Writing and Enjoying Haiku: A Hands-on Guide - Softcover

Reichhold, Jane

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1568365217 ISBN 13: 9781568365213

Publisher: Kodansha International, 2013

Synopsis

Writing and Enjoying Haiku shows how haiku can bring a centered, calming atmosphere into one’s life, by focusing on the outer realities of life instead of the naggings of the inner mind, by gaining a new appreciation for the world of nature, and by preserving moments, days, and events so that they are not lost forever in the passage of time. Haiku are clearly shown to be a means of discovering and recording the miracles of the world, from the humorous to the tragic. This is one of the major themes underlying Writing and Enjoying Haiku — that haiku can provide a way to a better life.

After looking at why the reading and writing of haiku is important from a spiritual point of view, the book shows, as has never been done before, the techniques of writing—the when and the where, punctuation and capitalization, choice of words, figures of speech, sharing haiku, and much, much more.

Having come this far, having learned to read and write haiku with a discerning mind, the reader will never again look upon the world in quite the same way.

About this title

About the Author

Author and translator, with a special interest in haiku, tanka, and renga, JANE REICHHOLD is a three-time winner of the Haiku Society of America Merit Book Award. She has been a member of the Haiku Society of America, Haiku Poets of Northern California, Haiku Canada, Haiku International (Tokyo, Japan), German Haiku Society, and Poetry Society of Japan. She runs the web site Aha! Poetry (www.ahapoetry.com).

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Foreword: Toward Enjoyment

Though the word "enjoying" is the third word in the title of this book, for me enjoying anything and everything is the primary function of our lives. True, the function of this book is to teach you how to write haiku, but I want you to first learn to touch a point of pleasure within yourself with haiku.

To do this, you will need to open the arms of your mind to take in some haiku already snapped up out of the air and written down.

Because the haiku in the following selection are all connected to one subject, with a wide variety of techniques and levels of complication, you can explore them with a gentle touch of your eyes as if looking over a branch to choose which flowers you might pick. You do not have to like or understand all of them, but just take up each one and examine it carefully.

Read them not only to see what has been thought, and to delight in this sharing, but allow the words to move across any similar memory or past idea you may have had. In this way the haiku pick up your patterns as iron filings arrange themselves on a magnet to be changed in a once-in-a-lifetime relationship.

Even as you do this, it is possible the writer in you will begin itching to change a word here and there. Something small and loud and very close to you will want to put the words in a different way than I have, or even to write a line on a totally dissimilar subject. Listen to these urges and begin here, beside my words, to write your own versions of the poems in the wide spaces on the page (assuming you have not borrowed this book from the local library).

Toss out the memory of the teacher who told you never to mark in your books and tell your inner critic, who might be insisting you know nothing about haiku, just to back off and be quiet. Think only that you have decided to enjoy seeing where these haiku lead you, and to explore what they find within you.

I want this book to be your book -- with sentences underlined, comments written in the margins, your poems on the flyleaves, and your first thoughts beside these haiku in the introduction.

Go slowly. Take each haiku separately; read and reread until you have completely thought through it, around it, and beyond it. Write down whatever thoughts come to your mind before moving on to the next haiku, even if you need to get a separate pad of paper. Tape the pages of your words among my words. Do the altered book art-thing. Make these pages a symbiotic work between the two of us.

Let go of any preconceived ideas and simply do whatever brings you the most enjoyment. This is your life, the book you are writing.

silence
between words
stories

desert
stretched to the horizon
silence

silence
when naked and alone
a tunnel

pond lilies
floating in their centers
silence

silence
in a rain shower
seven colors

winter leaves
buds of tightly rolled
silence

silence
around a waiting bird
the nest

silence
after the hailstorm
colder

silver-tipped firs
snow deepening
silence

silence
between crashing waves
the briefness of foam

riptide
in the sea the pull of
silence

silence
drawing together lovers
a silver cord

a blossom's dance
the urges deep within
silence

Later, when you have read the rest of this book, do come back here to see yourself as you were in the beginning. I think you'll be surprised how much you already knew, and also how much richer your writing life has become, due to this hands-on guide.

Blessed be,
Jane Reichhold

Edition details

• Publisher: Kodansha International
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 1568365217
• ISBN 13: 9781568365213
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 168