5-7-5 zombies (and other petty haiku annoyances)

I was listening to CBC radio the other evening when a young poet-about-Toronto was interviewed on the haiku slams he organizes. GOOD GOD! The idea of a haiku poetry slam is bad enough, but these events feature that old zombie, the 5-7-5. I thought the haiku community had laid these to rest when I started publishing haiku in the mid-1960s. 

Yeah, the world's going to hell in a hand basket as usual, & ranting about petty annoyances in the haiku world is small potatoes, but hey, this is one of the joys of having a blog - I can rant about petty bullshit from time to time instead of saving the world with my poetry  ;  )

Annoyance #2: a 'haijin' of some renown recently contacted me about completing the rengay project he had requested from me five years earlier. I had let our collaboration lapse, as this self-important poet chose to edit my contribution - without first asking my permission - and I've been publishing this stuff for a decade longer than he has. 

Well, I thought why not give it another go ... so we resumed our collaboration. My first new haiku met with the master's approval, although I did let him know that I didn't want my haiku tampered with in the accompanying email.

Finally, it was up to me to send my final contribution. FUCK! - the master rejected it because I repeated the word yellow in my 2-line verse. I don't know where this dude digs up these arcane rules, but it looks like our "collaboration" will be on hiatus for another five years ...

Annoyance #3: all those silly haiku contests, and the haijin who place endless lists of their contest successes in their literary bios. argggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh


Chris the chirping cricket 


                   ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Conrad DiDiodato has left a new comment on your post "5-7-5 zombies (and other petty haiku annoyances)":

Hey Chris

right on! When something's getting popular you know it's getting bad. Real haiku--and sometimes even a straight horizontal line across the page is real haiku--actually requires years of careful observation and practice. It also helps to know a little Japanese, too. Rules of 'rengay' also require fairly sophisticated degree of attention to style and content.

Again, I say: things that look too deceptively will spawn tribes of 5-7-5 zombies. Thanks for keeping it real, Chris



Posted by Conrad DiDiodato to Riffs & Ripples from ZenRiver Gardens at 4 October 2014 06:47

                 ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~