Me and Japanese Poetry -- Part 2

Me and Japanese Poetry – Part 2

In the late 60’s I moved to Alaska to go to school at the University in Fairbanks. I loved Alaska. I loved everything about it, including the long winters. Well, when you’re young and more vigorous fifty below zero feels like a wonderful challenge.

My first encounter with Haiku was in Alaska. It was in the early 70’s. A book came out titled “Alaska in Haiku” by David Hoopes and Diana Tillion, published by Tuttle in 1972. I saw it at the school bookstore and purchased a copy. I immediately took a liking to it. It made a strong, and favorable, impression on me.

Recently I looked up “Alaska in Haiku” at Amazon and found a used copy for sale. Looking over the volume today, thirty-eight years later, several things strike me. First, the authors have a commitment to a classic approach to Haiku. For example, the Haiku are arranged according to the four seasons, which is the standard manner in which Haiku are published in Japan. In traditional Haiku the seasonal element of a Haiku is a requirement of the form.

But what really struck me when I got the used copy is that the Haiku in “Alaska in Haiku” are syllabic; that is to say the authors write Haiku adhering to the traditional 5-7-5 syllable count. I had not remembered this. But looking back it makes sense; my first impression of Haiku was Haiku written in accord with the classical strictures of the form and this first impression has stayed with me. In other words, I think this first encounter with Haiku left an impression in my mind that good, even excellent, Haiku can be written, are being written, following the traditional syllabic pattern so that in later years when I would hear that English language Haiku poets should not adhere to the traditional syllabic count (something I would hear, and do hear, quite often) that first impression I had in Alaska would subconsciously remind me that perhaps this wasn’t really such a good idea and that there exist counter-examples that do adhere to the traditional syllabics.

I was unaware of the growing disagreement among English language Haiku poets regarding the efficacy of adhering to a traditional syllabic structure. The disputes that were taking place, mostly on the East Coast, I think, simply didn’t make it to the Alaskan bush. I think it was an auspicious introduction to Haiku and as in my encounter with Renga in my teen years, this encounter planted a seed in my mind which would eventually bear fruit, many years later.

Here are a few Haiku from “Alaska in Haiku”:

Beside the snowdrift,
The gray mountain rock is warm
Under the young leaves.

A waxing spring moon
Unfolds it gilded pathway
Upon flooding tides.

The snow-capped peaks
Cause my eyes to lift above
The net I’m mending.

Across the tideflats
A light from someone’s cabin –
It is not quite dark.

Upon the vast sea
A single boat leaves its wake –
For a brief moment.

Renouncing the world –
The autumn leaves are falling
In my place of birth.

Wild geese coming down
Call one unto another –
Each night’s colder now.

The winter moonlight –
Shadow of the totem pole,
Shadow of the spruce.

Night below zero,
And the long valleys echo
The sound of the stars.


Who knows, maybe some day this collection will be reprinted.