THE HAIBUN GALLERY: 12 December 2024 — Matthew Caretti, featured poet

hosts: Vidya Shankar & Shalini Pattabiraman

A Thursday Feature.

poet of the month: Matthew Caretti

12 December 2024

Matthew Caretti

Matthew has been influenced in equal parts by his study of German language and literature, by the approach of the Beat writers, by his travels and his Zen monastic training. After leaving the Seo-un Hermitage, Matthew engaged in a pilgrimage through South Asia before returning to Africa, where he had lived and worked as a Peace Corps Volunteer. He served as Principal at Amitofo Care Centre, an orphanage and school for five hundred children in Malawi, and as director of the same NGO’s centre in Lesotho. Matthew now teaches English and leads a simple life in Pago Pago, American Samoa. His collections include Harvesting Stones (2017, winner of the Snapshot Press eChapbook Award), Africa, Buddha (2022, Red Moon Press) and Ukulele Drift: Poems from a Small Island (2023, Red Moon Press). His prose and poems appear regularly in Frogpond, Modern Haiku, contemporary haibun online, Hedgerow, Cattails, Tiny Moments and several other journals. He is the recipient of a 2024 Touchstone Award for his haibun ‘Deep Water Port’.

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This week we feature two of Matthew's haibun that are unconventional in approach, beginning with the concrete haiku he has used for the title of the first one. It is interesting to note that his prose is made up of short sentences that juxtapose in form with his multiple one-liners to bring in the link and shift.

low over             the heron                   the sun

the sea                  wings into

After the storm. Along the lava rock cliffs. I grasp the hand of my Muse. Whisper the myth of Icarus as we walk toward other sources of light and life.         

cyclone rainbows double in the oil slick

The cool wet of morning church school songs. A sky still laden with gunmetal clouds. We follow them. Wonder why and how that kingfisher expired on the power line.         

where the cliff’s steep is too fairy terns

Floating on the king tide, a rhinoceros beetle on a coconut. We place worn prayer beads among an entreaty of ants. Soon, another week without a storm summons big sky smiles.

lenticular cloud atlas of all that’s missing

Twilight virga arcs into a sea chantey for the uninitiated. Our dirge drafted well before day begins to drown in the sea. I am falling. Falling. To the blackout strum of her fingers.         

midnight shoal an old man strokes the moon

— Frogpond 47:2, Spring-Summer 2024

Pedagogy of the Antipodes

In the local coffee long-ago eruptions. A wobble of imminent islands passes into my poems.

undulation of drifting coconuts     calving season

A porpoise chatter of children in the cove. Rather than homework they choose instead the sea.

young love     spindrifting onto shore

This milky way weightlessness of the waves. A cloudburst swirls on my old monk’s hat.

from giggles to a slow susurrus     sunset

The island tide of on-time warps classroom walls. A gentle languor leaches into our lessons.

sarong songs     the path home from school

—Chrysanthemum 31, February 2024

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VS: Let’s pick up from where we left off last week when you said, “It’s quite rare for a piece to form a perfect circle of possible meanings as a first draft.”

How do you approach editing? Do you have a strategy for fine tuning your work? How do you know when a poem has formed “a perfect circle”?    

MC: The timing for this is quite good, as I just finished several revisions in preparation for the next round of submissions. Rediscovering pieces after some weeks “in the drawer”, and thereby seeing them in a new light, brings me great pleasure. That is perhaps the first step in my process—I draft then put the poems away for a good while before revisiting them. Because I am not a member of a writer’s group, creating a fresh set of eyes for myself is paramount if the revision/editing is to be effective.

The fine tuning and “perfect (Is writing ever truly so?) circle” of meaning rests on the idea of a poem as a gateway. In Zen, the enso signifies awakening while reminding the practitioner of the emptiness at its center—the gateless gate, as it were. In the same way, and more specifically engaging the haiku aesthetic of 'ma', each piece should allow space for the reader to enter empathically where the poet has swung open the portal, whether fully or just a crack. The title, prose and haiku must all work toward that end. As the editor of my submissions to Modern Haiku, Roberta Beary, has been ever so helpful to my progress as a poet in stressing the importance of the title while also reminding me when I’ve written too much, which often comes in the final line of any prose stanza. When the piece flows as one brushstroke to form that magical enso, which is ultimately a subjective judgement, the editing process—for the time being—has come to a close.

VS: As an award-winning poet, what are the advantages you have in your classroom in terms of fostering creativity and enhancing language skills? How does your role as an English teacher balance itself out in your poetry?

MC: I am blessed to teach at a school that allows great autonomy in crafting reading lists and related curricula, and to have my classroom filled by students who are both engaged and engaging. We read and discuss with depth and from ever-expanding perspectives, and in the process of exploring literature, we truly get to know each other and ourselves. In such learning environments, teachers can become real role models. I am therefore proud to state that several of my students are now published authors, too. And even for those who haven’t had that good fortune, English has become more than a subject at school. As thoughtful readers and writers, we understand more fully the power of language—not just what we say or write, but how we say or write it.  On the other hand, I am an introvert by nature. I savor my time alone, and poetry, along with meditation and cycling, are a means to that space of quietude. Hence, while teaching doesn’t often find its way into my poetry (the above 'Pedagogy of the Antipodes' an exception), poetry always finds its way into my lessons and, thereafter, into the stillness of life on a small island.

Prompt for members:

Let's talk about classrooms this week, classrooms that you are "engaged" with or that are "engaging". Classrooms that are typical of a school environment. Virtual classrooms. Classrooms, metaphorically speaking.

Haibun outside this prompt can also be posted!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Important: Since we're swamped with submissions, and our editors are only human, mistakes can happen. Please, please, remember to put your name, followed by your country, below each poem, even after revisions. It helps our editors; they won't have to type it in, saving them from potential typos. Thanks a ton!

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PLEASE NOTE:

1. Only two haibun per poet per prompt. Please put your name and country of residence under your poem, it makes the editors' work easier. Thanks.

2. Share your best-polished pieces.

3. Please do not post something in a hurry or something you have just written.

Let it simmer for a while.

4. When poets give suggestions and if you agree to them - post your final edited version on top of your original version.

5. Don't forget to give feedback on others' poems.

We are delighted to open the comment thread for you to share your unpublished haibun (within 300 words) to be considered for inclusion in the haikuKATHA monthly journal.