WHERE WERE WE?
Mulling with Medusa
[These are the opinions of the management;
if you want your own opinions,
you'll have to make them up yourself.]
[These are the opinions of the management;
if you want your own opinions,
you'll have to make them up yourself.]
Medusa's Bunched-Up-Panties Rant #1: FORMS?? OMG!!
A word about forms and
other "triggers" for poems: Every poem you write is in a form, even if
it's free verse. And every poem you write has a trigger: an image, a
thought, a word. If I get an image from inside my head, it's no
different than receiving it as an "instruction" from a book or another
poet or Medusa's Kitchen; I need to learn how to spin gold from that
image. Who cares where it came from? Poets steal shamelessly and
endlessly; it's a necessary skill for any artist.
Some
people complain that writing to forms or triggers is like stuffing
their poem into a girdle, but the truth is, every poem you write should
go through some kind of similar "stuffing": some kind of ordering and
paring down and organization, rather than just a free-write spilling of
words onto the page without any later editing. Similarly with forms: I
need to pay attention to the rhythm and order and sounds of every poem I
write, whether I'm trying to do a sonnet or an etheree or free verse
(which really isn't, after all, all that free—if it is, in my opinion,
it becomes too prose-y).
So
join in the party and write your responses to triggers, whether they
are images or forms or assignments or your grandmother's bustle.
Wonderful poems come out of these exercises, which are, in my mind, like
playing scales. And you can never get enough exercise, right?
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Medusa's Bunched-Up-Panties Rant #2: Haiku—Get 'em RIGHT!
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Medusa's Bunched-Up-Panties Rant #2: Haiku—Get 'em RIGHT!
A lot of poems cross my desk professing to be Haiku. It's an American obsession to follow 5-7-5 syllables regardless of the subject—or just to write a three-line poem and call it a Haiku. Nonsense! Below are the rules of Haiku (and senryu) as set forth by the HSA; read 'em, learn 'em, and obey!
HAIKU SOCIETY OF AMERICA, Inc.
HAIKU SOCIETY OF AMERICA, Inc.
Report of the Definitions Committee
Adopted at the Annual Meeting of the Society, New York City, 18 September 2004
HAIKU
Definition:
A haiku is a short poem that uses imagistic language to convey the
essence of an experience of nature or the season intuitively linked to
the human condition. Those who wish to learn more of haiku must read the
best haiku they can find, not merely definitions of haiku. The numerous
"Haiku Collections" on the HSA Web site at www.hsa-haiku.org are a good place to start.
Notes:
Most haiku in English consist of three unrhymed lines of seventeen or
fewer syllables, with the middle line longest, though today's poets use a
variety of line lengths and arrangements. In Japanese a typical haiku
has seventeen "sounds" (on) arranged five, seven, and five. (Some
translators of Japanese poetry have noted that about twelve syllables in
English approximates the duration of seventeen Japanese on.)
Traditional Japanese haiku include a "season word" (kigo), a word or
phrase that helps identify the season of the experience recorded in the
poem, and a "cutting word" (kireji), a sort of spoken punctuation that
marks a pause or gives emphasis to one part of the poem. In English,
season words are sometimes omitted, but the original focus on experience
captured in clear images continues. The most common technique is
juxtaposing two images or ideas (Japanese rensô). Punctuation, space, a
line-break, or a grammatical break may substitute for a cutting word.
Most haiku have no titles, and metaphors and similes are commonly
avoided. (Haiku do sometimes have brief prefatory notes, usually
specifying the setting or similar facts; metaphors and similes in the
simple sense of these terms do sometimes occur, but not frequently. A
discussion of what might be called "deep metaphor" or symbolism in haiku
is beyond the range of a definition. Various kinds of "pseudohaiku"
have also arisen in recent years; see the Notes to "Senryu", below, for a
brief discussion.)
SENRYU
Definition:
A senryu is a poem, structurally similar to haiku, that highlights the
foibles of human nature, usually in a humorous or satiric way.
Notes:
A senryu may or may not contain a season word or a grammatical break.
Some Japanese senryu seem more like aphorisms, and some modern senryu in
both Japanese and English avoid humor, becoming more like serious short
poems in haiku form. There are also "borderline haiku/senryu", which
may seem like one or the other, depending on how the reader interprets
them.
Many
so-called "haiku" in English are really senryu. Others, such as
"Spam-ku" and "headline haiku", seem like recent additions to an old
Japanese category, zappai, miscellaneous amusements in doggerel verse
(usually written in 5-7-5) with little or no literary value. Some call
the products of these recent fads "pseudohaiku" to make clear that they
are not haiku at all.
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Questions I Perseverate On After Midnight:
•••How much should we try to shape our work to the sensibilities of our readers? Should we avoid certain images because they might "trigger" unpleasant memories in someone or ourselves?
•••Which parts of history should we leave out when we write? Which subjects are taboo? Is censorship ever appropriate?
•••What kinds of things inspire us; what exactly does that word mean?
•••What is our job as writers? Does the word "comfort" even fit? What good can come out of being uncomfortable?
•••How much should we try to shape our work to the sensibilities of our readers? Should we avoid certain images because they might "trigger" unpleasant memories in someone or ourselves?
•••Which parts of history should we leave out when we write? Which subjects are taboo? Is censorship ever appropriate?
•••What kinds of things inspire us; what exactly does that word mean?
•••What is our job as writers? Does the word "comfort" even fit? What good can come out of being uncomfortable?
I'm just sayin', z'all...
(This is my driver's license picture.)
(This is my driver's license picture.)
