Yes, there’s been a launch recently—a launch of short poems—the launch of a haiku book right here in our small city north of 60.
There’s an old saying that “good things come in small packages.” This must be true regarding haiku, because what started out as a very structured art form, from the small island nation of Japan, has gone global and freewheeling and experimental, gifting us all.
short lines of deep-thought words
build world’s longest bridges
Perhaps, as I did long ago, you had an introduction to haiku in school, and maybe you were directed to write three lines containing a total of 17 syllables. I remember tapping off the syllables with my fingers on the desk as I whispered the words to myself. It was fun and challenging, if not terribly poetic.
But it turns out that the Japanese language doesn’t do syllables the same way Western languages do. And when traditional haiku were translated, the old format didn’t fit. The rules became much looser then.
So what is a haiku these days? It’s a short poem of just two or three lines. But there’s no rhyming, no capital letters, no commas or periods, no something being “like” something else. It often contains images of nature or seasons, and within that snapshot are hints of experience, intuition, or what it means to be human. That said, there’s a lot of playfulness and experimentation going on in the haiku universe. Heck, there’s even such a thing as sci-fi haiku!
green blob aliens
communicate with humans
briefly mysteriously
Here, in Whitehorse, there is an enthusiastic ongoing haiku community facilitated by Kathy Munro, who has published her poetry widely and has done readings and presentations, internationally, at literary events. The four editors of the new haiku book, Lillian Nakamura Maguire, Pamela Harry, Sandra St-Laurent and Charlotte Hrenchuk have brainstormed and workshopped their small poems, with Kathy, for years.
One of the editors was part of a writing project where she discovered that many folks have limited and stereotyped ideas about what seasons are like in the North, and that’s when the idea for this book was born. The haiku book, caught in a beam of light (notice there are no capitals or punctuation), explores what spring, summer, fall and winter mean in the North. All 35 writers are from Canada’s three northern territories, and two of them are youth who love writing haiku, just like we all did when we were kids.
lifetimes of lines
agelessly imagined
preserved in colour
There was a warm glow of satisfaction and appreciation at the Dec. 17 launch of caught in a beam of light, the title coming from one of the summer haiku. Editors told background stories, and poets shared a few of their pieces. They and audience members enjoyed snacks and conversation after the readings.
Some of the poems in the book take slightly different forms. Tanka, for instance, has five lines—a haiku plus two additional lines expressing emotion. Haiga has an image and a poem together. And haibun goes back and forth between prose and haiku.
Sometimes the best way to get a feel for haiku is just to read some. The book is available at local booksellers. And if you’d like to try your hand at writing these short poetry forms, Kathy Munro leads a monthly haiku discussion group. The next one is Jan. 17 between 2 and 5 p.m. at the Whitehorse Public Library meeting room. Various activities happen during that three-hour time frame, so writers are welcome to come and go. You can keep tabs on upcoming opportunities through Facebook at the Solstice Haiku Discussion Group page or by visiting Kathy’s website, kjmunro1560.wordpress.com, or keeping an eye on coming-events notifications.
from your pen
a poem will appear
poof magic
