Carpe Diem Ghost Writer #40 "Kikobun" by Hamish Managua Gunn

!! I am a bit early (again), but I have a busy day ... !!

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

This will be our last GW-post for this year and as you could have read in one of my earlier posts the GW-post will not return in January temporarily, because I love to bring a weekly post on Wednesdays about "haiku writing techniques" in January (and maybe February and March). Of course you can email me your GW-posts, because the GW-post will return later on in 2015.
This week's GW-post is by Hamish Managua Gunn and it's about "kikobun" another kind of haibun. Have fun!

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A Winter kikôbun


We have had some superb haibun prompts at Carpe Diem Haiku Kai, and this form of writing is one that I find so comprlling. However, I’s like to go a step further and introduce the kikôbun.
Here is what Professor Peipei Qiu, The Author of Bashô and the Dao says about kikôbun:
‛The Japanese literary travel journal (kikôbun) has been closely related to poetry. It characteristically weaves poems and the introductory narratives in a sequential order. The travel journals that existed before Bashô were often written in a first-person voice, with the traveler's itinerary revolving around the classical poetic toponym (utamakura or meisho) and the narrative centering on poems composed about them. This fusion with poetry simultaneously enriched and limited the literary representation of the landscape of the kikôbun; when centering on classical poetic diction, the geographical imagination of the travel journal was often defined by conceptions and conventions that had been molded by classical poetry rather than by the physical qualities of landscape.’

Here is what defines a kikôbun, to me:

•It is structured somewhat like a haibun, a passage of prose with at least one short poem (haiku or tanka)
•It features landscape and nature, and interaction between writer and the landscape
•Bashô focused on exactly that, the nature and not on prescribed formulas or conceptions
•The key specification is that a kikôbun involves movement of the writer, in that it is a short travel diary
•The haiku should not repeat what is in the prose, and should not attempt to ′globalise’ the prose like a conclusion

So the task is to write a kikôbun, similar to haibun, but the writer is travelling, and recording.
So the task is to write a kikôbun, about a journey, or part of a journey or wander. The idea of it being about wandering and observing is very relevant.

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Well .... I hope you did like this GW-post. I did. I hadn't heard about this "kikobun" so to me it was totally new and I think for the most of you it also was new, but that's where the GW-post are about ... bringing new ideas and poetry-forms or new challenges.
We have had wonderful GW-post in 2014 and I hope to share new GW-posts next year ...
This GW-post episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and will remain open until January 2nd at noon (CET).

Namaste,

Chèvrefeuille, your host

Carpe Diem Ghost Writer post #39,

!! I publish this GW-post earlier, because I am in the nightshift !!

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

It's my pleasure to present you an all new episode of our Ghost Writer feature. This week I have a nice article about Choka written by Georgia of Bastet and Sekhmet's Library ...
I am not that familiar with Choka, but I love to know more about it ... Choka is a Japanese long poem with also a kind of syllables rule, just like our haiku.
So have fun reading this article and maybe you will compose your first 'Choka'.

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Hello Haijin:

I thought today I’d try to introduce the choka.  It’s a form that fascinates me the more I try to understand it.  Choka were long, commemorative poems (in fact choka means the long poem) and the longest ran sometimes over 100 lines!  They were usually sung.  There were about 400 choka copied in the 8^th century anthology of waka entitled Man'yoshu (Collection of Ten Thousand Leaves).

The classical choka is formed by writing 5-7 syllables couplets for as many lines  as you like ending however with an extra 7 syllable line. There have been variations over the years as to how to write a choka including modern attempts to revive the genre. Many modern English language writers are now using the choka to create longer poems with Japanese flavour.  You can see how that’s done clicking the link to The Poet’s Garret below.

Now days when the form is used (and interestingly it is often used by English language haiku poets) it is used to tell a story, not necessarily an epic or commemorative tale – just a story.  Sometimes people use it just to write an impression – something link a longish tanka.

