The minimalist power of haiku.
Fields upon fields, clear
Yellow in the cool; some geese
Rise; the moon is full
Centuries ago, poetry was central. Epic tales were told in poetry. In the 17th and 18th centuries, poets were literary giants—Coleridge, Milton and Wordsworth (“She was a phantom of delight, when first she gleamed upon my sight/A lovely apparition sent, to be a moment’s ornament.”)
And now? Well, in this age of infotainment, we watch reality TV shows about bounty hunters, repo men and bachelorettes, as well as YouTube videos of kids crashing on skateboards. And some say we aren’t cultured!
And yet, a few poets remain who labor to wring powerful emotion out of compact words, language and imagery. Rebecca Lilly, who lives in Charlottesville and Port Republic, is one of them, a writer whose principal interest is haiku—a form of Japanese poetry: three lines with five, seven and five syllables, respectively. “I like the Zen philosophy behind it,” says Lilly, 39, who has degrees from William and Mary, Cornell and Princeton (a Ph.D. in philosophy) and has also written two books on spiritual philosophy and practice. “I’ve always been interested in the ways in which a direct experience with nature can create self-transcendence, or at least a loss of ordinary self-consciousness. All good art induces this, I think, but haiku can do it in minimalist fashion.”
And that, when you think about it, makes haiku perfect for our atomized culture. Here are two more Lilly haiku with a seasonal theme. RebeccaLilly.com
Autumn dusk grows cool …
Humps of great oak roots shadow
The path through the woods
Cedars scenting from
Woods hollows; boulders hold moon-
Glow; this time alone
The following haiku are in addition to those that appeared in the print edition of Virginia Living:
Shadows passing through
One another; the pine boughs
Swaying against the moon
Shady spots; under
Gnarled oaks, the crows raucous,
Scattering raindrops
From cliff rocks, the crows
Caw; field stalks with frosted stones;
Horse dung and leaf mold
Cloud tendrils float; wind
Against the cedar limbs; from
Stones, running snow-melt
Crows arc at sundown …
Their shadows … whitewater sounds
As wind parts the clouds
Rock shards; juniper
Root; from gnarled limbs, moon floats
Out; starlings return
Watery sun-rings
Across the lake; frosted leaves
Hang; the clarity
Gathered clouds, here and
There almost shadows; sky blown
Whole through the shallows
A leaf-strewn footpath
Toward the mountain spring patterns
Sunlight with our steps
