A repeat of something I first wrote a couple of years ago:
Regular readers will have noticed that there is much more to
learning to write hokku than to learning modern haiku. And much of
what is learned in the study of hokku, unlike the vagaries of much
modern haiku instruction, is very practical and straightforward
and can readily be put to good use.
For example, a few postings ago I presented more of the forms
common and helpful in writing hokku. Among them was one summarized thus:
Adding to the variety of hokku types, there is one we might call
“Also / Even.” Such verses rely on the use of the words “also”
“too,” or “even” to achieve a certain effect.
How does one put such information into practice? It is very
simple. Just learn the basic forms, and when the occasion
arises, it will pop into your head.
Here is a repeat of the posting on “Also / Even” hokku mentioned above:
Adding to the variety of hokku types, there is one we might call “Also / Even.” Such verses rely on the use of the words “also” “too,” or “even” to achieve a certain effect. We see this in Buson’s verse:
Tilling the field,
My house too is seen
As darkness falls.
And in this verse by Issa:
Evening cherry blossoms;
Today also is now part
Of the past.
It was even used by Shiki, who began the changes that nearly destroyed hokku:
Even the paths
Are deep in grass;
A stone Jizô.
(Jizô is that smooth-headed bodhisattva with a staff, very popular in Northern Buddhism as one who protects deceased children and saves from suffering.)
This use of “even,” “also,” or “too” gives a feeling of things being connected, of something being part of a greater whole, not excepted. It was used long before Shiki in the waka of Saigyo:
Even in the mind
Of the mindless one,
Sadness appears
When a snipe rises in the marsh
On an autumn evening.
And there are even more types of hokku. Here are three of them:
1. “Intent” hokku – verses that show the firm intention of the writer to do something.
2. “Volition” hokku – verses that show the desire or impulse of the writer to do something, though he may not really intend to do it.
3. “Exhortation” hokku – verses in which the writer urges or tells other humans (or even non-humans) to do or be something.
“INTENT” HOKKU
We are already familiar with the this kind of thing from Western verse. It is found, for example, in the the poem by William Butler Yeats:
I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made;
Nine bean rows will I have there, a hive for the honey bee,
And live alone in the bee-loud glade.
We see the writer’s intent to get up and go to Innisfree, and to live there. The writer may express such firm intent for “poetic” reasons, not really intending to do it, but as expressed in the verse, we see the intent as fact and firm.
We find such strong intent in this verse by Bashô:
“Traveller”
Shall be my name;
The first rain of winter.
“VOLITION” HOKKU
We are familiar with this concept as well. We see it in a verse by Gerard Manley Hopkins, though because the speaker is a nun, we feel that the volition, expressed in the past, has been carried out:
I have desired to go
Where springs not fail,
To fields where flies no sharp and sided hail
And a few lilies blow.
We find it expressed in this verse by Shiki:
As companion,
I would like a butterfly
On the journey.
“EXHORTATION” HOKKU
This “urging” of others is also common in Western verse, as in this from Walt Whitman:
Allons! whoever you are! come forth!
You must not stay sleeping and dallying there in the house, though you built it, or though it has been built for you.
We find it also in the verse of T. S. Eliot:
Let us go then, you and I,
When the evening is spread out against the sky
Like a patient etherised upon a table;
Exhortation (usually of non-humans) is so common in the verse of Issa as to be almost characteristic of him, and it is unfortunately heavily imitated by novice writers of hokku, who do not realize that because they do not have the spirit of Issa, it comes off as an affectation rather than genuine:
If someone comes,
Turn into frogs,
You cooling melons!
The playfulness of that verse is obvious. But again, this sort of thing should be done seldom if at all. Otherwise it leads to the “talk to the animals” syndrome so prevalent among those just learning hokku, who are invariably drawn to Issa because they do not yet understand the deeper aspects of hokku, and think him “cute.”
All three of these categories have their pitfalls, which is why they are infrequently used. And all three served generally to express the “poet” urges of the writer as somewhat different from those of others, as more in the tradition of the “poet’s life” which is why it is all too easy, in using them, to draw too much attention to the “self,” and why they should be used little and with care. Otherwise they come off as much like the posing so often found among would-be poets in Western culture.
COTTONWOOD DOWN
Yesterday was one of those sunny, warm, pleasant days at
the beginning of summer. The heat brought out the seed fluff
in the cottonwood trees along the stream, and soon it was
carried everywhere by the wind currents, filling the sky. In
my garden, I watched dragonflies darting to and fro through
the fluff drifting on the air. One could see and feel summer
beginning in the experience. So deep was the effect on me
that I was able to write this hokku the next morning:
Cottonwood down;
It even blows into
My dreams.
If you have never seen cottonwood down filling the air on a
warm day at the beginning of summer, you might not “get”
this verse. But anyone who has will get it immediately.
But note the form of the verse. It is exactly the “Also / Even” form I
described in the preceding lesson. These forms are
not just for beginners in hokku. They are tools that remain
useful all through your maturing practice. If you learn them
thoroughly, they will be at hand when you need them.
David