, though it is clearly related. Virginia

"RADY 9OUNGS ALSO FROM THE S WAS CLEARLY IN THE GENRE

at twilight

hipposhedding

the river

There is certainly something gained with each line break, not to mention a slight suggestion of the hippos shape, in this poem, so we might

DECIDE THE FOURLINE SOLUTION HERE SEEMS APTLY CHOSEN FOR THE CONTENT3HAPE ALSO SEEMS TO BE CENTRAL TO 2OBERT 3PIESSS POEM EARLY S

a square

of water

r e f l e c t s

the moon

,E2OY 'ORMANS SELFDEPRECATING FOURLINER FROM THE SAME TIME ALSOseems to use the form to advantage:

between

Goethe 'RAVESsummer

shelfdust

,ARRY %IGNER Windows/walls/yard/ways "OSTON "LACK 3PARROW 0RESS

Haiku West *ULY Cicada


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)N $EE %VETTSS HAIKU LATE S THE MOTIVATION WASNT SO MUCH AFOURLINE RESULT BUT A MORE ORGANICALLY PLEASING PRESENTATION

the river going over

the afternoon

going on

And PERHAPS -ARTIN ,UCASS POEM S IS SOMETHING OF AN ANTIhaiku, so deviation from the norm feels appropriate:

somewherebetween

Giggleswick and Wigglesworth

) am uninspired

Perhaps the least practiced shapes haiku have taken are specific to

individual poems, shapes we might term organic. A simple example

is L.A. Davidsons

beyond

stars beyond

star

from THE EARLY S !NOTHER FAMOUS STELLAR POEM BY 2AYMONDRoseliep a couple years later, approximates this same shape:

he removes his glove

to point out/RION

Frogpond $EE %VETTS TheMill House(AIKU #ANADA 3HEET n 'EORGE 3WEDE AND 2ANDY "ROOKS EDS Global Haiku: Twenty-five Poets

World-wide .ORTHUMBERLAND %NG/AKVILLE /NTn.IAGARA &ALLS .9 )RON0RESS -OSAIC 0RESS

Haiku Magazine 2AYMOND 2OSELIEP Sailing Bones: Haiku (Ruffsdale, Pa.: Rook Press,


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Modern Haiku 43.3

This shape perhaps suggests vastness, the third line moving away from

the rest of the poem, the rest of what is known. The delay of the third

line increases tension, especially when read. A more complex sort

OF ORDER BUT EVEN EARLIER EARLY S IS CALLED UPON IN 7ILLIAM *Higginsons22

SKYBLACKgullskims

the wave inland

against the cliffwhitens

/NE COULD MENTION .ICK !VIS WHO IS PERHAPS THE MOST CAREFUL OFhaiku poets in placing words on paper, and Marshall Hryciuk, who isabout the least careful !

/RGANIC SHAPE IS NOT EASILY DISCOVERABLE AND EVEN WHEN SUCCESSFULdoesnt automatically suggest haiku to a reader, particularly one not

VERSED IN THE GENRE )NSTEAD IT CONJURES THE REALM OF THE SHORT POEMand perhaps this is one argument that haiku is indeed simpatico with

hMAINSTREAMv SHORTFORM POETRY0ROBABLY THE BESTKNOWN ADVOCATE OF THIS ORGANIC FORM IS -ARLENE

-OUNTAIN )N ADDITION TO HER SHAPE POEMS FOR EXAMPLE THE TYPOGRAPHical exercise she employed around the word labium, and her process

poems, such as the leaping frog, she has created what is perhaps the

BEST AND BESTKNOWN ORGANIC HAIKU FROM THE MIDS

on this cold

spring2 NIGHT

kittenswet

22. Haiku Magazine -ARLENE 7ILLSMoment, Moment /Moments"ATTLE 'ROUND )ND (IGH#OO

0RESS


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The FELICITY WITH WHICH THIS SHAPE CAUSES THE READER TO REENACT THEcontent of the poem is uncanny, and stands as a model for those seeking similar effects.

