marlene mountain
as is
2000

 

 

12/3/00

untoward

'Toward an Aesthetic for English-Language Haiku'

by Lee Gurga Originally published in Modern Haiku Vol. XXXI, No. 3 (Fall, 2000)

----clarified by marlene mountain (c) 12/3 in one style of 'shetrillogy' published in 'kyoto journal' and written c 1987-----

R.H. Blyth, who identified haiku with male Zen, characterized the state of mind necessary for writing and appreciating male haiku as having thirteen elements. They are male selflessness, male loneliness, male grateful acceptance, male wordlessness, male non-intellectuality, male contradiction, male humor, male freedom, male non-morality, male simplicity, male materiality, male love, and male courage. In suggesting the basis for an approach to male haiku, one could do worse.
-----
They have a commitment to male truth, in the case of senryu, the truth of the male human condition. They also share with zappai a male wit-based humor, which they use to convey this male truth to the reader or listener. Their combination of male wit and male insight allows them to advance from the realm of light verse to that of male poetry. However, since their purview is restricted to the human male realm, they often lack the potential for universal significance that the finest haiku can attain by relating the human condition to the larger issue of our place in the universe. This is what haiku can attempt and the finest haiku achieve. Through the elements of male brevity, male juxtaposition, male observation of nature, male insight, and male humor, male haiku give us a view of the male unknown and the male unknowable. This is why I place male haiku at the apex of the metaphorical pyramid. The fundamental difference that separates male haiku and male senryu above from male zappai below is a commitment to male truthfulness

In male Japan, the primary problem is an over-conservatism, an over-dependence on tradition and a lack of individualism. In the male West, the problem is nearly the opposite–a tradition that could be said to hardly exist at all and an almost pathological excess of individualism.

mm note
lee wrote the piece and i added 'male' throughout
it's a 'dadaku' [spoof]

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