Haiku

Munira

According to Google, there are many different lists of elements, but in this post, we’re looking at the natural or spiritual elements – earth, air, water, fire and ether (sometimes called space). According to both Greek mythology and Ayurveda (the ancient Indian healing system), the natural world and our bodies (as part of the natural world) are made up of these elements.

Earth represents the solid state (stability, permanence and rigidity in nature) as well as the stable parts of the body (bones, teeth and flesh). It gives us the power to sustain and endure.

Water is the unstable and flowing in nature as well as the bodily fluids like blood, lymph and urine. It provides the ever-changing emotions.

Fire is the power to transform, burn and illuminate. In the body, it represents the digestion as well as the fire of intelligence and passion.

Air, which is mobile and dynamic and constantly in motion, represents the breath and all subtle movements in the body as well as the constant motion of thought.

Ether is the space in which everything happens. It is the outer space beyond earth’s atmosphere as well as the empty spaces in the body, the vibrations of sound and the empty sky of mind.

Poets are, of course, always dealing with the natural elements, and often a particular haiku will represent more than one of these elements. I picked the following haiku and photos because they best portray my perceptions of the five elements – earth, water, fire, air and ether.

On The Road – Munira – On the Haiku Road – The Natural ElementsPost + Comments (18)

Munira

Twilight is the most magical time of day – the time when night and day meet for a while and produce shifting shadows and glorious sunrises and sunsets, the time when stars begin to fade or emerge. It is a time for reflection as the day is born or begins to die, as another cycle begins or ends. And it is a time for poetry, a chance to watch and wonder as a tree or a flower begins to shine in the rising sun or fade as darkness gathers.

On The Road – Munira – TwilightPost + Comments (28)

Munira

Traditionally, the season in which a haiku is written is an essential element. In fact, in Japanese, each haiku contains a particular word (called a kigo) which indicates the season. (You can find a list of some of these words online.) As with the other traditional elements of haiku, we modern western writers are less fussy about insisting on the kigo, but the seasonal cycle still plays an important part in our haiku writing.

In this post, I’ve picked haiku and photos that specifically relate to each of the four seasons. Some of them mention the season by name and others contain a kigo. When I finished collecting the haiku, I realized that I had three poems for summer and winter and only two for spring and autumn. I decided that made sense because summer and winter are the extreme seasons. They both begin with the solstice (the longest day and the longest night). The difference between light and dark is more extreme as is the temperature. Spring and autumn are the fluid seasons. They each begin with the equinox when light and dark are in balance. They are transitional seasons, carrying us from one extreme to the next.

The cycle of the seasons mimics the cycle of our own lives so we begin today with spring, the season of birth and rebirth, of flowers budding and blossoming, of leaves returning to the trees. And we end with winter, the season when nature turns inward, when vegetation seems to die and we begin and end the active part of our days in darkness.

On The Road – Munira – The SeasonsPost + Comments (26)

Sunday morning seems like the perfect time to post this Morning Haiku Walk post from Munira.

The original was an On the Road post that was lost in the fire, and it was so wonderful that I didn’t want it to be lost forever.  Many of us were deeply touched by the original, so I asked Munira if she had a copy, and she graciously agreed to share it with us again. ~WaterGirl

Update:  So the original OTR post is there, but introduction only, no pictures.  But there are comments!  I copied them all into comment #18.  Formatting isn’t perfect, but at least they are there.

Munira

It has long been my habit to go for a walk in the afternoon, but in March (in a fit of self-improvement), I began taking a second walk every day, this time early in the morning before breakfast. Since it was often still dark when I went out, I didn’t go on the trails. I just walked around the perimeter of the apartment complex where I live because the parking lots are lit and I could see where I was going. It’s a big complex so the walk takes around fifteen or twenty minutes. The grounds are quite beautiful with many trees, flowers and assorted wildlife (rabbits, ducks, seagulls, various songbirds, deer and squirrels).

I had also resolved to write at least one haiku every day, and I soon discovered that the haiku frequently came to me during my walk. I took a photo of whatever had inspired me, and when I got back to my apartment, I texted the photo and the haiku to my sister and a friend. At first, I wasn’t sure how my offerings were being received until one day I was late sending my message. I got a text from my sister saying, “Haiku, photo?” It was encouraging to see that my efforts were appreciated, and I’ve tried not to be late since then.

All of the haiku and photos in this post are from my morning walk during the months of April and May. This walk has become one of the most treasured parts of my day, and it’s a pleasure to share it with you.

On The Road – Munira – Morning Haiku WalkPost + Comments (20)

Munira

For this post, we’re going to explore tanka, a different form of ancient Japanese poetry. Tanka actually precedes haiku. It originated in the 7^th century and quickly became the preferred form of poetry in the Japanese court. It was often used for courtship purposes – lovers would write tanka back and forth to each other. As a consequence, many of the great tanka writers were women. Tanka often has more of a personal or emotional content than haiku.

Traditionally a tanka has five lines and 31 syllables. The third line represents a shift in the idea or imagery of the poem and transitions into the last two lines. The first three tanka lines are considered to be the origin of the haiku. As with haiku, tanka poets writing in western languages generally ignore the syllable rules since syllables in Japanese are quite different. We are also freer and more experimental with structure and subject matter.

So that’s your lesson for the day. In this post, all the tanka I’m including have been published, most of them in Gusts, the Tanka Canada journal. Several of these tanka were written in the cabin I built myself on my friends’ property in Quebec. I lived in the farmhouse and used the cabin as a retreat place. My friends lived in Vermont and came up to Quebec on the weekends to help me cut wood and garden. The only tanka / photo that isn’t from Quebec is the one by the ocean. That’s from Crescent City, Calif. I was walking on the beach and talking to my son on my cell phone. None of the photos were taken at the same time the tanka were written, but they seem to correspond nicely. As always, it’s a pleasure to share them with you.

On The Road – Munira – My Life in TankaPost + Comments (37)

Munira

In the responses to my last (and first) On The Road post, a couple of people asked me to provide pictures of the same scene during all four seasons. So I looked through my photos and found I had shots of the creek near my home (Padden Creek) during each of the four seasons although they aren’t of the exact same place or from the exact same perspective. These are the first four photos in this batch.

The second four photos continue the theme of the seasons. Like most people, I am inspired by the changing of the seasons, the beautiful and sometimes melancholy reminder of the inescapable impermanence of life. I have been a writer much longer than I’ve been a photographer. For the last ten years or so, I’ve been writing haiku almost entirely. It’s rare that I actually write a haiku with a particular photo in mind, but since both the poems and the photos are inspired by the same images, they often go together perfectly so I’ve included a haiku with each photo. I have, of course, included the credits for the haiku that have already been published.

On The Road – Munira – The Seasons – with HaikuPost + Comments (32)