4HERE ARE STILL OCCASIONAL ATTEMPTS AT RATHER FREEFORM HAIKU AS ANYONEWHO HAS HAD A LOOK AT THE (AIKU.OW )NNOVATIVE CATEGORY RESULTS FROMthe past couple years will note. But not many of them have been compelling in their execution. An interesting recent effort is Eve Luckrings

c u m u l o

n i m b u s

d r i f t the

d a y

o f f

s c h e d u l e

Another branch we might consider is concrete haiku. After a flurry of

ACTIVITY IN THE LATE S TO EARLY S ESPECIALLY IN #ANADA CONCRETEhaiku have not been much practiced in English. The first such effort

perhaps was Paul RepssS POEM

!

rain

Two decades later the most famous concrete haiku was penned by Cor

van den Heuvel:

tundra

4HERE HAVE BEEN OTHER ONEWORD EFFORTS THOUGH NONE PERHAPS QUITEas successful, and certainly none so iconic.

The greatest early exponent of concrete haiku was Larry Gates. HisSERIES h4EST 0ATTERNSv IN THE S INCLUDED SUCH WORK AS

Modern Haiku SUMMER 0AUL 2EPS Square Sun Square Moon: A Collection of Sweet Sour Essays.ORTH

#LARENDON 6T #HARLES % 4UTTLE #OR VAN DEN (EUVEL The Window-Washers Pail.EW 9ORK #HANT 0RESS Haiku Magazine


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Modern Haiku 43.3

GGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG

RRRRRRESRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

AAAAAKSNAAAAAAAASNAAAA

SSNSKESSKESSSSSSNAKESS

SSAKESSSESNSSSSSAKESSS

GGGGGGGGNAKGGGAKEGGGGG

RRRRRRRRRKESRAKERRRRRR

AAAAAAAAAASNAKEAAAAAAA

SSSSSSSSSSSSSAKESSSSSS

SSSSSSSSSSSSSKSSSSSSSS

4HEN THERE ARE THE ODDITIES AND THE ONEOFFS MOST OF WHICH HAVE HADa single champion and no adherents. We can perhaps so envision this

poem, considered the first successful haiku in English:

In a Station of the Metro

The apparition of these faces in the crowd :

Petals on a wet, black bough .

Ezra Pound published this in PoetryIN AND ITS FULL OF INTERESTING

quirks: a title, for instance, and is it meant to be counted as one of thelines? What of those spaces that separate the various phrases within the

lines themselves: is this simply a guide to reading, a timing device, or is

IT FOLLOWING SOME SUPPOSED MODEL )N THE LATTER CASE WITH ITS lVE SECtions, could it be a tanka? But it has the unmistakable feel of haiku,

whatever its vagaries.

4HE SAME CAN BE SAID OF 7ALLACE 3TEVENSS RESPONSE TO ENCOUNTERINGhaiku. What he wrote he would not have called haiku either, but it feels

like a robust, aerated, Americanized version of haiku long before therewas anything like a haiku community to say nay. Heres one section

from Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird:

%ZRA 0OUND h#ONTEMPORANEAv Poetry !PRIL 7ALLACE 3TEVENS h4HIRTEEN 7AYS OF ,OOKING AT A "LACKBIRDv Harmonium


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xiii

)Twas evening all afternoon.

