haikaiTALKS: a saturday gathering! 12th October

haikaiTALKS: MONO NO AWARE | a saturday gathering_under the banyan tree

host: Lev Hart 5th October 2024

haikaiTALKS: a saturday gathering_under the banyan tree

MONO NO AWARE

Your host for haikaiTALKS Lev Hart

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Mono No Aware

Mono no aware, “the touchingness of things,” expresses both the haiku poet’s emotional response to nature, including human nature, and the reader’s emotional response to the ku. Nature, the poet, the haiku, and the reader are connected in a continuum of empathy. In Marilyn’s ku, the poet empathizes with the loneliness of a winter scene:

       withering wind

       only the moon visits

       our village

       (Marilyn Ashbaugh, Dec. 14, 2023)

L1 is a winter kigo, with the potential to infer any of the themes traditionally linked to the season. In the context of “only the moon visits / our village,” traditional winter themes like estrangement, helplessness, isolation, poverty, solitude and want are suggested. The moon’s lone company underscores that the village really is alone and on its own. The moon, though, does offer companionship, so the loneliness of the scene, in true wabi-sabi fashion, is tinged with solace.

Basho did not believe that he was attributing loneliness to a season that it did not possess. He believed the loneliness to be the season’s, which he was experiencing through fellow-feeling. Similarly, the poet in Marilyn’s ku appears to be feeling the loneliness and solace of the winter night. The reader seems to experience the same feelings in response to the haiku imagery --- a continuum of empathy.

Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to write two haiku with nature images that evoke the reader’s empathy. Please avoid shopworn imagery, e.g., strays, urchins, orphans, refugees, people with dementia, the death of a pet… Strive for originality. Remember the kigo.

“A Dictionary of Haiku Classified by Season Words with Traditional and Modern Methods,” by Jane Reichhold:

https://thehaikufoundation.org/omeka/files/original/7fb6654a1dfd1afef97369da920530f8.pdf

The Yuki Teikei Haiku Season Word List:

https://yths.org/season-word-list/

indian subcontinent SAIJIKI:

https://www.trivenihaikai.in/indian-saijiki

The World Kigo Database:

https://wkdkigodatabase03.blogspot.com/

The Five Hundred Essential Japanese Season Words:

http://www.2hweb.net/haikai/renku/500ESWd.html

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Thank you for doing this for us, Lev.

Members,

Please give your feedback on others' commentary and poems too. _()_

This is an exciting phase for haikaiTALKS! Have fun! Keep writing and commenting! _kala