Comments on Haiku and Happiness - - - Happiness and Haiku: Hatsu Mode

Dear Gabi San,I learn so much from your site. Your...

2007-01-03T23:21:00.000-08:00

Dear Gabi San,

I learn so much from your site. Your sensei's comments are most interesting and motivate me to read more WHC articles. Of course, speaking no Japanese, I cannot follow the nuanced variations on your haiku, but gather that overlapping kigo are problematic, even when an actual experience (snow melting in winter) is represented. I can see how this might invoke a sense of irony, humor, or even discomfort, in any poem. As artists we always struggle to balance “fact” with “truth,” “truth” with “art.”

To my ignorant, neo-haijin mind, your new year haiku is interesting because the snow is melting – think geothermal warming. Had you reversed “snow melting” to “melting snow,” there would have been little surprise. And to my ear, your haiku rendered in English is both musical and rhythmically satisfying.

As for "ladylike" constraints, these cultural residua/anachronisms are happily fading among the youth of most industrialized nations – to my mother’s consternation, and my delight.

Many thanks, Gabi san, for this good read.

Your friend,

Billie Dee
San Diego, CA, USA

Dear Gabi san: I think if I was there I would not ...

2006-01-04T15:39:00.000-08:00

Dear Gabi san:

I think if I was there I would not want to leave. I always long for peaceful places like that.
I'm afraid I don't get enough of them. I do try hard to get out into the forests whenver I can.

S.

Dear Gabi sanI looked at the picture on your blog ...

2006-01-03T23:43:00.000-08:00

Dear Gabi san

I looked at the picture on your blog with this poem on it. The
scenery and the poem are very peaceful to me. I like this.

bowing deeply,

Sarah

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cherrypoetryclub/message/26316

sakuo Renku二人静かな山の年明けsilence for two of usthe year...

2005-12-31T23:20:00.000-08:00

sakuo Renku

二人静かな山の年明け

silence for two of us
the year begins in the mountain

sakuo.