As I read through 250 of Basho’s haiku as chosen by translator Sam Hamill for Narrow Road to the Interior, I began to realize why I like haibun and haiga.
Simply put, they isolate a haiku from other haiku. And, to be most effective, I think I haiku must stand alone. Read as a group, they tend to lose their effectiveness.
In fact, I think the perfect way to present haiku might be as a screensaver, when a single haiku would show up for a whole day, allowing the reader enough time to really meditate on what has been said.
Alternatively, of course, despite what Arete might say, haiku might serve as the perfect cross-stichery project.
With that disclaimer, I’ll list a few of may favorite Basho haiku, from Hamill’s selection, keeping in mind that I might well choose entirely different selections if I were to read them later.
This one, makes me long for high mountain ridges still inaccessible because of snow cover:
Your song caresses
the depths of loneliness,
high mountain bird.
as does this one
Traveling this high
mountain trail, delighted
by wild violets.
Of course, anyone who knows my loves would not be surprised to learn that discovering this haiku was worth the price of the entire work:
Actually, I agree that haiku would be excellent for cross stich, particularly from a meditative standpoint. The complexity of yarn is startlingly apparent when I knit. When I keep flowers on my desk where I can see them all day, it seems like there are new details to notice every hour. Stitching a haiku, one might get to know it on a very intimate and elemental level.
Loren, are all the pictures taken by you?
Harry
Well, except for the butterfly picture and red mushroom picture I used to illustrate the two Issa poems, I think they’ve all been mine in the last three years.
That’s why I was so quick to point out that those weren’t mine.
That’s not true for my articles posted on OSP, though, where the pictures are provided by my editor.