HAIKU POETRY: LEARNING THE RULES TO BREAK THEM…
The one question I’m most often asked about my poetry is why do I include headings with my haiku poems? For me, it’s vital to follow the traditional rules within the structure of my haiku poems, as best as I can — knowing that sometimes I include an extra syllable or two, especially if I’m writing one poem in more than one language. Therefore, my priority is always to honor and to respect the beauty that this style of syllabic poetry — art form.
Where I deviate is in the inclusion of headings to frame the contents of my poems because it plays on my personal experiences of teaching Cross-Cultural Communication for the last 20 years. When we think of the general perceptions and expectations of Western audiences/readers, our general mindset is that time is money. We want to know where our investment in time is going before, we make that investment. The headings of my poems become a signpost of the poem’s content, a subtle foreshadowing of the poem’s larger story. In essence, the headings help the poems to naturally evolve around their structure — infrastructure — while bridging cultural diversity in a meaningful way by using headings as a signpost, or as a subtle foreshadowing of what to expect from a single poem’s content.
When it comes to the blending of cultures, I always pull inspiration from Pablo Picasso’s words when he said: “Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist.” We must learn the rules so that we can break the rules through our own kind of magic, including the art of poetry.
Where East meets West, the net result is a form of expression that has personally enriched my life, partially during a recent, and very challenging, season when I had to say goodbye to a loved one after their long health battle. During those exhausting days in the hospital, haiku poetry was the only thing that my tired mind could try to concentrate on. In an upside-down, inside out realm of reality, it was my only way home, back to my heart’s peace. Writing haiku poetry helped me to focus on what matters — now, even when my now meant being stuck in hospital room, holding my loved one’s hand with no idea what the next hour would bring.
And that is why I write headings with my haiku poetry…
May we write our way back to our heart’s peace of mind. Poetry is that powerful — healing!
Happy writing — lekker skryf!
H. L. Balcomb, Zenning Midlife…
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