)Twas snowingAnd it was going to snow.The blackbird sat

)N THE CEDARLIMBS

Elsewhere ) HAVE MADE THE CASE THAT WE MIGHT CONSIDER THIS POEM THElRST SEQUENCE IN %NGLISHLANGUAGE HAIKU

/NCE JOURNALS AND ORGANIZATIONS HAD COME TO THE 7EST AND A NORmative practice began to be established, experimentation took more

the shape of a response to the norm. Larry Gates, for instance, took

the standard haiku model and rotated it ninety degrees, attempting

TO COMBINE THE THREELINE NORM OF THE 7EST WITH SOME FEELING OF THEVERTICALITY OF *APANESE POEMS AS IN THIS ONE FROM THE S

As a flashes

the little white

falls WATERTHRUSH

darken

)N this case, Gates actually had a follower, as the poet Evelyn Tooley(UNT WHO OFTEN PUBLISHED UNDER THE NAME 4AO,I EMPLOYED THISSHAPE IN MANY OF HER POEMS -ORE IDIOSYNCRATICALLY -ARTIN 3HEA USEDspaces and lines to create quite different layouts and consequent

EMOTIONAL RESPONSESTO WHAT USUALLY WERE THREELINE HAIKU AS IN THISONE FROM THE MIDS

bolted space

the lights on the cornersclick and change

Modern Haiku AUTUMN New World Haiku


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Modern Haiku 43.3

At about the same time Alan Pizzarelli was working with a flexible

lineation that followed the flow of the idiom, resulting in a seemingly

artless, colloquial effect:

a spark

falls to the grounddarkens

thats it

At the opposite end of the theoretical, anne mckay was seeking anything but a casual effect on the reader, organizing her material for artisTIC IMPACT AS IN THIS POEM FROM THE LATE S

a clarityastonishing

the nightrising

slowand

sweetsuddenly

her voice singing

Another Canadian with a penchant for formal experimentation is MiCHAEL $UDLEY 4HIS POEM FROM THE S IS ONE OF HIS MOST UNUSUAL

a purple sky

dim on the

figures DRIVEINappear screen

!LAN 0IZZARELLI FROM THE SEQUENCE h4EA 0ARTYv Haiku Magazine Frogpond -AY $OROTHY (OWARD AND !NDR $UHAIME EDS Haku: anthologie canadienne /

Canadian Anthology(ULL /NT !YLMER 1UE DITIONS !STICOU


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The most recent attempt at fashioning a compelling new shape while

keeping a traditional haiku feel and content has been made by Lee

Gurga. The possibility his cruciform shapes contain is only beginning

to be explored, but one of the more successful of his early efforts is theFOLLOWING FROM

notthe

wholestory

but probably enoughfresh

snow

AlNAL ANOMALOUS SHAPE )D LIKE TO MENTION IS THE OVERLAP HAIKU WHAT.ICK 6IRGILIO NAMED THE hWEIRDv

fossilence

This technique has not been used very often to my knowledge: perhaps

a couple dozen poets have published them in the past twenty years. A

RELATED STYLE OVERLAPS WORDS TO CREATE COMPRESSION /NE OF THE BEST IS

THIS ONE BY *OHN 3TEVENSON

jampackedelevatoreverybuttonpushed

The newest shape to make a bid for permanence in haiku practice

IS THE VERTICAL ARRAY )TS NOT EXACTLY A NEW IDEA BESIDES BEING THE USUALSHAPE FOR *APANESE HAIKU WE CAN lND IT IN %NGLISH AS EARLY AS THE Sbeing the regular shape employed by Michael McClure, as in this

example:

Frogpond SPRINGSUMMER 'EORGE 3WEDE AND 2ANDY "ROOKS EDS Global Haiku: Twenty-five Poets

World-wide .ORTHUMBERLAND %NG/AKVILLE /NTn.IAGARA &ALLS .9 )RON0RESS -OSAIC 0RESS

Frogpond *OHN "RANDI AND $ENIS -ALONEY EDS Unswept Path: Contemporary

American Haiku "UFFALO .9 7HITE 0INE 0RESS


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Modern Haiku 43.3

./4().'

