By Linda Wiggen Kraft,
Green & Growing Editor
The magic of a moment in a garden can be captured in many ways. Most often photos are taken to bring back the beauty and joy of past garden times. A somewhat different way to remember and reimagine those moments can be done with words, specifically haiku words. Haiku written by you, the lover of gardens.
If you are like me, the first reaction is no way. I am not a poet and especially one who has to fit into the restraints of seventeen syllables of the five, seven, five lines. My stomach knots up just thinking about trying to wriggle my mind into that maze. Turns out, those restraints have been broken and haiku is no longer tied up in syllable counts. Instead, the essence of what haiku poems are when written in English has been freed. They are simple concise three lines meant to be an expression of a moment in nature. Three lines that create an image with short phrases on each line. Each line relates, giving new insights or twists as each builds on the other. Haiku isn’t a rhyming poem, it is a short poem of few words.
I recently attended a haiku reading by two local poets at The Green Center* in U City where I found out about the newer ways of haiku. There are still three short lines. The purpose is to conjure a scene the reader can imagine, bring the reader’s own emotions into the scene and have a bit of surprise as the ending ties it together.
Here are two examples from the haiku reading.
spring afternoon
picking the garden
from my fingernails.
— (Ben Gaa)**
iris bud
sharpened
to write in purple
— (Robert Lowes)***
It is best to read haiku slowly. As if sitting down with a bit of too warm tea that requires slow sips to savor each taste. Read the first line, pause and sit with it. Go on to the second and third lines this way. Each line can be worlds unto themselves. The words “spring afternoon” presents multitudes of images for each reader. Read it and sit with it. Add to that “picking the garden” again many interpretations. And the ending “from my fingernails” focuses on finishing the day of gardening. The same goes for the “iris bud”, worlds created in a few words.
Capture moments in your garden, but taking pen to paper and trying your hand at haiku. I tried my hand at it recently.
crickets singing
their legs off
silence when resting feet
* www.thegreencenter.org
** www.Ben-Gaa.com
*** www.robertlowes.com
Linda Wiggen Kraft is a landscape designer of holistic/organic gardens. She is an artist and creativity workshop leader. She is teaching an all-day “Fantasy & Real Flower Art” workshop Sept. 28th. Her ceramic jewelry and pottery are available online and at www.gardendistrictstl.com. Find out more, subscribe to her blog and Instagram at www.creativityforthesoul.com Call her at 314 504-426.6