A Pebble in the Pond - Haiku

A great many of us were introduced to the Japanese Haiku form of poetry at school, you remember the one: 3 lines; 5 syllables, 7 syllables then 5 syllables. Rather like learning history as a series of dates, it's good exercise for disciplining the mind; though unlike history dates it has little relevance in the longer term unless you actually are a poet and/or Japanese.

The Haiku form remained something I used occasionally in creative workshops exactly for that discipline element, having to fit complex ideas into 5-7-5. "Difficult" children for example frequently get on very well with the idea, because it combines their sensory expressiveness (the thing that makes them loud) with their heightened planning and analytical abilities (the bit that makes them a devious "Smart Alec").

I didn't actually understand haiku though (and I know I am still only scratching the surface here!) until I studied the area of peformance and language at Dartington College in Devon, UK. I was given a simple image: the Haiku is a pebble that lands in a pond - the pebble hits, the ripples go out, and after...

And that is really what the Haiku is about: the event, the effect, the response. and that is what makes it a useful tool for stopping and pausing when events unfold before us. I'm actually writing this on a train (ah, technology) and it's just left a station, with that jarring knock that announces itself down the carriages before actual movement commences:

The train jolts
The echoes rattle off through time
And now we follow them

When you've finished analysing my mental attitude to the journey...The 5-7-5 structure isn't used here but it is nonetheless a Haiku. To take an example not from my present experience, but an event more worthy of consideration:

The boss shouts at me
My ears are actually ringing
Where's the jobs page?

When something you see or experience makes you stop, causes your brow to furrow or elicits a sharp intake of breath (or a belly laugh for that matter), try playing the Haiku game. When you get practised enough to do it instantly you will be amazed what you discover about yourself:

He slips on the ice
His arms flailing as he goes
I am a scumbag

Event - Effect - Response. If you have a mathematical mind you might find yourself tweaking your results to fit the 5-7-5 structure, which is fine (both of the completely improvised examples above pretty much fit that structue straight away - I've been doing this a long time!)

The train throws a jolt
The echoes roll off through time
And we follow them

There's sure to be something about Haiku in Margaret's selection in the on-site Amazon Bookstore.

Yours
Ivor.R.

© Hypno4Health 2008