Here’s one of my choka which I wrote not long ago to use as an example of how it can be done:

The Last Harvest Moon

as the breeze picks up,
canes rattle in harmony
red scattered leaves
fall in the river and drown
a monk bent with age
walks along the road thinking
his secular thoughts
the splendor of youth now gone
he gathers courage
to face another winter
his arthritis plain
his skin yellow and brittle
then a finch warbles
a cat rubs against his legs
he smiles down sweetly
then continues his journey

the last harvest moon
outlines the withered bent stalks
he walks and gazes
gathering the cold omens
whispered in the winter wind

 

©  G.s.k. ’14

As you can see, I wrote 16 lines of 5-7 syllables ... from the 17th I created a  5 line conclusion, a kind of general summary of the poem in  5-7-5-7-7.  

There's no need to rhyme but you can and the syllable count is open to discussion if you follow the modern school of haiku and do "the short line - long line - short line" version of haiku, which compensates for the problem of not being able to superimpose the on (Japanese sounds) to our language, using syllables we create haiku that are third longer than Japanese poetry.  I preferred the 5-7 couplets with a conclusive tanka for my choka. 

I found it interesting that the author of the blog Kujaku Poetry and Ships points out that often the last closing lines of a choka were used to give a sort of summary of the whole poem.  When the poet did this, the last lines were often more emotional and less detailed.  Sometimes these closing fragments could stand alone and eventually they were gathered together in an anthology under the name tanka, (short poem) or waka (though waka generally refers to Japanese Poetry as a whole) and so the independent genre tanka was born.

I would like to suggest that you write a choka and here is a winter scene that might help you:

Thanks for reading!  Hope you have fun, Georgia (Bastet)

For further reading:

Origins of Japanese Poetry – Kujaku Poetry & Ships – a brief history of choka

Japanese Poetry Forms – The Poet’s Garret – a brief explanation of katauta and choka with examples of ways the choka can be used.

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Well ... I hope you did like this Ghost Writer post and I hope you are inspired to write Choka ... Have fun!

This GW-post is open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and will remain open until December 26th at noon (CET). I will try to post our next episode, Christmastree, later on ... for now have fun!

Carpe Diem Ghost Writer #38, a little bit different ... playing again ...

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

This GW-post will be a little bit different than what I usely publish, because I love to take the opportunity to "play again" with a few prompts from the rich history of Carpe Diem Haiku Kai. A few days ago I asked you all for your help and you all shared ideas ... I am going to create an all new feature in which I will "play again" prompts from our CDHK history. This new feature is not completely created, but I loved to share a few of our historical prompts today with you all.

Here are the prompts to "play again" from our CDHK history:

Carpe Diem # 68, Winter Grasses
Carpe Diem # 82, Withered Mums
Carpe Diem # 294, Orchids

You may choose which one you would like to use, of course if you think you can write on all three, feel free to do so ...
This GW-post you can see as the introduction to our new Carpe Diem Haiku Kai feature "Time-machine" in which we will "play again" with prompts from our CDHK history.

samourai warrior
enchanted by the beauty of orchids
bows his head in praise

© Chèvrefeuille

This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and will remain open until December 19th at noon (CET). I will try to post our next episode, ice-skating, later on. For now ... enjoy the fun and the dive into our CDHK history.

Carpe Diem Ghost Writer #37, Georgia on Frost and Carpe Diem Special #121, Richard Wright's 2nd haiku "in the falling snow"

!! I publish this post earlier than I normally do, because I am in the nightshift !!

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Today it's a double episode, because I have a Ghost Writer post and a Carpe Diem Special for you all. First I will bring to you the Ghost Writer post which is provided by Georgia of Bastet's Waka Library
She has written a nice GW-post (#37) about Robert Frost. After that GW-post I will continue this post with the CD-Special (#121) by Richard Wright. Have fun ... (PS. Both items have their own linking widget).

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Winter is upon us and there’s no doubt about it.

The other evening I was sitting by the fireplace reading Robert Frost, one of my favorite poets.  Unlike most of Frost’s poems his poem Dust of Snow has an essential quality about it that reminds me of a haiku.

We tend to think of Frost as always having written longish poems, but in fact he was very proud of his small compact poems. His Pulitzer Prize winning book of poetry, published in 1923 entitled “New Hampshire” contains many of his short poems for example, “Fire and Ice” or “Nothing Gold Can Stay” and “Dust of Snow” which is his shortest poem … One sentence in eight lines (two stanza), all but two are monosyllabic and yes … that means 17 syllables per stanza, a coincidence or had Frost come into contact with haiku at that early date?

