TREETOPS - EDITOR'S CHOICE
A selection of haiku
with commentary by Ferris Gilli, Editor

 

trout lilies...
a youth loops his shoes
over a bare branch

                  Robert Bauer

 

When shared with an audience, a haiku's success depends on a number of points.  Among these are the reader's cumulative life experiences and certain important elements in the haiku. The reader's background and the author's choice of style and content determine accessibility, which is crucial to resonance. When I first read Robert Bauer's haiku, his vivid concrete imagery immediately drew me in.

The classic haiku construction allows effective juxtaposition. Placing "trout lilies" next to the image of a young man looping his shoes over a tree branch layers the haiku with meaning. The surface imagery presents an appealing scene, but nuggets of information and significance can be found "between the lines" of the poem.

When outside, a person may take off his shoes for several reasons. Perhaps to remove sand or a pebble, or perhaps the shoes chafe his feet. In this case, the poet's careful, precise wording offers insight into the youth's action. The first line gives me the first clue.  Also known as "dog-tooth violet," the ephemeral trout lilies appear in early spring (at the beginning of trout season). The plants grow in bottomland woods, along stream banks, and even in meadows if conditions are right. Blooming before the forest trees form a leafy canopy that would starve them of light, they fade away before summer begins.

The next clue is a young man who ties his shoes together and loops them over a branch, which means that they will stay off for a while. What joyous liberation in that act!  Now, informed by factors in the haiku and drawing on memories from my own youth, I can easily imagine what might be happening in Bauer's poem—and beyond.  While walking in the woods on a warm spring day, the subject comes upon a patch of trout lilies growing beside a clear stream. Those graceful yellow blooms rising above mottled green leaves splotched with brown . . . the soft gurgle of water flowing over mossy stones . . . a woodpecker tapping nearby. Ah, the glory of such a moment! Unable to resist, the young gentleman removes his shoes, hangs them in a safe place, rolls up his pant legs, and wades right in.

With their bright, fleeting appearance, trout lilies embody the brevity of youth. When we are young, we believe those bright years will last forever. Later, we know better, and welcome each season of birth and renewal with memories of our salad days. Robert Bauer's spring haiku is timeless. It is a fine tribute to the season itself.

 

-Ferris Gilli

July 2005

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