HAIKU ENGLISH  by GEERT VERBEKE

The master haiku-artist is not a «translator», but rather a sieve through which all life essence flows incessantly; changing like the sands in response to the tides, and yet as “mystically stable and predictable” as the effects of the tides upon the Moon.

Adam Donaldson Powell, Norway

• There is only one type of haiku: a good one.

• Nobody knows the truth about haiku and how to write them.

• Question the haiku masters, at the same time reverence to everyone of them.

• Avoid patronizing experts telling you: 'I learned great lessons about haiku...'

• A real haiku master doesn't expect you to follow his rules and insights.

• A good haiku blog is without censorship.

Geert Verbeke is a contemporary haikuist and a real kuyu (haiku friend), born in Kortrijk, Flanders (Belgium in old Europe for peace) on 31 May 1948. Father of four children: Hans, Saskia, Merlijn & Jonas. Since 19 years the happy life partner of Jenny Ovaere (ex-teacher in special care education. Today a guide for Joker adventurous travelling).

Geert Verbeke began writing haiku in 1968 after his beloved mother, Jo Hiltrop, was offering him a small cahier: 'Zen-buddhism' with selected writings of D.T.Suzuki and references to: R.H..Blyth, H.G. Henderson and Allan Watts. The communication with the Italian sculptor Pietro Bares, casting bronze and sculpting marble buddha’s was an other stimulation. The decisive factor to wrote and study haiku was the discovery of the wonderful Himalayan singing bowls and the travels with his exceptional wife (since 15 years) and soulmate Jenny to: Kathmandu, the Sinaï-desert, Istanbul, Tunisia, Djerba, France, Tanzania, Zanzibar and the Grand Canyon in Arizona, USA. Geert is a member of: Haiku Centre Flanders, l'Association Française de Haïku, the Australian Haiku Society Haiku Oz & the World Tempos Journal (Japan).

I don't know when and why I started writing haiku. Must there be any reason? Maybe because I was in search for an opportunity to combine poetry with a little bit more awareness of myself and the world? Maybe because I am inquisitive?  I re-start every day! My first modest haiku was written in  May 1968, this attempt enriched my whole life. Since a few years, haiku writing is a daily activity with a lot of study and fun.

Reading and writing in a close consideration with other Kuyu learns that we still need the 'beginners' mind. To be on the look-out for mistakes, new approaches are wonderful. They develop modesty and the ability to put ourself, our haiku and the haiku rules in perspective. Geert in wonderland? I adore the discipline of daily writing. I try to write in several languages (Dutch, English, French and modesty in German), they have their own rules and habits to make an original contribution to the haiku world. The swop over admit the possibility to ask myself in question. Its a pitty that I don't understand Japanese... to read Shiki and other masters.

A haiku is a thimble, that I try to fill up without spilling! Put briefly, haiku are objective, image-centered and ‘one-breath’ poems, often brimming with childlike wonder, this quality merely camouflages its deeply rooted aesthetic principles. Lifefulness, not beauty, is the real spirit of haiku. Haiku encompasses every aspect of our daily life, as a creative state of mind behind prohibitive rules and conservatism. 

Certain habits have crept into western-languages haiku, a lot of writers who try to adhere to a 5-7-5 form usually pad their haiku with words that add no meaning ('the warm summer sun', or 'cold ice' for example). Others write in a telegram style, not the normal speech or writing...short is not always grammatically correct...

A HAIKU IS A NUTSHELL FULL OF EMOTION: a small poem relative to the raindrops, Originated in Japan, haiku is the briefest of all poetic forms. Traditionally, the haiku is a fixed poem of approximately  seventeen 'onji' (sound-units) most often arranged in a 5-7-5 pattern, with an integrated seasonal-word called 'kigo'. A haiku relies on brevity and simplicity to convey its poetical message, conveying a keenly perceived moment of heightened subjective awareness. Writing haiku can help to face the whole world without nostalgic harassments and sentimental burps, if you are not a compulsive grumbler nor an old grouser. No cramping of the past, the haiku happens here and now. The questions comes to the surface while writing, thus you start looking for hints. Good advice never comes amiss. You want advice and operative suggestions? A few moments later you are bearing the inconveniences of compelling rules, severe regulations and all sorts of imposed laws. It seems that you lose the scent because a lot of busybodies have admonish little fingers and sometimes sing-song voices. They (re)commend all kind of reliable and authoritative haiku writers, the sources of your future knowledge. Master Basho said this, Buson said that! The big claptrap and drivel. Odds and ends, bits and pieces that will nail you down. The straitjacket of all sorts of regulations is waiting to make your head spin. So many points of view with quotes and references are confusing your mind. Heaped up all kinds of petty facts is aggravating, and maybe driving you bonkers, but don't be afraid for mental deterioration, we are only talking about seventeen syllables. Where is the reciprocal well being, between you and your haiku? You are fed up to the back teeth, counting the corny expressions, the cut and paste idioms, the enjambments. You skip the pages about interpunction, all along the lines. The pattern of the syllables... you don't give a damn. You  still hesitate to abandone the rigid rules to find the intangible nature of the haiku. Take off! Please, write your own stuff, a haiku is not world shattering. Not yet? Funny to write your own haiku. It makes your mind more liquid and flexible. The haiku: a four-star means against acidification! Not written to be weighed down with cramped commentary. Fiddling about verbless haiku is redundant, what you don't tell is revealing. Present by absence...the haiku as magician. Temporary, reviews and criticism give you a nasty shock, but you know once the simplicity will rise to the surface. That's the real expertise. Sometimes in seventeen word chunks, in three lines and one heart. So long as it beats in kindness, so long you are observant. Do you hear voices?