Contemplating this poem, we see that a lot of its effect is derived from paradoxes … dust being related usually to something dirty, the fact that he was in a bad mood before the crow dumped snow down on him, which usually would put someone in a bad mood.  I’m thinking that like a haiku, reading this poem can give us many layers of meanings outside of the 32 words.

I would invite you to read Robert Frost’s Poem and write about a similar incident using either a haiku or a tanka.

Credits: Winter Crow © Melissa Parks

Dust of Snow

Robert Frost, 1874 – 1963

The way a crow

Shook down on me

The dust of snow

From a hemlock tree

Has given my heart

A change of mood

And saved some part

Of a day I had rued.

For more  of Robert Frost’s Short Poems – Terebess Asia On-line (TAO) at http://terebess.hu/english/haiku/frost.html

And if you wish you can download from Project Gutenberg several books of poetry by Robert Frost by following this link:  http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/search/?query=Robert+Frost

Have a great week!

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It's a wonderful post, a similar with our Carpe Diem Distillation feature ... so let this poem by Robert Frost inspire you to write an all new haiku (or tanka). It may be a distillation from the poem or inspired on the poem.

sudden gust of wind
snow swirls down on me
makes me shiver

© Chèvrefeuille

Hm ... a nice one ... brings nice memories into my mind ... my happy childhood. I see that same happiness in the eyes of my children and grandchildren ... awesome.

This GW-post is open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and will remain open until December 12th at noon (CET). I will (try to) post our next episode, Northern lights, later on.

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Carpe Diem Special #37, the second haiku by Richard Wright "in the falling snow"

Than I have here our Carpe Diem Special, a haiku by our featured haiku-poet, Richard Wright (1908-1960) ... he was a forefighter of the Black Americans and in his last years he discovered haiku. He wrote a lot of haiku (more than 4000) and compiled an anthology of his own work with 880 haiku. He is really a great haiku-poet and I am loving his work very much. So let us go on to another wonderful haiku written by him. I have tried to use a haiku which is close to the GW-post earlier in this post. I think I have found a nice one to share here for your inspiration.

In the falling snow
A laughing boy holds out his palms
Until they are white.

© Richard Wright

The goal of the Carpe Diem Special is to write a haiku inspired on the given haiku by the featured haiku poet and try to touch the same sense, tone and spirit.

Here is my attempt:

through the early night
the laugh of children playing -
virgin snow

© Chèvrefeuille

Well ... now it's up to you .... this Carpe Diem Special is open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and will stay open until December 12th at noon (CET). I will (try to) publish our new episode, Northern Lights, later on. For now ... have fun!

Carpe Diem Ghost Writer #36, Haiku Noir (by Jen of Blog It or Lose It)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

This week's GW-post is another one written by Jen of Blog It or Lose It. She is very active and it's really a joy to have her as a kind of "co-writer". This week she was inspired by the "film noir" genre.
So I hope you all will like this new GW-post.
!! By the way. As I read our prompt-list again I saw that I now have two time a December 4th, so I have to change that again. Yesterday I brought in "isolation" for December 4th, but it turned out that I had planned a CD-Special by Richard Wright, our featured haiku-poet this month. So I will delete "isolation" and will bring you a CD Special at December 4th. Sorry for the inconvenience !!

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Haiku noir: Raymond Chandler and The Big Sleep

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Greetings, fellow Haijin! 

After many years I finally read Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep.  If that title sounds familiar to you, it’s because there is a famous movie by the same name – featuring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall.  It is a “film noir” gem.

Even if you’re not familiar with the term “film noir” you’ll know film noir when you see it.  Think of a 1940s black-and-white detective movie.  Here are some common film noir scenes:

·         Driving at night … in the rain;

·         Dark, shadowy, smoky rooms with venetian blind shadows;

·         People in trench coats standing alone in the fog … or on a pier … or in an alley … or a street corner … or in some sort of awkward, lonely, vulnerable position.

Reading The Big Sleep was a delight.  Yes, Raymond Chandler had a wonderfully dry wit (“Neither of the two people in the room paid any attention to the way I came in, although only one of them was dead”).  But – he was also a master in setting a scene in very few words.  And the way he describes nature – especially ominous parts of nature – is magnificent.  Here are two quotes from the novel: 

“The tumbling rain was solid white spray in the headlights. The windshield wiper could hardly keep the glass clear enough to see through. But not even the drenched darkness could hide the flawless lines of the orange trees wheeling away like endless spokes into the night.”

