Reinventing the Life of a Poet in the Modern World

Tag: haiku (Page 6 of 6)

52 Haiku, Week 2

Abq-riogThis is an Albuquerque Journal photograph of what the Rio Grande looks like down here in Albuquerque where the water is scarce and birds can wade across.

The Prompt: Connect

Again this week's prompt comes from the Zen by the Brush book by Myoshi Nancy O'Hara. 

Breathe a full circle.
Let go of expectation;
And then–true nature.
            – Myochi

Again, first task is to sit for a meditation on that for 5-10 minutes or however long you feel is good to you.

The Drawing

This was my second drawing on my sumi-e board and it took three attempts, of which the second permanently damaged the board. That was unexpected!

O-1 O-2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In my first attempt, my breath didn't last but half a circle when the water/ink ran out. I had to wait for the board to dry. I resoaked my brush. The second time I freaked out and over-circled. This must be my true nature, judge-y. Anway, waiting for the final attempt, the board never fully evaporated. 

My Haiku

…inspired by the drawings. 

The path I cover:
Circle of water rippling
Concentric traces.

The Reflection

This isn't unrelated to what is going on in my life. A job opportunity I've had in the past has come around again. I'm figuratively in the early stages of retracing a circle of my past. Or I can think of it this way: the past is always within the present.

Now you try it.

 

52 Haiku, Week 1

20190219_075323We have a snow day today in Albuquerque so I'm taking the time to post my first of 52 Haiku. It's not much by East Coast standards but there's not a snow plow or a salt pile in this city and so the drive in is treacherous with even a half inch.

That's my front pinon tree and Mexican feather grass hunkering down outside my office. I've always loved Mexican feather grass from my days of working at Marina Del Rey in the left white tower. The corner there, bordering Ralphs grocery store, is lined with it and I loved to watch it blowing in the wind.

The Prompt: Calmness

Anyway, this week's prompt comes from the Zen by the Brush book by Myoshi Nancy O'Hara. 

Calm yourself with breath-
Dip the brush, hold gently, draw.
Whatever comes, comes.
            – Myochi

So the first task is to meditation that for 5-10 minutes or however long you feel is good.

The Drawing

I did a drawing on a sumi-e board, which is just water as ink that fades within a minute or two. This is supposed to teach you about letting go and impermanence. But I'm struggling with that so I took photos with my phone. šŸ™‚

20190213_202327

20190213_202400

20190213_202450

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Right after drawing it and after propping it up on its stand (which made the ink run as it faded away).

My Haiku

Then I wrote a haiku inspired by the drawings. 

River rising fear
Turtles drying in the sun
Then swimming away

The Reflection

It was a day of anxiety at work when I did this exercise. We have new leadership and old wounds. And I still feel sad for all that happened last year. Hopefully the kus will help me work through it.

Now you try it.

Intro to 52 Haiku

ZenbythebrushIā€™m starting a new online class Monday on Digital Storytelling, which Iā€™m hoping will lead to a series of hands-on classes on Digital Storytelling that I can twist into poetry projects. I loved my last digital lit class, Electronic Literature, which led me to one or two books about digital lit. But Iā€™m half experiment-lover and half Luddite so whenever I do this electronic lit stuff I always want to try to ground myself in something very physical around writing. This usually turns out to be haiku, which can be very quiet and tactile.

So I havenā€™t forgotten my 52 haiku project (which got shafted in last year's drama) and I hope to start this in the next few weeks: one haiku prompt a week for 52 weeks. Iā€™ve added the component of Sumi ink drawing to it (for something even more tactile: haikus with little drawings. Truth: I utterly suck and drawing but Iā€™ve purchased two things for the project:

  1. A Sumi ink kit  (right)Ink-kit
  2. The kit Zen By the Brush (above) with an ink board and a book that provides 25 prompts to get us started. The ink board is supposed to help you deal with non attachment because you have to erase every drawing you do. 

So once a week Iā€™ll post the prompt, my haiku and drawing and any other experience with it. Anybody can work along with me now or in a few months down the line or in a few years when you come across this post in the backwaters of the Internets.

This will be the instruction each week:

  1. Read the prompt (some will be haiku, some will not).
  2. Meditate on the prompt.
  3. Write a haiku.
  4. Draw something in the style of a Sumi drawings as a companion to your new ku.

Sumi-aliens
Researching this project, I came across a very cool Aliens Sumi ink drawing by a modern Sumi artist who attributes this work to Qi Baishi (齐ē™½ēŸ³). Read more about it.

  

Haiku and NaPoWriMo 2018

32 Women

NaPoWriMo will be upon us in just about a week. I probably wonā€™t post much on Big Bang Poetry during that month as Iā€™ll be furiously writing disposable poems. I did the prompts last year and it was a bit unsatisfying due to the fact that everyone is now creating their own prompts. So this year I decided to return to a project, one based on a poem I did many years ago for my friend Michelle Sawdey after hearing she passed away and while I was on a writing retreat and found a notebook she had given me and being moved by her inscription.

My NaPoWriMo project is called ā€œ32 womenā€ and Iā€™ll be writing each day about a woman who has been a part of my life, plus 2: one intro poem Iā€™ve already finished for March 31 and the original Michelle poem for May 1. As we progress, you can find them here: https://hellopoetry.com/mary-mccray/

Zbb52 Haiku

Then I have another project lined up to start maybe in June called "52 Haiku." Iā€™ll be posting a prompt each week for a year. Each prompt will initiate a meditation, a haiku, and a small sumi-e ink drawing. I so suck at drawing, this should be interesting. As a guide Iā€™m starting with some of the prompts in Zen by the Brush and I'll be using an ink kit I found online.

What I love about haiku is that if feels like the opposite of eLit: offline, quiet, single minded.

And yesterday I came across this interesting page surveying Shambhala Publications haiku catalog. Food for thought while we prepare for 52 Haiku in June.

Conspicuous Consumption Poetry

20180309_190454For Christmas I got a subscription to Birchbox, which is basically a monthly package of of beauty product samples for items you otherwise couldn't afford. I get overly excited when the box comes. I'm even charmed by the boxes themselves.

Anyway, one of the products that came this month had a poem printed on it.  Itā€™s a limp plimper,  (donā€™t ask me; I just blindly use this stuff), and the packaging contains a haiku:

Sink some ships with those
Dangerously plumped up lips
Can you say luscious?

Itā€™s a pretty rickety haiku with questionable punctuation but maintains a perfectly good syllable count.

Itā€™s also a haiku that worries me about its possible dangers…with the actual word danger in it! So this would make it both a poem and marketing fail.

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