.%33

ofintelligence;

silversunlightthroughclosedeyelids

And the verticality of Japanese haiku certainly inspired this poem by

*OHN 4AGLIABUE FROM THE EARLY S

Ancestral Portraits

themarkofleavesin

theflyingair

Alan 0IZZARELLI IN OFFERED A CHUNKIER VERSION OF THIS IDEA

rain

floating down the gutter

a crimson leaf

a popcicle stick

a

*OHN 4AGLIABUE The Doorless Door (Japan Poems) .EW 9ORK 'ROSSMAN0UBLISHERS

!LAN 0IZZARELLI Karma Poems: Haiku/Senryu 19701973 "ROOKLYN .90RINT #ENTER


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and -ARLENE -OUNTAIN IN PROVIDED THIS VERSION

beneath

leaf moldstonecoolstone

But IT WASNT UNTIL 2OBERT 3PIESS IN The Cottage of Wild Plum that the vertical form was explored in depth:

crescent

moon

abat

loops

and

twists

among

wild

plum

/NE poet who picked up on the possibilities that might be found inWHAT 3PIESS WAS EXPLORING WAS VINCENT TRIPI AS IN THIS POEM FROM thepath of the bird

Lookingupatthegiant

sequoiawoodpeckerfledgling

-ARLENE -ORELOCK 7ILLS The Old Tin Roof 2OBERT 3PIESS h! #YCLE OF &IVE (AIKU FROM @4HE #OTTAGE OF 7ILD 0LUMv

Modern Haiku SUMMER 6INCENT 4RIPI The Path of the Bird


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Modern Haiku 43.3

With the regular publication of the poems of John Martone, beginning

IN THE MIDS THE FULL RANGE OF POSSIBILITIES OF THE VERTICAL ARRAY BEGAN TOcome clear. This poem, from his chapbookHeart Wood IS TYPICAL

HERETHERE

SIlence

APPRO

XIMATE

LYfern

Another POET QUICK TO REALIZE THE POTENTIALS OF THIS SHAPE WAS 3COTTMetz. This recent one is among his most successful:

anotherdrop

itsraining

All this by way of prelude: if something is to upend the hegemony

OF THE THREELINE HAIKU THE CLEAR FAVORITE IS THE ONELINER WHICH IF THE

PITCH )M ABOUT TO MAKE FOR IT IS TRUE IS DUE FOR A TERM OF ITS OWN )would like to suggest: the monoku. What recommends it is its clarity:

IT SAYS WHAT IT IS ) ALSO LIKE ITS BREVITY AND THE HYBRIDITY OF ITS ORIGINS AGreek prefix wedded to a Japanese suffix to create a new English term.

*OHN -ARTONE Heart Wood*AMAICA 6T "ULL 4HISTLE 0RESS Modern Haiku AUTUMN


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(AIKU IS NOT THE SOLE PROVINCE OF ONELINERS IN %NGLISH POETRY BUTit is nearly so. Almost all examples of monostich are imported from

other languagesthe Russian of Bryusov, the French of Apollinaire.

The practice of rendering links of renga in single lines (for space considerations, perhaps) may well have influenced poets writing haiku in

English, especially those offering sequences, which have often had their

individual elements arranged in single lines.*

Like all these alternative shapes, monoku must be considered against

THE SUCCESS OF THE NORMATIVE THREELINE HAIKU 7HILE SOME OF THESE ALternative shapes have specific applications, others seem simply idiosyncratic. Monoku, however, have not arisen out of a need simply to be

different: they actually offer a range of technical and stylistic opportuNITIES THAT ARE NOT AVAILABLE TO THE THREELINE HAIKU NOR EVEN SO FAR AS )AM ABLE TO ASCERTAIN TO THE *APANESE SINGLE VERTICAL LINE FORM )T OFFERSresources that one just cant find elsewhere in haiku, and where there is

NEW TERRITORY POETS WILL COLONIZE ) WILL DETAIL SOME OF THESE ADVANTAGESAS WE PROCEED BUT lRST )D LIKE TO OFFER A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE MONOKU

Monoku have been offered as an alternative normative version of

HAIKU FROM THE BEGINNING /NE OF THE lRST TRANSLATORS OF CLASSICAL *APANESE HAIKU ,AFCADIO (EARN WORKING IN THE S PROFFERED ONELINEversions such as:

The voice having been all consumed by crying, there remains

only the shell of the smi[Bash]

As we have observed, competing models were also offered, and of

THESE THE THREELINE FORM GAINED THE MOST TRACTION EARLY ON AND THIShas affected practice ever since. But not everyone was entirely conVINCED )N HIS SEMINAL VOLUME The Country of Eight Islands

(IROAKI 3ATO IN COLLABORATION WITH "URTON 7ATSON SUPPLIED SINGLEline translations of haiku and tanka, arguing that such versions proVIDED A CLOSER EXPERIENCE TO THE *APANESE ORIGINALS 4HOUGH 3ATO ISless prolix than Hearn, we can feel a certain kinship in poems such

as this:

,AFCADIO Hearn, Shadowings"OSTON ,ITTLE "ROWN AND #O


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Modern Haiku 43.3

The sea darkens, and the voices of ducks faintly white [Bash]

However, poets writing haiku in English were not quick to follow

these examples: normative practice for haiku in English for the firstHALF OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY WAS DECIDEDLY THREE LINES +EROUAC ASWAS SO OFTEN HIS WONT WAS THE lRST TO EXPERIMENT WITH A SINGLELINEFORMAT IN THE S (IS COMRADEINARMS !LLEN 'INSBERG SEEKING TOincorporate a Western attitude into an Eastern genre, created what he

called American sentences, seventeen syllables punctuated as usual.

This was as much an outgrowth of his own work with long, flexible

English poetic lines as any theoretical statement of what lay inherent in

haiku itself. Heres a typical example:

A dandelion seed floats above the marsh grass with the mosquitos.

This model was largely ignored by other poets inside and out of the

haiku community, which began organizing itself shortly thereafter.

The first monoku that received widespread acceptance was Michael

3EGERSS

in the eggshell after the chick has hatched

in 7HAT IT CHIEmY IS NOTICING SEEMINGLY IS AN ABSENCE THOUGHone might argue for shadow or whiteness or some other characteristic.

But the curiously truncated manner in which it presents itself, in meDIAS RES IS NOT TO BE FOUND AGAIN UNTIL 2OBERT 'RENIERS h3ENTENCESvS SUCH AS

except the swing bumped by the dog in passing

/NCE the idea of a single line containing the whole of a haiku came

into consciousness in the haiku community, it spread quickly. George

(IROAKI 3ATO AND "URTON 7ATSON EDS AND TRANS From the Country of EightIslands: An Anthology of Japanese Poetry'ARDEN #ITY .9 $OUBLEDAY

!LLEN 'INSBERG White Shroud: Poems 19801985 .EW 9ORK (ARPER 2OW

Haiku Magazine SUMMER 2OBERT 'RENIER Sentences#AMBRIDGE -ASS 7HALE #LOTH 0RESS


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3WEDE TOOK UP THE GAUNTLET PRODUCING SEVERAL MONOKU SUCH AS THISFROM

at THE EDGE OF THE PRECIPICE ) BECOME LOGICAL

An atypical poem by Lorraine Ellis Harr from around the same time:

an owl hoots darkness down from the hollow oak

R. #LARENCE -ATSUO!LLARD WAS ONE OF THE lRST TO GO ON RECORD PUBLICLYESPOUSING THE SINGLELINE FORMAT WITH POEMS SUCH AS THIS ONE FROM

an icicle the moon drifting through itThe same year saw Marlene Mountains paean to concision:

pig and i spring rain

More EFFORTS FOUND THEIR WAY INTO PRINT IN SUCH AS THIS ONE BYJohn Wills:

dusk from rock to rock a waterthrush

and this from Robert Boldman:

leaves blowing into a sentence

.EARLY ALL THE LEADING HAIKU POETS OF THE DAY FOUND THE SINGLELINEform worth exploring. At about the same time one by Peggy Willis

Lyles:

Before we knew its name the indigo bunting

'EORGE 3WEDEA Snowman, Headless&REDERICKTON ." &IDDLEHEAD 0OETRY"OOKS

Cicada Cicada HSA Frogpondn .OVEMBER Amoskeag Cicada Brussels Sprout


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Modern Haiku 43.3

This FROM *AMES +IRKUP ALSO IN

the blood of my shadow poured up the steps

Elizabeth 3EARLE ,AMB TRIED HER HAND

cry of the peacock widens the crack in the adobe wall

and 2UBY 3PRIGGS AS WELL

my head in the clouds in the lake

And, a bit later, one from Hal Roth:

dove song shortens the lane where she waits

All this occurred within the confines of the haiku community. At the

same time, however, a very surprising thing happened: one of the major contemporary American poets, John Ashbery, inspired by Hiroaki

3ATOS ONELINE TRANSLATIONS FROM THE *APANESE PUBLISHED THIRTYSEVENhaiku in the journal SulfurIN AND A YEAR LATER IN HIS COLLECtion The Wave. These poems were quite different from the majority of

poems being published in haiku journals and indeed set a challenge to

HAIKU POETS TO ENGAGE IN A LARGER DISCOURSE WITH SOCALLED MAINSTREAMpoetry. Heres one example:

A blue anchor grains of grit in a tall sky sewing

.O ONE IMMEDIATELY TOOK UP THIS CHALLENGE PERHAPS BECAUSE IT WAS SOdaunting, but more likely because haiku poets were not even aware of it.

)N THE FOLLOWING DECADE A HANDFUL OF POETS PUBLISHED MONOKU MOST OFTHEM ONLY OCCASIONALLY 3INCE THE BEGINNING OF THE NEW CENTURY HOWEVERALL THAT HAS CHANGED -OST MAJOR HAIKU POETS SINCE HAVE TRIED THEIR

hand at monoku, and while some have decided it doesnt suit them, most

+IRKUP Dengonban Messages (AROLD ' (ENDERSON (AIKU !WARDS (AIKU 3OCIETY OF !MERICA

2nd place. Frogpond (AL 2OTH Her Daughters Eyes'LEN "URNIE -D 7IND #HIMES 0RESS *OHN !SHBERY h (AIKUv Sulfur


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Essays

HAVE INCLUDED AT LEAST A FEW IN THEIR COLLECTIONS AS WELL AS IN JOURNALS )Nrough chronological order, the past decade has seen work by

Chris Gordon:

a love letter to the butterfly gods with strategic misspellings

Dietmar Tauchner:

deep inside you no more war

VINCENT TRIPI

!H WATERSTRIDER NEVER TO HAVE LEFT A TRACK

3TUART 1UINE

bolted and chained the way to the mountains

Allan Burns:

Kind of Bluethe smell of rain

*EFF 3TILLMAN

hazy moon hung over the new year

Lorin Ford:

their wings like cellophane remember cellophane

+ARMA 4ENZING 7ANGCHUK

stone before stone buddha

#HRIS 'ORDONAn Apparent Definition of Wavering.O PLACE NO PUBLISHERSPRING

Roadrunner;7EB= 6) .OVEMBER 6INCENT 4RIPI Paperweight for Nothing'REENlELD -ASS 4RIBE 0RESS Presence Acorn SPRING Blithe Spirit -ARCH Roadrunner;7EB= )8 -AY +ARMA 4ENZING 7ANGCHUK Stone Buddha#HARLESTON )LL TELLET


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Modern Haiku 43.3

Charles Trumbull:

such innocent questions sunflowers

3COTT Metz:

only american deaths count the stars

Martin Lucas:

the THYMESCENTED MORNING LIZARDS TONGUE mICKING OUT

Giselle Maya:

the cuckoos voice has opened a white iris

John Barlow:

the wind being farmed the wind that isnt

Eve Luckring:

cocktail party that one closed door

William Ramsey:

fate: a leaf falls but with improvisation

and Christopher Patchel:

we turn turn our clocks ahead

Roadrunner;7EB= )8 &EBRUARY Modern Haiku WINTERnSPRING Presence 3EPTEMBER Modern Haiku AUTUMN Presence -AY *IM +ACIAN AND $EE %VETTS EDS A New Resonance 6: Emerging Voices in