Or …

“I walked to the windows and pulled the shades up and opened the windows wide. The night air came drifting in with a kind of stale sweetness that still remembered automobile exhausts and the streets of the city. I reached for my drink and drank it slowly.”

Sure, he’s talking about nature – but it is nature hemmed-in by rainy highways, poking out of the darkness, and reeking of exhaust – and there’s a perpetual sense of unease. 

Credits: Double Indeminity

 So for this post, I would like you to write “haiku noir” – haiku that explores the darker parts of nature – nature at the dirty edges of humanity:

·         Night time without a full moon – night with a sense of darkness and vulnerability;

·         Sense of foreboding, unease, danger;

·         Things that are “sensed” in the night more than seen;

·         Unidentified sounds and/or a sense of not being alone;

·         Cityscapes

For those of you in the deepest, darkest parts of the world – sorry I’m not bringing sunshine with this prompt!  BUT – perhaps you’ll have plenty to share with us.  I hope you’ll join in anyway.

Also note – this isn’t an exercise in creating a Humphrey Bogart haiku – we’re recreating the feel of film noir without heavy pop culture references.

A tall order – hopefully I can deliver!

A haiku:

a dim street lamp
in a pale orange fog –
almost bleeding

Tires and Feet in the Slush (photo © Jen)

 And a tanka:

the city is curled
around a tossed cigarette
hissing in slush
and even the lamp light
recoils from its strike

So – what do you see in the city at night?  Or – what makes you uneasy? 

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Further Investigation:

Raymond Chandler –
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raymond_Chandler

The Big Sleep (Film) –
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Big_Sleep_(1946_film)

Film Noir –
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_noir

Text of Raymond Chandler’s “The Big Sleep” –
http://ae-lib.org.ua/texts-c/chandler__the_big_sleep__en.htm

Film Noir and Jazz – Mood Music for Writing –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyEV0OHlgaE

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Thanks to The Muscleheaded Blog for helping me round up the photos and for offering advice.
http://muscleheaded.wordpress.com/2014/02/28/his-name-is-philip-marlowe/

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I hope you all did like this GW-post on "haiku-noir" ... it's really a joy to be a Ghost Writer for our Carpe Diem Haiku Kai. So if you have an idea, article or something to use as a GW-post ... please let me know. You can email your GW-post to:

carpediemhaikukai@outlook.com or carpediemhaikukai@gmail.com

Have fun with this GW-post and share your haiku or tanka with us all. This GW-post is open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and will remain open until December 5th at noon (CET). Enjoy it. I will publish our next post, our first CD-Special by Richard Wright.

Carpe Diem Ghost Writer #35,

!! I am in the nightshift so I publish this GW-episode earlier than I normally do !!

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

For this week's GW-post I have used a nice new article written by Jen of Blog It or Lose It. Jen has done several GW-post and I think you all do like her articles, so it's my pleasure to publish another nice article by her.

Have fun!

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The Cold within the Sound:  Otagaki Rengetsu

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Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

One evening – when the muses were being particularly stingy with their inspiration – I started to look for new voices in haiku.  I stumbled across a great site full haiku and tanka written by Japanese women – and fell in love with the poetry of Otagaki Rengetsu (1791-1895) (1).

looking out over the bay 
I see clouds of cold rain 
summoning winter 
and hear the wind in the pines 
whisper its name 

Hopefully you will visit rengetsu.org and read some of her work – and you will fall in love with her writing, too. 

Photo © Jen R.

 

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Here is some background on Rengetsu (birth name, “Nobu”), who was born in 1791.   [Source:  Rengetsu.org (2)]

Rengetsu was probably the secret daughter of a geisha and a high official.  The Otagaki family adopted her as an infant.  At 8 years old she was sent to Tamba-Kameyama castle, where she stayed until she was 14.  She learned calligraphy and the arts associated with the nobility.  Here, Rengetsu learned the basics of classical waka – 5-lines, 31-syllables. 

When Rengetsu was 13 she lost her adoptive brother and mother; over the course of 30 years she lost almost all of her close family members.  This includes five children, two husbands, two adoptive siblings, and her adoptive father.  

