3.02.2011

Haiku: Signs and Wonders





Movie Clip Wednesday is here




Ho ho! Gracious, goodness! Aunty is pleased to host this week's Haiku Monday! This is a meme started by our own much loved curmudgeon, Troll. Iffin' y'all is new to the game, give it a whirl. Visit Troll Stroll to see past week's Haiku Monday. We has a real good time wif' it--an y'all will be jes' amazed at what yore fellow bloggers manage to capture in jes'
17 syllables.

Haiku is a thought expressed in a poetic form of three lines. The first line is 5 syllables, the second is 7 syllables, the third line is 5 syllables--5-7-5, for a total of 17 syllables.
Classical Haiku creates an image or recalls an experience of a specific moment in time. It shares a wee piece of yore experience, your perception of that moment.



One idea is to look at some known, familiar thang, but see it from a new insight. Haiku invites us to perceive more deeply-- It can employ a contrast, an' even surprise, like an "aha!" moment. Haiku can be funny, ironical...summon emotions or inspire...discoverin' depth by paying close attention to the surface.
Other poets --not only Haiku--has reckoned that the best poetry aims at uncoverin' the deeper meanin' of thangs.

Even very simple thangs, like a flower growin' in a crack along the sidewalk somehow speaks to us of the struggle to survive, even thrive--to make beauty whar' ya can...or the beauty to be found everywhar' if we but look...oh now, we could make ourselves a book of meaning from that flower growin' through that crack--




French poet Paul Valéry said that poetry is "a language within a language."
Poetry aims to take us beyond literal, linear thinkin'.


Thas' why we can imagine thangs--cause we "know" or "sense" that thar' is another world beyond, an we lend ourselves to it. Ever thought how odd it is that we humans do have imagination? How do those other worlds come into yore thoughts?

Dawgs doan have imaginations. Birds doan have imaginations. Animals have instinct an' memory of thangs that is, or wuz... but they doan imagine a whole other existence. Dawgs doan make no meanin' of that flower growin' through a crack. It doan symbolize nuthin' to a creature that doan imagine.




Well, now, I doan wanna git too deep into that territory, lessen' Troll whups on me fer bein' too "erudite-ish."*

But I reckon y'all know how we humans assign meanin' to the seen world to unlock the mysteries of the unseen world. Fancy words like paradox, symbolism an' allegory is taught in collich, but ya' doan need to know none of that to write a bit of verse--it jes' comes natcherly cause humans like to look fer order, purpose. We do it wif'out even knowin' we do it. Like a li'l chile' singin' a song, but knowin' nuthin' of half notes or minor key. Jes' sing an' see what comes out yore mouth. Be funny, be tongue-in- cheek, be contemplative, be political, be yoreself.

The theme fer Haiku Monday, March 7th is SIGNS.

This is how to play:

Write as many Haiku as ya please, come post it heah on the Front Porch, an at yore own blog wif' visuals too' if ya want (not required). The winnin' Haiku will follow the 5-7-5 format that Troll set an' receive the Haiku Badge of Great Honor plus a prize. Thar' will be great amusement, but not necessarily an edge, iffin' ya write in Cracker-speak. HOWEVER, the best of the Cracker-speak offering will git a prize too: A bag of Pork Rinds

Haiku winner's loot will include a large bag of Pork Rinds, as well as a Sign of your times.

Have fun!

* Dearest Troll -Man, please note I din't go all the way to anagogical, cause that really woulda been eruditish. I would dearly love to discuss Flannery O'Connor's anagogical writing--someday.

14 comments:

fishy said...

Wow!
I promise to NEVER try to write a haiku in Flannery's an...ana gogo..
anagogic.... her way.

Anonymous said...

Anagogical:

A mystical interpretation of a word, passage, or text, especially scriptural exegesis that detects allusions to heaven or the afterlife.


Then I had to look up "exegesis" on top of that.

And I don't think I've ever read Flannery O'Connor.


And attempting haiku in cracker dialect will be a challenge.

Aunty Belle said...

ROFLOL!!

Troll, now....ya KNOW ole' Aunty be funnin' ya some over that "erudite" comment--din't wanna disappoint ya none.

An iffin' you win? Troll, I'se gonna send ya a FLannery story--youse gonna ever more LUV Miss Mary Flannery O'Connor.

Fishy....doan pretend none wif' me--I knows ya been wearin' the same perfume. Heh. An unnerstanfin' of layerin' Chanel 22 is a prerequisite fer anagogical adventures.

Buzz Kill said...

I miss-read Ms O'Connor's writings as gynecological. I better go rewrite my haiku.

Anonymous said...

@ Buzz,

Grrrherhahahahahhaha! Spit out my tea!

@ Aunty

I was just funning too. But I did write a haiku that contains the word "erudite". Will need to rework it to fit the theme of "Signs". Which is a good theme.

Karl said...

Good afternoon Aunty Belle,

Sign sign everywhere a sign. Blocking out the scenery breaking my mind. Trying to figure out haiku in cracker will be breaking my mind.

Jenny said...

congrats Aunty and I like your theme. See you Monday!

moi said...

What fun requirements, Aunty! O'Connor is one of my favorite writers (throw Troll fully in the water—send him Wise Blood) and I live with a Cracker, so either I'll be inspired or I'll stall out. But pork rinds are a pretty dandy incentive . . .

fishy said...

SB is a cracker?????? I thought he was a bayou coonie!

I reckon the 22 wears diff'rent on you than on a fish. Mebbe I'll rustle up some clever, mebbe not.

moi said...

Fishy, no, S.B., while born and raised in South Louisiana, is not Cajun. His people are poor farmers of Scots/Irish decent (although his father eventually rose to prominence in LA politics) whose origins are further north. Other than the fact that he's not from Georgia or FLA, everything else about what I understand of Cracker fits S.B. and his folks.

darkfoam said...

bless patsy! congrats!
auntie belle, the haiku queen!
time .. hmm .. thinking here.

Kymical Reactions said...

AUNTY! Come on over for the big BABY REVEAL!

sparringK9 said...

wonderful inspiring post on Haiku and it's purpose! I am not joking when i say it inspires me to do better to give it my best. and signs is a wonderful and broadly meaningful word. SO glad you are hosting aunty. not sure about the rinds, caint you send bread puddin or somethin? grheha

Anonymous said...

Hustling around -no computer--only phone thingy
Will reply to all yore fun comments
Late tonight--
Aunty has to git to a shindig tonight wif'
Then I can git own home.