English-language Haiku 7INCHESTER 6A 2ED -OON 0RESS 7ILLIAM - 2AMSEYMore Wine7INCHESTER 6A 2ED -OON 0RESS ND (AIKU.OW #ONTEST 4HE (AIKU &OUNDATION


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Essays

And OF COURSE ) MYSELF HAVE FOUND MANY RESOURCES IN THE MONOKUpublishing my first at the end of the century

the place i cant reach itches your absenceand scores more since. Last year, at the request of the Dutch publisher

T 3CHRIJVERKE ) WROTE A MONOGRAPH ON THE TOPIC ENTITLED where i leaveoff,which seeks to identify several strategies that monoku employ, and

provides examples from my work.

) WOULD LIKE TO FOCUS ON THREE OF THE MORE INTERESTING TECHNIQUESreadily available in monoku but only rarely, if at all, in normative haiKU OR EVEN IN OTHER FORMAL SCHEMES /F COURSE THERE ARE MANY MORE

than three such techniques, and the use of one does not preclude theuse of others in any given poem. Many of the poems above are indeed

not so simply parsed that a single technique can be said to account for

the whole of its affect.

)TS MY CONTENTION THAT EARLY MONOKU UP UNTIL AT LEAST THE 3EGERSpoem, and many after as well, employed no technique that is unique

TO HAIKU PRESENTED AS A SINGLE LINE 4HE ONELINE TRANSLATIONS SEEK TOrender a more just experience of the Japanese original, not to expand

the range of technical advantage the monoku might offer in English;

while poets writing in English seemingly didnt discover these technical

ADVANTAGES UNTIL THE FORM WAS MUCH MORE ESTABLISHED )F WE CONSIDERTHE EXAMPLES ABOVE BY (EARN 3ATO AND 'INSBERG WE WOULD PROBABLYagree that all might have been presented in three lines with little loss to

the poem had the translator or poet chosen that form. And we might

SAY THE SAME OF THE ORIGINAL POEMS OF -ATSUO!LLARD AND "OSTOK"UT IN THE 3EGERS POEM AND MANY OF THOSE THAT FOLLOW SOMETHING

ELSE IS HAPPENING REPRESENTING IN THREE LINES BECOMES MORE PROBLEM

atical, and the results lose something of the effect of the original poem.3EGERS TRUNCATES THE POEM IN SUCH A WAY THAT WE ACTUALLY OMIT THEfragment part of the usual fragment/phrase layout: the poem might

*IM +ACIAN Where I Leave Off: One-Line Haiku and Haibun / Waar ikophoud: eenregelige haiku en haibun S(ERTOGENBOSCH .ETHERLANDS T 3CHREIJVERKE -ARCH


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Modern Haiku 43.3

have been more traditionally written with a first line of, say, in the

henhouse, if aiming for one kind of effect, or perhaps darkness if

aiming for another. But by dispensing with it altogether the poet forces

the reader to do more work, more imagining, and this serves to openthe poem to all sorts of interesting results. Rather than a piling up

of images upon the imagination, what Pound called phanopoeia, a

single image is extended or elaborated into a second context, often

implied. This omission of fragment comes to be one of the most commonly utilized techniques in the toolbox of the emerging monoku.

/THER EXAMPLES OF IT FROM OUR LIST INCLUDE THE POEMS BY "OLDMAN3PRIGGS 'ORDON ,UCAS AND &ORD

The second technique we find commonly in monoku that differsfrom normative haiku form is sheer speed. The rushing of words past

the imaginations editor results in a breathless taking in of the whole,

only after which the unexpected sense contained within the imagery

asserts itself. The pivot of a poem might occur in the first word, but

having met it so early in the reading the reader can hardly be blamed

for not recognizing it as such. And another might work in exactly the

opposite way, postponing its pivot for the last word, and then asking

the reader to decide how to read it.