She married a man named Mochihisa around 1808; they had three children, all of whom died.  The marriage was dissolved around 1815 due to his drinking and visiting the pleasure quarter.  Rengetsu married Juujirou when she was 29; he died soon after.  In grief, she cut her hair and renounced the world, becoming a nun to follow the Buddha.  She was initiated into the Pure Land Sect and took the name “Rengetsu” (lotus/ren + moon/getsu).  

When Rengetsu’s adoptive father passed away in 1832 she needed to support herself on her own.  She began to write poems, which she either brushed on paper or carved into pottery.  She gained respect and a following.  In time her skill as a calligrapher also increased and she inscribed the paintings of many famous painters in Kyoto. 

Like Basho, Rengetsu was a traveler at heart (2):

“Her journeys brought her clay for her work, grist for reflection and, through some unpleasant incidents, inspiration for her poems. It seems every situation was a chance to feel and express, every blossom, animal or person on the road precious to her. Like Matsuo Basho and some other great poets before her, she accepted the hardships of the road, and the states of her own heart. Rather than push them away, she blended them with the nature she encountered, the seasons, the weather and the atmosphere of new places. The results are poems and artwork that never feel merely clever or decorative, but are infused the spirit of one who has seen and experienced life with her whole being.”  (Rengetsu.org)

At age 75 Rengetsu was forced to give up traveling.  She accepted sanctuary with Abbot Wada Gozan.  It was peaceful there, and she and Gozan collaborated in art and poetry.  At one point, she and Gozan produced 1000 images of the Bodhisattva of Mercy and sold them to raise money for flood victims.

Two volumes of Rengetsu’s work were printed during her life:   A Poetry Album of Two Ladies (Rengetsu Shikibu Nijo Wakashuu), 1868; and A Seaweed Diver’s Harvest (Ama no Karumo), 1871.  Today she is considered a forerunner of modern tanka.

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Imagine my joy to find this poem – not only is it beautiful, but it mentions arrowroot (kudzu, one of the seven flowers of autumn we learned about at Carpe Diem) (3):

Upon
frost-withered arrowroot
pelting
vying hailstones—
the cold within the sound.

Isn’t this an amazing poem?  And what a wonderful phrase – “the cold within the sound”.

Photo © Jen R.

Here is my attempt to write in the same spirit as Rengetsu’s waka:

daggers of sleet –
this sharp sound
cut sideways

I like this haiku but it’s definitely not in the same tone.  Perhaps a tanka would be closer?

this November sleet –
it shreds the birch leaves
in the dead grass –
a sharp sound, cut sideways
tossed to the hungry wind

Where does Rengetsu’s “cold within the sound” lead you?  Please share your haiku or tanka inspired by Rengetsu here at Carpe Diem Haiku Kai!  And – while you’re at it – please visit Carpe Diem Haiku Shuukan.  

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(1) http://thegreenleaf.co.uk/hp/women/Women.htm

(2) http://rengetsu.org/

(3) http://chevrefeuillescarpediem.blogspot.com/2014/11/carpe-die-597-kudzu-or-arrowroot.html

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Well ... I hope you all did like this new GW-post by Jen. Are you into writing articles? Than maybe you can write a GW-post for our haiku family. I can use a few new GW-posts ... so feel free to write your article and email it to our email-address:

carpediemhaikukai@outlook.com or
carpediemhaikukai@gmail.com

It's great to be a Ghost Writer for Carpe Diem Haiku Kai ... so come on ...

This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and will remain open until November 28th at noon (CET). I will publish our new episode, Solace, later on. For now ... have fun!

Carpe Diem Ghost Writer #34, Kanshicho-style, a try to explain ...

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

This week's GW-post isn't really a GW-post, because I write it myself. And I have chosen to look a bit deeper into the matter of the "hoax" or "so-called" Kanshicho-style of writing haiku. Let me first explain what Kanshicho means. To explain the word "kanshicho" I have split it into three parts: "kan", "shi" , "cho" and  "Kanshi". The first three parts are the so called "onji" or sounds of the word, the last "kanshi" part is the both first "onji" together and I have tried to find their meaning, not to state my meaning, but to try to explain why Henri Kerlen (the Dutch Sinologist and Japan expert who used this Kanshicho in the preface of his "Sound of Water", haiku by Basho-Anthology) has chosen for this "Kanshicho".

