Haiku

Always interested in poetry and reading about the different forms, I came across the haiku form. Traditionally Japanese, there are now many excellent haiku in English as well, although some break with the rather strict rules. For example, a Haiku has three lines only. Each line has a prescribed number of syllables: 5-7-5. And one of the four seasons is referred to in some way and coupled to something else in nature. Sometimes this requirement is fulfilled by referring to an “element” (fire, water, wood, earth, metal – the Taoist cosmological elements) or by mention of technology or materials (glass, phones). Strictly speaking, one is then deviating from the pure form and it must be a conscious decision that is reflected in the image generated by the rest of the poem. There is also a so-called “pause” that is traditionally placed at the end of the first or second line. In some cases, you will find this pause as a dash in front of the third line. Here is one of my own in Afrikaans:

op my koel herfs-stoep

kloek-kloek rooiwyn in my glas:

ou bamboesklok ril

Roughly translated, it says:

my cool autumn porch

tipple red wine in my glass:

bamboo chimes shudder

The idea is that in autumn we rest after the harvest, maybe with a glass of red wine. Pouring it from the bottle produces a sound similar to that which is produced by a bamboo chime in a breeze. Here the image of autumn is again reflected in the idea left with the reader of the chimes moving in that uneasy breeze before evening (parallels with the coming winter). Anyway, as you can see, I am just learning and playing around with it for my own enjoyment. Being a visual thinker I need some way of reflecting on the emotions conjured up by the things I see every day.

Here is a favourite from a grand master:

from which tree’s blossom

it comes, I do not know

this fragrance

- Basho

And a modern one:

across the fields of stubble

flame stalks flame

- David Cobb

Learn how to write a haiku at http://haiku.cc.ehime-u.ac.jp/~shiki/Start-Writing.html and if you want to see a Java engine have a try at it, go to http://www.everypoet.com/haiku/default.htm

If you need a little book for winter, try out “ Haiku – Poetry Ancient and Modern” by Jackie Hardy, last seen at http://www.amazon.com/Haiku-Poetry-Ancient-Jackie-Hardy/dp/0804838585

Stars

I have always been fascinated by the stars. I remember when I was a kid in Windhoek in Namibia in the early 1960’s how I would sit on the fence in the corner of our yard and watch the sun go down. Like a big ball of fire it would slowly descend on the hills in the distance and the air would cool down rapidly, so rapidly that I could feel it on my cheeks. Then the stars would pop out of the dark blue hemisphere above me, like little lights being switched on one-by-one.
Linda would sit next to me and ask all sorts of questions. She was my neighbour and only friend at the time. I would know all the answers of course. My imagination ran wild as I extrapolated from bits of stories my dad told me. The stars were very far away. Some were balls of fire and some were places just like earth. We imagined what these places would look like, whether the people on those far-away specks in the sky were watching us as we were watching them. We fell silent as the Milky Way appeared slowly, glowing above us with a coldness of deep space that we could somehow feel, making us shiver. I was going to be a rocket man. I would build rockets that would take me to those places and I would come back, floating down by parachute and maybe I would have a present or two from those stars.
Today I can barely see the stars from where I stay in the city. We add more lights for safety, we add more lights for comfort and we dim our imaginations as we do so.
If you feel like exploring the stars right on your computer screen, surf over to the Open Source site of Stellarium and watch in wonder how your screen is transformed by the work of the people that are writing this fantastic piece of software. I wonder what happened to Linda...