Hi guys,
talking with poets is a privilege! I thank you both for the possibility.
XXXXX, I like your phrase "insistence on form can be oppressive". I agree. But insistence on "no-form" (even called "free-form") can be also oppressive. Not only that, it changes whole perspective of haiku and it negates the history of the form, the tradition, i.e. it is anti-cultural posture and it also abolish international standards for cultural share as defined by International P.E.N. becoming unilateral cultural setup--position of power. So much more worry with "no-form" (false "free-form") than with the "form" from the viewpoint of oppression.
About changing the whole perspective of haiku: if you can not define haiku by form then you must define it by the content-that means we are automatically in the situation of "legal" censorship (censorship by definition!). Exactly this is our situation today! So my complaining about false "free form" foundation of haiku (As famous Serbian poet Branko Miljković once commented "free-form" with "Free of what"?) are exactly about censorship and cultural vandalism. The attribute "free" takes the meaning of "poetic license" (so we do not need any more "poetic license" that exist from ancient time i.e. individual freedom in expression because we have "free form"). You do not need to be very clever to recognize ideological setup of contemporary politics of liberalism where freedom to destroy is more important than individual freedom. So, "no-form" setup is clearly an expression of new kind of political totalitarianism. Can anyone of you disagree here? I think that is important question to discuss.
Of course, each language has different syllable structure (not only Japanese as announced by Bill the Big-Knowledge). So writing under "no-form" ideology you destroy local cultural differences, which is part of politics of political liberalism.
But more important is that poets writing haiku in "no-form" ideological context become unable even to count syllables! So I thank you for the comment about Hiroshi Yamasaki translation. It shows our alienation of art of poetry. The most basic knowledge is lost. That is also part of politics of political liberalism.
The art of counting syllables is best to be learned from own practice in collaboration with senior poet. In English it is best to be learned from James Kirkup. He is major poet. Poetry can be learned only from major poets. He left a lot of poems in 5-7-5 and also many articles about, but scattered in many different magazine such as Ko, or in his books. He explains clearly how to "read" syllables in English. He also explains how to read syllables in Spanish and what way in Catalan... I also published an article about Spanish syllables in Kamesan blog: http://kamesanhaikublog.blogspot.com/2018/02/5-7-5-in-spanish.html
You can not be sculptor without knowledge about material you work with, because not the same if you design clay, wood, iron or marble. The same is in poetry. Do not throw away that fundamental knowledge!
Let me finish with the conclusion:
Poet's duty is to protect poetry from ideology (2) (I do not care if the ideology is called Stalinism of Liberalism). Slovenian modernist poet Oton Zupančič even wrote famous poem "Poet do you know you duty?" ("Ali veš poet svoj dolg?"). That poem is part of our culture and education. I think "poets" who defend ideology over poetry are not poets. They are political workers in poetry.
Of course, you have individual right not to be interested in counting syllables. Or you have right to be less talented in playing with form. That all are possible options. But that does not mean you need to become Stalinist or Mandatary of politics of liberalism as Bill Higginson did. That is why "poetic license" exist. Poet must be honest if want to be poet.
The honest position is to defend facts: haiku is defined by form, it is 5,7,5; plus there is "poetic license" to defend your individual rights (of being not oppressed :-).
The so called ELH is an ideological tool. It is created to act in the name of ideology of Liberalism. That is why writing and sharing poetry in English is very hard, often destructive and it is always political act. That is the fact that bothers me a lot. It is very hard to avoid but I hope we are poets with poetic interest bigger than ideological pressure.
What we are discussing here is
definition of haiku. We used so many words because of heavy consequences related to this question. But this is not part of the discussion of
quality of the poem or poet. These two questions are connected but also separated. I think Matsuo Basho explained the best what are the criteria for judging poem(s). These are 1. truthfulness/honesty ("makoto" i.e. "there is no poetry outside makoto") and "surplus meaning" (in fact, surplus meaning is nothing else than metaphoricity). So the first criteria is defining the field of poetry-what can be considered poetry, the second criteria, the most important, is defining the level of poetry. Basho did not discussed question of form because Bill Higginson was not yet born at that time and consequently the question of form did not existed :-) As any genuine poet Basho wrote in 5,7,5 pattern plus poetry license. I cannot imagine today "following Basho" but negate his basic approach to haiku form?!
Best regards to both!
Dimitar Anakiev
(1) ELH - English Language Haiku
(2) That does not mean that poet is not allowed to use ideology. That means that poet must not be subordinated to an ideology!
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