Let me first reproduce here the quotes which I used in the "Ask Jane ..." episode a few days ago:

[...] "Basho himself was several years a disciple/student of Teitoku's disciple, Kitamura Kigin (1624-1705), but after a while he (Basho) became a student of Soin in 1675. Soin has different ideas about renga and one of his ideas is to write the chains by association of meaning, kokorozuke. His (Soin) poetry style means for haiku more simplification and letting go of the 5-7-5 rule. The theme's and language of Soin's poetry is of the people. [...]

[...[ "In response of this change in haiku-poetry Basho and others introduce the Kanshicho: in the tone of the Chinese verse. In Kanshicho the breaking of the 5-7-5 rule is no exception. Basho uses this Kanshicho-style during the years 1683-1685 as he lives as a recluse in Fukagawa. Basho's Kanshicho-style is prominent in an anthology compiled by Kikaku "An Empty Chestnut" (1683). The Kanshicho-style disappears after three years (1685) and Basho re-writes several Kanshicho-styled haiku into the classical way. [...]

I will look at the separate "onji" of "Kanshicho" now and than I will try to explain what Kanshicho was meant to be.

Kan -> means: perception, expression

Shi -> means extravagance, pride, poetry

Cho -> means frivolity, number, butterfly

Kanshi -> means Chinese poetry

As I place those meanings together than Kanshicho means:

A poem in the Chinese way that expresses the extravagance and pride of the poet with the frivolity of the flight of a butterfly. And than Kanshicho starts to come to life. It's an expression of something which is seen by the poet, a moment as short as the sound of a pebble thrown in to water, in which he/she sees the extravagant beauty  and pride of nature. That extravagance beauty is caught in a three lined verse with the frivolity, (in my opinion frivolity means "not strings attached, free") of the flight of a butterfly.

This explanation could have been used by Basho and his companions to bring the essence and beauty of haiku to the ordinary people (as mentioned in the first quote). Frivolity like the flight of a butterfly can not be caught in a 5-7-5 strict rule, so to bring that frivolity into the haiku, Basho, Soin and others broke the rule of 5-7-5 ...

Back to the idea of Kanshicho being a "hoax" or "Internet legend" ... that could be, but I like the style because it gives me the freedom to write my haiku as I do. I have succeeded to find Henri Kerlen and I have asked him about the Kanshicho-style haiku ... I am waiting on his response. As I have got his response I will bring it up here ...

With this GW-post I hope that I have explained the Kanshicho-style and that we all just see it as a chance to experiment with our beloved haiku ... because that's the most important of haiku ... enjoying it and feel free to give form to your feelings whether that is in the classical or in the non-classical way of haiku.

For this GW-post I have the following "challenge" ... try to write a haiku in which the meaning of Kanshicho as mentioned above can be seen or found. Just try to write a haiku that expresses the extravagance and pride of the poet with the frivolity of the flight of a butterfly.

This GW-post is open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and will remain open until November 21st at noon (CET). For now .... just have fun!

PS.: After this GW-post I will "close" the discussion about Kanshicho, because ... haiku has nothing to do with discussing, but just with the fun of enjoying nature and our part in it and the joy to express our feelings. This "Kanshicho-style" discussion was fun too and very challenging, but now ... back to writing and sharing our beloved haiku with the world and each other.

Carpe Diem Ghost Writer #33, Richard Wright on Autumn by Jen of Blog It Or Lose It

!! I publish this episode this early, because I am in the nightshift !!

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

It's time for another GW-post, this is our 33th episode and it's a GW-post written by Jen of Blog It Or Lose It. Her GW-post is about Richard Wright. I will tell you first a little bit more about him, before I give the GW-post by Jen.

Richard Wright (1908-1960), one of the early forceful and eloquent spokesmen for black Americans, author of "Native Son," and "Black Boy", was also, it turns out, a major poet. During the last eighteen months of his life, he discovered and became enamored of haiku, the strict seventeen-syllable Japanese form. Wright became so excited about the discovery that he began writing his own haiku, in which he attempted to capture, through his sensibility as an African American, the same Zen discipline and beauty in depicting man's relationship, not to his fellow man as he had in his fiction, but to nature and the natural world.  

