Haiku: Nature is Our Playground

(© Copyright Rich Daley and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence)

Many of us learned haiku poetry in elementary school because its three-line form reinforces the concept of syllables. Of course, this is pure mechanics. True haiku is usually about a season in nature and is written in the present tense. When you read a haiku, whatever you read about is happening now. Haiku often contains opposing ideas, giving this short poetic form a complexity not immediately evident.

The ancient poetic form began in Japan in the 1600's. The master Basho is still read and highly regarded today.

An example of Basho's haiku:

old pond . . .
a frog leaps in
water’s sound

Frog in garden pond in Davington, Faversham (pam fray) / CC BY-SA 2.0

Here's an example by Issa:

A red morning sky,
For you, snail;
Are you glad about it?

Snail on flowers by Jon Sullivan

Writing haiku well demands that the poet observe quietly and be mindful of all his or her senses.

This by no means reaches the master level, but is my own example:

luscious lilacs burst
into big purple bouquets
spreading scented spring

(copyright 2012, Jane Heitman Healy)

Monika Thorpe / CC BY 2.0

Author Bob Raczka and illustrator Peter H. Reynolds recognized haiku as a poetry form that boys can enjoy. Here is Raczka's introduction to their book Guyku:



The book features each season's outdoor activities, such as kite flying, rock skipping, listening to crickets, and looking at constellations, in haiku form. It's a fun book for all ages of boys AND girls. However, since some girls felt excluded because of the title, this author-illustrator team is at work on a version for girls.

A fun international haiku site for kids is Children's Haiku Garden. You can read haiku written by children around the world and submit your own (if you're a child).

Outside Japan, most haiku is written in English. There's even a Haiku Society of America!

What did you notice about nature today? Can you turn your observations into a haiku? Please share your observations and creativity in the comments. If you need some inspiration, see Round of the Seasons in Japan blog for beautiful pictures of that country and its gardens.

To E-Read, or Not To E-Read

(photo by Rin Zebramädchen, Creative Commons 2.0, http://www.flickr.com/photos/zebramaedchen/4208666959/)

Is that the question? I am one of those people who likes books. Having favorite books around me is like being surrounded by friends. However, books do not equal reading. Like many of you, I read all the time--newspapers in print and online, magazines in print and online, and books, until recently, in print only.

(photo by April Younglove, Creative Commons 2.0, http://www.flickr.com/photos/aprily/2631023481/)

Friends and coworkers got e-readers as gifts. I did not covet them but saw them as convenient gizmos. Besides, the array of choices is overwhelming, and as soon as you buy one, a newer, better model is released. How can you keep up?

This is the 21st Century, though, and we are well into it. Recently, I ran into a great deal and took the e-reader plunge. My local library offers downloadable books, so I'm off and reading. What I discovered is that author, blogger, librarian, and Cengage executive Stephen Abram is right. I credit him with coining the phrase "format agnostic," meaning that the format in which we read doesn't matter, as long as we can read. He was writing about this at least as far back as 2004.

With my first ebook, the story captured me, and I was as hooked in that format as I would have been in traditional print. When I finished that book, I looked online for reviews to see if other readers had similar reactions to the book. I learned then about an advantage to ereading that I hadn't considered--no back jacket flap to give away key plot points! Several reviewers had been disappointed because their print covers gave away too much in advance.

I see the main advantage of an ereader as its ability to hold many books, making it a good choice for travel, as opposed to lugging several print volumes. On the down side, print books never need to be recharged or turned off during flight take off and landing.

How about you? Are you reading print and e? Are you format agnostic, enjoying a good story however it appears?

(photo by Morten Oddvik, Creative Commons 2.0, http://www.flickr.com/photos/mortsan/5127797721/sizes/z/in/photostream/)

Fickle April: National Poetry Month

T.S. Eliot called April "the cruellest month." Geoffrey Chaucer referred to it as a "time of sweet showers." Toubadours Simon & Garfunkel note April as a time "When streams are ripe and swelled with rain." Even cartoonists recognize April's split personality.

I posted this poem on David L. Harrison's Word of the Month site, where I've participated regularly for over a year. A word is chosen each month, and the challenge to poets is to create a poem using that word. This month's word, "detour," seemed just right for April.

Contradiction

April detoured from
luscious lilacs and
sun-soaked skin to
cold cloud cover,
wicked wind and
fiendish frost.
Even the showers shiver.
(copyright 2012, Jane Heitman Healy)

What do you think about April?

Hear Eliot himself read from "The Waste Land":


Hear Chaucer's "General Prologue" to The Canterbury Tales read in Middle English:
The Canterbury Tales - General Prologue -... by poetictouch

An Easter Carol

Sunburst over a crest of a hill by C. E. Price

It's Easter and National Poetry Month! Enjoy this selection from Christina Rossetti. Wishing you Easter joy!

An Easter Carol
by
Christina Rossetti

Spring bursts to-day,
For Christ is risen and all the earth’s at play.

Flash forth, thou Sun,
The rain is over and gone, its work is done.

Winter is past,
Sweet Spring is come at last, is come at last.

Bud, Fig and Vine,
Bud, Olive, fat with fruit and oil and wine.

Break forth this morn
In roses, thou but yesterday a Thorn.

Uplift thy head,
O pure white Lily through the Winter dead.