4HE lRST SUCH POEM ON OUR LIST IS -ARLENE -OUNTAINS hPIG AND Iv )Nfive words she limns the entire scene, and the reader or listener really

HAS NO ALTERNATIVE BUT TO TAKE IT WHOLE /NLY AFTERWARDS IS IT POSSIBLE TOunpack it, by which point the entire sensation of the poem is embedded within us. Boldmans poem operates in a similar fashion, as do

THE POEMS BY ,YLES 3PRIGGS 4AUCHNER "URNS -ETZ AND IN A SLIGHTLYdifferent way, Patchel.

4HERE IS NO PARALLEL FOR THIS EFFECT THAT ) CAN lND IN NORMATIVE HAIKU

The line breaks ensure that the reader slows down, and momentum islost, which for most poems is not a loss, but for these special kinds of

poems, removes much of their impact.

A third technique endemic to monoku is the use of multiple kire,

hCUTTINGv 3OME CRITICS SUCH AS (ASEGAWA +AI FEEL THAT kireis the mostcritical poetic technique employed by haiku. The advantage this kind

of monoku has is that the break can occur in one of several places,


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Essays

and each possible break point yields a different reading. Most often

the sense of the poem remains similar, but different emphases create

subtle shifts in meaning. We might think of such haiku as cut gems:

each slight turn catches the light a bit differently; each facet contains itsown inherent gleams and prismatic effects. Multiple possible caesuras

yield subtle, often ambiguous texts which generate alternative readings,

and subsequently richer poetic experiences. Each poem can be several

poems, and the more the different readings cohere and reinforce each

other, the larger the field occupied by the poem, the greater its weight

in the mind. My poem is one such example, with others being the

-ETZ 7ANGCHUK AND 3TILLMAN

)N ADDITION TO THESE THREE TECHNIQUES LET ME BRIEmY ADD THE MONOKUSability to enact its content, a kind of shape poem, as in the Wills; a

more direct imposition of images in Lambs; the creation of a kind of

unexpected animism all the more direct for its form, as in the Roth; a

vehicle for apothegm and epigram, in the tripi and Ramsey; and the

IRREDUCIBLE THROUGHCOMPOSED POEM WHICH A THREELINE TREATMENTwould render cumbersome, as exemplified by Lucas. There are special

effects as well, such as Patchels word repetition which deepens the significance of the observation, and the management of disjunctive elements that might feel too loosely constrained in a less lapidary form,

such as the Ashbery and Boldman.

And so on.

4HIS IS NOT ADVOCACY FOR ONELINE TECHNIQUE FOR ALL %NGLISHLANGUAGEhaiku. The needs of each poem must be determined individually, and

THOSE NEEDS MET .OR IS IT ANY INDICATION OF ALL THATS POSSIBLE WITHINA ONELINE TREATMENT) BELIEVE WEVE ONLY BEGUN TO EXPLORE HOW THEMONOKU MIGHT EXPAND THE RANGE OF %NGLISHLANGUAGE HAIKU "UT IT IS

AN ARGUMENT THAT ONELINE FORM IS NO LONGER A VARIANT FORMTHE MONOKU IS AND HAS BEEN FOR SOME TIME A FULLYmEDGED FORM OF THE GENREAND WITH AN EXCITING EXPLORATORY PERIOD JUST AHEAD ) LOOK FORWARD TOparticipating in that exploration, and expect many of you will be inVOLVED AS WELL )T WILL NOT BE THE VERY DISTANT FUTURE WHEN WE WILL DElNEHAIKU AS A BRIEF POEM MOST OFTEN IN ONE OR THREE LINES /NLY THEN WILLour explanation have caught up with the reality.

Kacian the Shape of Things

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