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Announcement of TREETOPS /  A Guest Speaker

 

 

WHCschools Traditional Western Haiku School
Ferris Gilli, Hibiscus School Instructor

 

 

TREETOPS: ANNOUNCEMENT OF NEW HIBISCUS PAGE!

The Hibiscus School of Western Traditional Haiku is pleased to announce the addition of a new page in the Hibiscus Petals column, November, 2001, World Haiku Review. Treetops, edited by Ferris Gilli, will feature selected haiku written by members of the Hibiscus School. On some occasions, a guest editor will be invited to choose haiku for Treetops. Only haiku from poets who are subscribed to WHCschools will be eligible for consideration. Selections will be made on merit. The number of haiku published will be limited and may be dictated by the quality of submissions.

Guidelines for submitting to TREETOPS:

Submit original, unpublished haiku (haiku that have not previously appeared in print journals or in on-line journals by editorial selection). Poems that have appeared on Internet mailing lists such as haikuforum, WHCschools, WHCbeginners, and the Shiki lists, but have not otherwise been published, are eligible.     

 

Poets may send up to ten haiku in each submission.

When submitting, put "TREETOPS SUBMISSION" in the subject block of your email.

 

Follow criteria for haiku according to the Hibiscus School.  Essential elements of haiku:

Focus
Conciseness (clarity, brevity)
Effective juxtaposition
Resonance
Immediacy
Natural syntax
Common language
Balance of humanity and nature
Sense of mood
Sense of season; kigo
Concrete imagery

Freshness of content is desirable. Poems should avoid stale, hackneyed presentations of overused subjects. NOTE: This does NOT mean that familiar subjects and topics are unwelcome. It simply means that whatever the topic, the haiku should present a fresh, different view of a subject or event, and/or offer new insight to the reader.

DEADLINE for TREETOPS SUBMISSIONS for November 2001 Issue: September 30, 2001

SEND HAIKU SUBMISSIONS to Ferris Gilli hgilli@cfl.rr.com.

(Please do NOT send submissions to the school, or to any other WHC list.)

 

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Membership of The Hibiscus School of Western Traditional Haiku continues to grow. In the four months since the school’s inception, members have been encouraged to participate in the exercises, relate their individual concerns regarding specific haiku topics, and to feel comfortable and unpressured in the school’s friendly, helpful atmosphere. All questions by members are given serious consideration, and the views and work of every poet are important.  Participants in class activities are assured that no one will be ignored or neglected. The Hibiscus School is open to any serious student of haiku, regardless of experience.

Beginners who are seeking constructive feedback and a solid grounding in haiku guidelines make up the majority of members; however, more experienced haiku poets who enjoy a structured but not rigid setting of educational exchange also contribute poems and ideas. It is hoped that the unhurried but steady pace of the school makes the lessons and exercises accessible to anyone who is interested.  Although a number of haiku topics have been covered in the last few months, poets may join at any time. Newcomers are brought up to date regarding previous lessons, and can immediately participate in current exercises.  

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Hibiscus School: A Guest Speaker:

On May 10, 2001, The Hibiscus School welcomed guest speaker Paul W. MacNeil, who presented an essay titled, Some Philosophy and Personal Notes on Haiku.  Paul, an experienced haiku poet, is an Associate Editor of the print and web haiku monthly, The Heron's Nest. He is also the Renku Editor of The World Haiku Club Review. Paul’s essay can be read in the current issue of this magazine.

A question-and-answer period followed the essay, resulting in a valuable exchange between Paul and Carmen Sterba. With their permission, here are relevant excerpts from their correspondence: 
 

Q&A   

Sterba:

“I have just joined WHCschools and read your fine essay.  I would like more explanation on one subject and that is "cutting."  I have the impression that many haiku poets around the world seem to reject haiku that is written without a break in the three lines (such as between the first and second line with or without punctuation used). There are different ways to achieve juxtaposition, but this seems to be misunderstood by some (or many) haiku poets.

“I began writing haiku in Japan (because I happen to live here). . . . Opinions seem to vary but there is often criticism if it seems that all three lines appear to run together even though the reader may pause to digest the two images separately.”

MacNeil:

“As I indicated in my paper (with several quotations) my source for the notion of ‘cutting’ in haiku comes from Basho.  I also drew from the work of a sensei of the last decade who teaches in Japanese in Japan. The ‘cut’ or, in Japanese, ‘kireji’ was in Basho's time a characteristic of hokku composition. The first stanza of the ‘haikai no renga’ that Basho wrote and taught was ‘cut’ and was the free-standing verse of the longer poem (renku, or haikai no renga). The verses following the hokku in general practice were not cut, had no kireji. The traditions of Basho's time, derived from previous centuries, had 18 ‘classic’ cutting words. . . .

“But, what is to be cut?  Why the kireji (cutting word)?  How is the classical practice in this manner by the Japanese Masters related to haiku today -- in Japan and in the West, more specifically, in the English language?

“Basho had a number of disciples who not only survived him but taught and wrote about ‘the late Master.’ They apparently disagreed. Each could and did quote selectively to prove his own theories, to advance his own school of haiku. One may note that the survivors of Shiki in the last century also had fundamental differences in views of ‘their’ Master's teaching. Perhaps, and I do not really mean this as cynically as it may appear, it is possible to find in Japan and at least nascent in the West a school of haiku philosophy and practice to fit any theory.

“I believe, Carmen, that both the rival schools of the 17th/18th Centuries and those of the 20th, now stretched into the 21st Century are at issue in the conflicts your questions involve. 

“The very essence of haiku-ness is at issue here. There are ever so many opinions and ‘schools’ of haiku. One view is for the reader to be able to find/experience some resonance or reverberation from the haiku. The haiku is seen to be a means of evocation -- evoking the experience of the writer, evoking the emotion of that experience.

"’Creation of resonance for readers is much more than a report of an observation or experience‘ (Ferris Gilli -Teacher, The Hibiscus School, 02-02-01).  

“Is a single image verse a haiku? Well, yes . . . some are, and some are not. But as Ferris points out at Hibiscus, and old Basho did as well, the best haiku are made by combining things -- and the best poets are the best at doing this. Some single-image verses are so linear as to not allow a reader (this reader) much room for resonance. Others demonstrate great skill with the power of words in English. A combination of aspects of the same image are available to the reader. There can be contrast in this type of verse; a pause given the reader; perhaps a way into the experience. But this is, I believe, exceedingly difficult to write successfully.”

Read more from WHC Hibiscus Petals

Read: Some Philosophy and Personal Notes on Haiku by Paul MacNeil

 

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