The first entry

My next post is going to be the first entry in my new paper journal. I just spent about an hour drafting it. The new journal is a haibun journal, a combination of prose and haiku. Like haiku, the haibun has compressed language and it emphasizes the image over explaining. I'll try to put the entry in the new journal tomorrow.

Characteristics of haibun, according to The Haiku Handbook (Higginson & Harter):

1. Written in prose, usually concluded with one or more haiku
2. Brief
3. Abbreviated in syntax; grammar words, sometimes even verbs are omitted.
4. No explanation of the haiku; the connection between the prose and the haiku is often like linking in renga.
5. Imagistic; relatively few abstractions or generalizations.
6. Objective; the writer is somewhat detached, maintains an aesthetic distance, even when describing himself.
7. Often humorous.

I believe the haibun journal will be good for me for several reasons.

*For one thing, I'm requiring my poetry students to keep one. I think I should keep one as well.

*Two: one of my major breakthroughs for the novel happened as a result of writing haibun this past summer.

*Three: it's always good to get aesthetic distance from every day experience.

*Four: Compression is important for me to practice, as I have a tendency to be wordy.

*Five: focusing on imagery is also important for me, as I have a tendency to be vague.

*Six: Basho says we don't have to say "everything" in each piece that we write. Haibun will help me to accept that, to be happy with saying one thing as well as I can.

*Seven: humor; I need to practice giving my writings a lighter touch.

As for the journal itself, it is a Moleskinne with heavy paper.

Monument Valley: The Navajo Reservation

Through the windshield on the way to Monument Valley.

A roadside stand in Monument Valley on the Navajo Reservation.

Down and then Up

For the first time in a long time, I went to bed at a reasonable hour, about 11:30. I went right to sleep but woke up at 1:30 and could not go back to sleep. I got up and, looking out the window, was surprised by how lit up the sky is.

I find myself being comforted more and more by thoughts of Basho growing old, setting out on spiritual adventures, and writing haiku.

This may be my last entry for a while, as Allen and I have our own adventure to take.

Be well.

Long having wander'd since, round the earth having wander'd,
Now I face home again, very pleas'd and joyous,
(But where is what I started for so long ago?
And why is it yet unfound?)
--Walt Whitman

Haiku by Basho

Seen in plain daylight
the firefly's nothing but
an insect
(Basho)

Basho

An excellent book on haiku is The Essential Haiku, edited by Robert Hass.

In this book are thoughts on haiku attributed to Basho. Reading these thoughts helps me to understand why I am coming to love haiku more and more.

1. Basho says, "the basis of art is change in the universe." A haiku is a snapshot in time.

2. Basho says, "Make the universe your companion, always bearing in mind the true nature of things." The search for the true nature of things seems to me the only pleasurable way to live.

3. Basho says, "One should know that a haiku is made by combining things." I take this to mean that the poet combines something experienced through the senses with the emotion and experience of the poet. This is the aspect of art that intrigues me most.

4. Basho says, "One must first of all concentrate one's thoughts on the object. Once one's mind achieves a state of concentration and the space between oneself and the object has disappeared, the essential nature of the object can be perceived." I have never seen a better explanation of the artist becoming part of the world in order to describe the world.

5. Basho says, "Then express it immediately. If one ponders it, it will vanish from the mind." This is what I keep telling my students. The intellect kills art.

6. Basho says that being an artist is not really a pleasurable activity. He says of poetry that it is "a fireplace in summer or a fan in winter." To really follow your art, you will have to make sacrifices in terms of comfort.

He says, "Since ancient times, those with a feeling for poetry did not mind carrying knapsacks on their backs or putting straw sandals on their feet or wearing simple hats that barely protected them from the elements. They took delight in disciplining their minds through hardship and thereby attaining a knowledge of the true nature of things."

He says, "One needs to work to achieve enlightenment and then return to the common world."

7. Basho says, "The bones of haiku are plainness and oddness." This is what I strive for in my own work--oddness, not something that is elegant or even pretty.

8. Basho says, "Haiku exists only while it's on the writing desk. Once it's taken off, it should be regarded as a mere scrap of paper." I would say that this means that the true value in the haiku is the moment when you are writing it. After that, you should be looking for the next haiku moment, not looking at your work and stroking your ego!