Richard Wright (1908-1960)

In all, he wrote over 4,000 haiku, from which he chose, before he died, the 817 he preferred. Rather than a deviation from his self-appointed role as spokesman for black Americans of his time, Richard Wright's haiku, disciplined and steeped in beauty, are a culmination: not only do they give added scope to his work but they bring to it a universality that transcends both race and color without ever denying them. Wright wrote his haiku obsessively--in bed, in cafes, in restaurants, in both Paris and the French countryside. The discovery and writing of haiku also helped him come to terms with nature and the earth, which in his early years he had viewed as hostile and equated with suffering and physical hunger. Fighting illness and frequently bedridden, deeply upset by the recent loss of his mother, Wright continued to spin these poems of light out of the gathering darkness.

One of his wonderfully composed haiku:

The webs of spiders
Sticking to my sweaty face
In the dusty woods.

© Richard Wright

And here is our GW-post about Richard Wright. I hope you all like it and of course I hope it will inspire you all to write an all new haiku (or two or three ...)

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Richard Wright: Man’s Realm Within Nature’s Realm

For this Ghost-Writer episode we’re going to revisit Richard Wright (1908-1960).  Chèvrefeuille featured his haiku several weeks ago in an episode of “Little Creatures”.  (You can re-read his post here.)

Wright composed over four thousand haiku in the last eighteen months of his life – of these he selected 817 for publication. And they have a wonderful style and voice.   They generally follow a 5/7/5 format, can be written as a sentence, and quite often the first and third lines can’t be interchanged.  And still – I think they’re quite effective and elegant in their own way.

As a haiku poet Wright “attempted to capture, through his sensibility as an African American, the same Zen discipline and beauty in depicting man's relationship, not to his fellow man as he had in his fiction, but to nature and the natural world.” 

Bank of Leaves photo © Jen

I wanted to offer Wright as the focus of a Ghost Writer prompt – but where to start, with 800 poems to choose from?  Chèvrefeuille suggested “autumn” and/or “departure” as a theme.  What do you think of the following haiku?

The chill autumn dusk
Grows colder as yellow lights
Come on in skyscrapers.

© Richard Wright

It seems to reflect elements of early Kerouac with elements of Ginsberg’s “American Sentences”, doesn’t it?  Plus, he’s describing nature beautifully within that human framework. 

Autumn moonlight is
Deepening the emptiness
Of a country road.

© Richard Wright

Credits: Autumn Moonlight Woodblock print by Shibata Zeshin

What’ emptier than a country road in the moonlight?

As the popcorn man
Is closing up his wagon,
Snow begins to fall.

© Richard Wright

And with the end of autumn we have the first snow.  Is the popcorn man closing his wagon for the night – or for the season?  There’s a sense of finality, of quiet, of emptiness – perhaps of man’s realm returning to nature. 

Here is my attempt to write haiku on this theme, reflecting Wright’s style and tone:

The first autumn snow
gleams blue on the parking lot
under the moonlight.

Next to the gutter
the raked-up pile of leaves
huddles under snow.



Leafy Gutter photo © Jen

For this challenge, can you write a late-autumn haiku (in Wright’s style and tone) showing a relationship between man’s realm and nature’s realm?  

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Wright_(author)

CARPE DIEM HAIKU KAI: Carpe Diem "Little Creatures"#9 "spiders"

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Well ... it was really a joy to read this GW-post about the haiku of Richard Wright, whom will be our featured haiku-poet next month, and the haiku Jen shared here written by him and the response of Jen herself are wonderful. Will not be an easy task to respond on this GW-post ...

Here however is my attempt to write a haiku in response on this GW-post:

dancing in the wind
between colorful leaves
a birthday balloon

© Chèvrefeuille

Or what do you think of this one:

next to the skate-track
all types of shoes hanging from branches
finally visible

© Chèvrefeuille

Credits: shoes hanging from branches (Dutch website)

Awesome ... I hadn't thought that I could respond on this GW-post ... And that second haiku I shared is really nice, in front of the hospital were I work there is a skating-track and in a kind of skater-tradition you have to throw your shoes (both) into a tree next to the skating-track.
It's a craze (rage) which the skaters have taken from the USA I think ...

This GW-post will be open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and will remain open until November 14th at noon. I will (try to) post our next episode, Mount Fuji, later on. For now ... have fun, be inspired and share your haiku with us all here at Carpe Diem Haiku Kai, the place to be if you like to write and share haiku with the world.