6/26/2007

White Flower

  
  



Candle Night キャンドルナイト







candle night -
is the spider looking for
enlightenment ?








. . . . .



candle night -
the beetles are having
some fun in the dark















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Candle Night, KIGO


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candle night -
is the spider looking for
enlightenment ?



Dear Gabi,
I like this very much, and have a question.
We get drilled into us so much not to use personification and I know you're very experienced in haiku. When do you decide to make an exception (you personally)?


Dear Friend,
I try to avoid personifications and anthropomorphism as much as I can, since I believe haiku should state the objective observance, not the subjective judgement about it. I only use it when the situation really calls for it.


Here is the story to the above haiku.

It is candlenight in Japan.
A few good friends have gathered around the old pond, with the odd frog jumping in once in a while too for good measure.
In the darkness, we enjoy the conversation, then the silence, then talk again.

Plop, another frog. Silence deepens.

A firefly zips by and I tell my friends about this haiku, written a few days ago in some haiku forum after a discussion on the subject

temporary enlightenment -
just a bunch of
fireflies


Everybody chuckles ... yea, yea, the follies of us human beings ...
And silence again in the darkness.

Staring toward the white calla lily, a small spider makes its way toward the innermost flower parts. Slowly, stopping, sensing what ?

Everyone gets focussed on the spider and then another little beetle on the white flower next to it. Candlelight makes this scene especially unworldly. Like under a giant spotlight, all we see now is the spider.

And then someone asks:

Is the spider looking for
enlightenment ?


...


So my particular haiku is not really a personification, but a report about a situation during that candlenight.



Anthropomorphism - Pro and Con

Read my Haiku Archives 2007


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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Some fun indeed! Delightful pictures, Gabi.
a friend from USA

Pris said...

Wonderful!!

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