In this time of blossoms, especially, I am inclined to be grateful for being here, being alive, being among the company of poets and the poetically-minded who share the appreciation and the wonder.
“There’s a very deep strain of existential gratitude that runs through a lot of poetry. It’s certainly in haiku. Almost every haiku says the same thing: it’s amazing to be alive here. There’s a little haiku: ‘A cherry tree in blossom / In the distance / I hear a dog barking.’ Those two things have nothing to do with each other, except the fact that the poet was there to see and hear them. So the haiku is saying, I was here. 'Kilroy was here.' To appreciate the wonder of that, you have to imagine the absence of that, of not being there, of nonexistence, right? I consider poets to be a part of a larger group of people who don’t have to survive major surgery or go through a windshield in order to feel grateful for being alive. It shouldn’t require such traumatic experiences to feel grateful. So I think a love of language and a sense of gratitude would be two ingredients in the recipe for making a poet.”
—Billy Collins, interviewed by George Plimpton in The Paris Review, Fall 2001
image: Vincent Van Gogh, Blossoming Almond Tree
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I see you also have a keen interest in haikus, Christie!
ReplyDeleteI also love haikus, although lately I haven't been able to make a decent one.
I admire those who are able, today, in a world laden with useless technological, practical and emotional complexity, to still make haikus. I mean real haikus, the ones that deliver in the greatest simplicity the meaning of life.
Let me share these two pop haikus by Jack Kerouac:
"Missed a kick
at the icebox door;
it closed anyway"
"Rocks on the side of the cliff.
Why don't they tumble down?"
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DeleteJay—thanks for those fun haikus!
DeleteI think it's the hardest thing in the world to make a real haiku, as you say. So since I came to that realization, I've been having fun writing what I acknowledge are pale imitations. You can see my collection on my other blog, Green Scooter, here: http://ourgreenscooter.blogspot.com/search/label/Inklings
My thoughts on these "Inklings" are at the bottom; my post of July 22, 2011.
If you want to post haiku or other writings on Green Scooter, just let me know. It was intended to be a co-op writing blog, but I can't seem to get other writers to post!