2.10.2013

mental tuning

Whenever I read short Japanese poems (haiku/tanka) I think of how out of tune my mind is to all kinds of subtleties and nuance from reading so much Western poetry. A real sense of intimacy comes across in many of these of poems, in the way that two people who have known each other for a long time don't need to elaborate to make themselves heard. And because so little is being sketched in by way of background or temporal markers (not counting the prevalence of seasonal words), a little poem from the 8th Century can seem not at all antique.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

The genre sure does collapse space and time, whether harkening back to hokku or waka, the origins of haiku and tanka, or leaping forward, like Bashō’s famous frog, kerplop, in the moment. Glad to read your as always astute take. Thanks, Jim. – Donna

Area 17 said...

Dear James,

It is surprising how much is contained, just in the whitespace, and how quiet.

There is a sense of intimacy as you say.

Alan
http://area17.blogspot.com