CHILDLIKE OBSERVING: It's better to prefer amazement and a shade of childlike observing above hair-splitting over exaggerated issues like form. The haiku is a Japanese verse form, generally dated back to 700 years ago. In the seventeenth century, haiku flourished due to a competition of great poets. It developed from tanka and was mainly influenced by Matsuo Bashô who is known as the first great haiku poet. The theme of a haiku refers to nature (seasonal word: kigo, only expressing locality), although 'nature' can be interpreted in a global sense. Do not start each line with a capital letter unless that line is an independent sentence. Haiku is rarely about individuals so does not often use the personal pronoun, although a derivation of haiku called 'senryu' does. 

DESK HAIKU: Haiku which are written in response, for example on a website, to a photographic image or an illustration, can not be judged by the same standards as other haiku. The primary guideline should always be that the haiku link to the photo or the illustration. The haiku is not always a direct experience of the author, good teamwork can be asked. A haiku or senryu can be a free interpretation of the photo and the photographer's experience. Ideally, the haiku should be able to do both: be an extension of a photo and stand alone (be understood without seeing the photo.)

EXPRESSING MUCH & EXPRESSING MORE: As a haiku poet you must have mastered the art of expressing much and suggesting more in the fewest possible words. Haiku focuses on nature, compressing maximum thought into minimum language. Less is beautiful. Haiku are made of mother-of-pearl and snow crystals. Haiku are dewdrops. Haiku, also called hokku, are the result of quiet observations and loving care. A haiku is not just a small poem in three lines of 5-7-5 syllables each. Try to be a writer not a counter! English syllables are not the same as Japanese onji, they vary in length. A typical haiku can be any length from a few to 17 syllables, and will carry a reference to nature, although some haiku focus almost exclusively on human behaviour, settings and sentiments.

Jack Kerouac wrote in his 'Scattered Poems' (1972): "...a Western haiku need not concern itself with the seventeen syllables, since Western languages cannot adapt themselves to the fluid syllabilic Japanese. I propose that the Western haiku simply say a lot in three short lines in any Western language. But above all, a haiku must be very simple and free of all poetic trickery and make a little picture and yet be as airy and graceful as a Vivaldi Pastorella..."  

GENDAI: Gendai or 'Contemporary' haiku are not always writen by frustration or dissatisfying with traditional haiku, nor as antipathy towards authority and power. Formal rules can be suffocating, but more and more uncomplicated writers at this juncture write 'Gendai' because they love them as the best form for free and creative 'modern' haiku. Modern haiku is not against the classical haiku. My haiku brother Peter Frengel wrote me about the classical haiku: 'I enjoy the formalism. It's a personal preference, not a hardcore philosophical view.  There is room for beauty and Zen in formalism, and yes, even spontaneity, as demonstrated in the tea ceremony, flower arranging, and other eastern art forms.  The inspiration of the idea is not about the words, or about intellectualizing -- it is about the essence of the idea.  For me, there is something satisfying in turning that essence into a form (5-7-5), and (ideally!) still capturing that essence.  Again, it's what I find personally satisfying, but not something I would insist that others do.'

GINKO: A Ginko is a haiku walk (USA) with several haiku writers, held at the start of a season or at a 'special' time in the season (blossoms [hanami], New Year, Equinox, Solstice, Anniversary) in nature. There is a 'guide' who has knowledge of the chosen place. The haiku writers can discuss, take note or write haiku (after the walk). Not for individualists!  

HAIBUN: A haibun is a literary style, with a descriptive combination of prose and haiku. A mirror image of 'our' regular world, that focus on everyday experiences.Most often [but not necessarily] is is written in the present tense with a multiplicity of ideas: from snake pits and hot birds to fairground attractions, tattoos and youg bamboo shoots. A haibun is a meeting place, a melting pot and a treasure-house with many chambers! Love the glaring contrasts, without rigid rules and prescriptions. We're well rid of that. Haibun boundaries of style and format have changed a lot since master Bashō travelled the narrow road to Oku in 1689. Nowadays an author can arrange and intersperse the prose and haiku in whatever format suits the piece. There is no set length to a haibun and the haiku does not have to relate directly to the subject matter. The reader must only imagine...  

HAIKU INTERNET FORUMS: The research results of any examination learns that most of the internet haiku forums, a peripheral phenomenon in the haiku world, are amateurish. That's pretty obvious, not everyone has literary or bookish pretensions. Only a few haiku forums are valuable for inquisitive haiku lovers. Suggestion: before subscribing, just lurk for a while to see how members and moderators communicate: goody-goody, under stress or superficial?  Examine the possibilities, supplies and approaches. Try out if the rules, if they excists, are applied correctly or with capriciousness and arbitrary.  An important conclusion is  the fact that the knowledge of the history of haiku (senryu, tanka, etc.) is rather limited. Take haiku (poetry) forums with a pinch of salt. Uselessness sets you thinking. Just remember: power-mad moderators and conceited members can be irritable, short-tempered, over-sensitive, thin-skinned, etc. No hard feelings if they start twaddle about ego and paranoia, or scold you as if they are working frustrated in the childcare field... Simply unsubscribe and let them yell...

All haiku, text, photographs & illustrations appearing on this site are the exclusive intellectual property of Geert Verbeke and are protected under international copyright laws. No haiku or images are within Public Domain. Use of any haiku is a violation of copyright. To secure reproduction rights to any haiku or images send an e-mail to Geert Verbeke. He never sell or share your personal info with anyone. Use the mailbox only for mails in connection with this website.2007.