Beside your dams
Leap and rejoice, you merry-making Lambs.

All Herds and Flocks
Rejoice, all Beasts of thickets and of rocks.

Sing, Creatures, sing,
Angels and Men and Birds and everything.

All notes of Doves
Fill all our world: this is the time of loves.

Botanic Gardens - Easter 2009 (William Murphy) / CC BY-SA 2.0

(This poem is in the public domain.)

I've known about Christina Rossetti since I was in first grade, memorizing her poem "Who Has Seen the Wind?," a poem any prairie child can understand. Read more about Rossetti, a 19th Century poet, here. See more of her poems here.

Generosity: Women's History Month

(photo http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4007/4350618884_0958d1f44c.jpg creative commons)

Upon being introduced to a librarian recently, I was asked, "Did you know Edith?" I did. We could go on then, knowing that we were members of the same "club." Many people are part of that club who were taught by or worked for Miss Edith Siegrist.

She was an excellent teacher--firm and demanding, but also kind and encouraging. My friend and I worked for her in the university library during our years as students there.

After graduation, Miss Siegrist and I exchanged annual Christmas greetings. I enjoyed hearing about her travels,the books she was reading, playing in the church bell choir, and special luncheon dates. In return, seemed to enjoy hearing about mine. Every year, she offered encouragement to help me make the most of my abilities.

Born in 1925, Edith was an independent, professional woman in a time when that was not an easy way of life. She received many well-deserved honors including the Mountain Plains Library Association's Distinguished Service Award, the South Dakota Library Association's Librarian of the Year Award, and the American Library Association's Extraordinary South Dakota Librarian of the 20th Century Award (with her co-worker and friend, Elaine Meyer).

(photo http://vpl.sdln.net/Fast_Facts.html)

Her generosity of spirit went beyond Christmas card notes and academic guidance, however. When she passed away last summer, big news revealed that she bequested monetary gifts toward several organizations, including a large donation to help the Vermillion Public Library reach its fundraising goal to begin constructing an addition. This expansion and renovation will provide space for materials and programming for generations to come.

I'm thankful to be a member of the "club" of Miss Siegrist's students and am happy to meet others from that club. We know now that her most important lessons reached far beyond classroom walls.

Bearing Witness: Women's History Month

(© Copyright David Hawgood and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence)

Women's History Month usually reaches back across the decades or even centuries for examples of women who broke ground in various life arenas. Today, I'm going to reach back just a little while and mention Marie Colvin, American journalist for the London Sunday Times.

If the name sounds familiar, it's because she recently made news as one of several journalists killed during a shelling in Homs, Syria. Or maybe you heard her name in the news a few years ago when she lost her eye during Tamil Tiger attacks in Sri Lanka. Or you may have wondered about a picture of a woman reporter wearing an eye patch.

(photo by syriana2011 http://www.flickr.com/photos/syriana2011/5650171497/in/photostream/ creative commons)

Generally, reporters are supposed to get their bylines into the news, not themselves. Why would a middle-aged woman continue to put herself in dangerous places? Marie Colvin went where others were afraid to go so that she could bear witness to what was happening in the world, according to NPR's Phillip Reeves. Read the transcript here. Reeves closes his remarks with this: "She stressed the importance of continuing to cover conflicts. She acknowledged it is very dangerous. But she said people have a right to know what their governments are doing in their name, a right that Colvin and several others have just died for."

This report, and this one from the New Yorker, and this fabulous portrait and article with links from BoingBoing (caution: language alert) made me appreciate Ms. Colvin and everyone else who seeks to bear witness and bring on-the-spot information to the rest of us.

And I ask myself and you, gentle reader, to what do you bear witness? Is it big enough to stake our lives on?

Happy Birthday, Charles Dickens!

Cheerfulness and contentment are great beautifiers and are famous preservers of youthful looks. -Charles Dickens, novelist (1812-1870)

(photo by freeloosedirt http://www.flickr.com/photos/freeloosedirt/5300199763/sizes/z/in/photostream/)

Happy 200th birthday, Mr. Dickens!

Dickens himself was quite the man about town, a writer who was famous in his own lifetime, beloved for the characters he created in weekly newspaper installments and the predicaments that befell them. He was popular on the lecture circuit in Britain, Europe, and the U.S., and accounts tell us that he enjoyed the adulation.

His works were important for exposing the difficulties of the Victorian Age--child labor, the plight of the poor, the hypocrisy of the upper class--and helped to change things for the better. He is read and remembered today for the unique quirky characters he created. Miss Havisham, Magwitch, Ebenezer Scrooge, Uriah Heep, David Copperfield, Oliver Twist, and many, many more live in our memories as real people. Many of his character names became common English words, as reviewed in A.Word.A.Day last week.

Dickens Festival, Rochester. (Colin Smith) / CC BY-SA 2.0

A friend and I were fortunate to visit the Charles Dickens Museum decades ago. The museum is in Dickens' London home and contains many original furnishings. Also on display are manuscripts and letters. I was especially interested in reading handwritten correspondence between Dickens and another writer of the day, Hans Christian Andersen!

Take your own little trip here, and wish Mr. Dickens a happy birthday!

The Charles Dickens Museum from martinib.eu on Vimeo.

Which Dickens story or character is your favorite?