Clark Strand: essays on haiku and Zen

Modern Haiku. The Heron's Nest. Roadrunner e-magazine.

Yuki Teikei Haiku Society: Join. GEPPO magazine. Annual anthologies.

Toward an Aesthetic for English-Language Haiku by Lee Gurga.
2004 Pescadero Haiku Weekend Workshop (including exercises) with Christopher Herold.

Highlights of Poetry. Index of poetry. How to Write Poetry. New Books read.

How to write specific forms:
Haibun. Haiku. Hay(na)ku. Rengay. Tanka.
Ballade. Concrete. Ghazal. Lai. Pantoum. Prose poem. Rondeau. Rubáiyát.
Sestina. Skaldic verse. Sonnet. Terza rima. Triolet. Tritina. Villanelle.

Poets: Bashō. Claire Gallagher. Clark Strand (haiku and essays).
J. Zimmerman. J. Zimmerman (haiku). J. Zimmerman (tanka).
Jane Hirshfield. Kay Ryan. Kay Ryan's style. Kay Ryan The Best Of It: New and Selected Poems.
Marianna Monaco. Ouzel (James Arnold). Patricia J. Machmiller. Shiki.

The Haiku Seasons: Poetry of the Natural World
by William J. Higginson. A classic.

Writing and Enjoying Haiku: A Hands-On Guide (2003)
by Jane Reichhold, whose many skills include a keen sense for the writing and appreciation of haiku. Guidelines on writing haiku and related forms.

Seeds from a Birch Tree: writing haiku and the spiritual journey (1997)
by Clark Strand, teaches by example about writing haiku through being present and not being effortful.

Seeds from a Birch Tree: writing haiku and the spiritual journey

A pleasant book that:

Has three sections:
- The Way of Haiku.
- The Haiku Mind.
- The Narrow Road.
Teaches the reader to write haiku, though in a narrow way:
- [p.18] "A haiku is a seventeen-syllable poem about the season. Arranged in three lines of five, seven, and five syllables, and balanced on a pause, a haiku presents one event from life happening now."
- [p.144] "where objective description overlaps the heart ... where the image itself expresses precisely what we feel."
- [p.65] "A haiku ought to make sense literally. It must be understandable right away. The objective image is the flesh and bone of haiku. Without it there is no poem."
- [p.70] "The task of the haiku poet is not to explain ... moments, but to live them, and to capture their life in words", to make objective descriptions.

Insists on using the 5-7-5 pattern of syllable for English-language haiku: [p.24] "The place to begin is counting syllables —five-seven-five." Apparently Strand is not aware of the comparative length of time to speak Japanese and English, which causes an English-language poem of 5-7-5 English syllables to need almost twice as long to speak as does a traditional Japanese haiku of 5-7-5 mora. Thus, to keep with the spirit of the Japanese haiku as a one-breath poem, most other schools of English-language haiku encourage shorter poems. In particular, contrast Strand's book with Patricia Donegan's minimalist approach:

Haiku Mind: 108 Poems to Cultivate Awareness and Open Your Heart (2008)
by Patricia Donegan.
108 remarkable haiku by Japanese and Western poets,
with small essays to show how such brief poems can show us how we can approach our lives.

Promotes the use of season words.

Teaches the two-part format by claiming [p.119]:

A haiku is usually composed of two parts: a five-syllable phrase followed by a twelve-syllable one. One phrase sets forth the season, the other juxtaposes some other image. ... though the two parts remain distinct, together they form an impression which is more than the sum of their parts — that is, together they form a poem.

Praises the haiku of Masaoka Shiki, who:

[p.10-11] [created] a new [type of] haiku, based on shasei (the sketch from life), [which] had completely revitalized the art.
Shasei stressed direct observation in the manner of a landscape painter who carries his sketchbook to the field and draws exactly what he sees. More than realism, however, the sketch from life offered Shiki and his followers a way of seeing nature as if for the first time.
... At the end of each notebook I fill with haiku, I am always struck by how much more of the world I have seen, and how much more in love with life I have become.

Teaches Zen meditation and that [p.16] "haiku is a spiritual path".
Recommends use of "a moderately messy notebook ... [whose size] should be neither cumbersome not tiny" in which you:

[p.46] Write down your haiku just as they come to mind, without too much deliberation over whether they are good or bad. ... no amount or ingenuity or craft alone can make a haiku.
Appreciates the involvement in a group for haiku practice and for spiritual practice.
Advocates avoiding revision.
Advocates avoiding intellectualism, sentimentality (self-conscious emotion), and overt displays of emotion. To accomplish this, focus on the image of your haiku.
Presents a variety of illustrative haiku, with brief commentary.
Writes [p.175] " when I speak of haiku as a superficial art, the surface I speak of is really just the ground of being. It is the Haiku Mind."
Suggests exercises:
- A nature walk, where you spend:
  - the first third of the time relaxing,
  - the middle part letting nature come in to displace daily thoughts,
  - the final third taking out your notebook as you write and perhaps writing a poem.
- A location in nature where you stay in a small area for a little while. Write a haiku about something experienced in your senses (not just what you see but what you hear or touch or smell); immediately write another haiku; continue until you have 20 or more.
- Go to a place and carry your notebook but do not write; then go home. It is possible that later a striking haiku will come to you ... or it might not!

Links and Books.

Links and Books.

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