by Kelly

before loving me

he speaks softly to both dogs –

outside, winter thaws

by Alison

his back bent he works

the weekend and I realize

I complain too much

by Alison

I exaggerate

my Philadelphia accent

just to annoy him

by Alison

There’s room in my heart

but is there room in my home

for a Schipperke?

by Alison

My daughter, Penny, loves books — as do I. So excited was I to share my love of books that I started reading to her on day one. This, ahem, did not go over very well, but we did start reading together soon after. And so Penelope, now 4 months shy of her second birthday, has become a picture book connoisseur of sorts.

Which takes me back to haiku. Haiku Baby by Betsy Snyder is a definite favorite. So much do we love this portable picture book with 6 illustrated haiku about nature and seasons, that I have decided every future shower gift will include a copy of Haiku Baby.

The illustrations are simply adorable. Check out the charming bluebird on the cover. This bird accompanies each haiku along with other cuddly animals in seasonal settings. How sweet is that?

The haiku are also perfect for babies, in their playful and simple language. Here is Penny’s favorite:

Under summer sun

turtle drops in for a swim -

plunk, plop, belly flop!

But enough from me. Here is Penny describing what she likes about Haiku Baby in her very own words:

“Woooosh!!!”

translation: I really like the haiku about the wind and the leaves. Haiku Baby is about trees, rain and turtles basking in the sun. Nature is fun and also cute.

“Turtle! Turtle! Turtle!”

translation: I’m only 20 months old so I don’t know  a ton of words. But I do know a lot of the words in Haiku Baby. I know “turtle”, “hippo” and “flower”. I don’t know “igloo” but I’m sure I’ll learn that soon enough.

“Bye bye!”

translation: Whew. We made it to the end of the book. This almost never happens because like most toddlers, I have an incredibly short attention span. Six haiku at seventeen syllables each - perfect!

All haiku in this post © Betsy Snyder.

Break free of the crowd

Fly in your own direction

Embrace your cliché

…

.

..Did you know that Sarah Bloom has a photography website? It’s true. Check out more of her work at Sad and Beautiful World.

This week, Haiku By Two is thrilled to be presenting the haiga of Sarah Bloom. Sarah is a professional photographer who lives in the Philadelphia area of Pennsylvania and her haiga will appear on this page for the next five days. Check out more of her work at her website  Sad and Beautiful World.

What is haiga, you ask? I have recently learned that haiga is the marriage of a haiku and an image. Traditionally, this would be a watercolor painting and a calligraphy haiku although today’s haiga are much more varied. But whatever the medium or approach, the image and the haiku work together for a complete affect.

Let’s welcome Sarah as she describes her approach to haiku, photography and haiga:

I have written poetry since I was a child and for a while in my twenties, was actively submitting and reading throughout the city of Philadelphia. I’ve dabbled in haiku off and on, and even spent a whole day on Twitter once using only haiku! I love the simplicity of its form and the way it forces me to condense my overabundance of description into something quiet and calm. I tend to ramble, so restrictions are good for me.

I have begun to look at my photographs in a similar way, to stop trying to force too much meaning into them but rather, let the meaning emerge. I’m drawn to lines and shadows lately.

For this exercise I decided to pick 5 images of mine that already felt like haiku to me, and create the poem as an extension of the image.

.

by Alison

I remember in art school a dear friend of mine once scolded me for doing too much cooking. She said I would never amount to being an artist if I spent my time making fresh tortillas, homemade pies and Pasta Putanesca, food that we had shared together one long hot summer over much conversation and laughter. Male philosophers such as Nietzsche and Foucault, on the other hand, were supposedly proper inspiration for a young artist.

Young art students aren’t the only ones to look down on the domestic as inspiration. The beautiful haiku above was categorized as a “kitchen-ku” by the poet’s male peers. I actually love the term but the intentions are not so innocent - it was meant to belittle the subject matter of female poets as less important.

I think I have always been a kitchen artist. As a young art student I spent my time painting chicken breasts on plates and intricate doilies. Now I write haiku about home and family: my daughter, my husband, my cats, my tea time and even the dreaded housework. I love writing this kitchen-ku. It carries the pulse of my life.

And yet… the feminist in me feels I am not telling the whole story without showing some understanding of my art school friend’s fears. Women are mocked both in and out of the kitchen. If we embrace the domestic we are ghettoized into a role that society feels comfortable with and yet belittles still. If we break out of the kitchen we are often castigated as Hillary Clinton, Sarah Palin and Michelle Obama were during this past election.

So it’s no wonder that women today should have a love/hate relationship with the kitchen. Perhaps in the name of modernity and progress we can take an egalitarian approach.

Afternoon Tea Party by the wonderful "kitchen artist" Mary Cassatt

Male or female, working at home or working outside it, the home and our activities in it are important.

The home is where we can relax and be ourselves. It is a place where we can demonstrate love and also where we are often tested to just get along. It is where we nurture ourselves and each other in the simplest of ways: cooking, cleaning, eating, talking and listening.  And it is 2009 so men should not despair. Men can be great kitchen ku-ers, too!

I wish my art school friend had looked at our laughter, cooking, eating, growing herbs and doing dishes as inspiring to her life and her art as anything else. And I wish that society validated these experiences more. But my friend and I are older now and more confident in ourselves as women. Perhaps we no longer need society’s validation. And if we happen to have the chance again to spend a summer together preparing and sharing home cooked meals and wine - I imagine we would both be inspired.

Find Haiku Mind on Amazon:
Haiku Mind: 108 Poems to Cultivate Awareness and Open Your Heart

Home and Family haiku and kitchen-ku concept excerpted from Haiku Mind by Patricia Donegan, (c) 2008. Published by arrangement with Shambhala Publications, Inc., Boston. www.Shambhala.com.

by Alison

Chapter 24 - Silence: Stillness

saying nothing:
the guest, the host
the white chrysanthemum

-  Ryota Oshima

A Japanese tea ceremony is silent, I learn from Patricia Donegan in “Haiku Mind”.  Different from my own tea parties which are filled with chattiness and gossip, a Japanese tea ceremony is about “silent communication.”  Silence?  Imagine that.

I think about silence in my life.  I enjoy silence, I crave quietude, but somehow it has gotten harder and harder for me to embrace.  Between Facebook, email, two different phone lines, my favorite t.v. shows, Twitter and the Blogosphere, I often notice that my mind is searching for a quick fix of activity.

Even outside of technology, silence can elude me.  Americans are chatty and I love the banter of casual conversation when I talk with my friends, neighbors and the woman at the checkout counter at my favorite produce market.  When we talk there is barely a pause.

So I have been thinking…amidst all this activity, both virtual and live, where do I allow time for stillness?

Patricia Donegan is attune to this dilemma.  She aptly states “we are becoming creatures who can barely stand the sound of silence, of nothing happening.”

So how to embrace silence?  For me, writing haiku has become a practice of silence.  The silence that I had as a young artist who never owned a television until the age of 29.  The silence of sitting quietly with my evening cup of tea or of looking skyward to notice the ever-changing branches and leaves.  I love that silence cannot be ordered off of Ebay.  I love that silence does not rely on happiness and is not hindered by sadness or anger or any emotion.  Silence is simply there if we allow it to be.

Find Haiku Mind on Amazon:
Haiku Mind: 108 Poems to Cultivate Awareness and Open Your Heart

Silence: Stillness haiku excerpted from Haiku Mind by Patricia Donegan, (c)
2008. Published by arrangement with Shambhala Publications, Inc., Boston.
www.Shambhala.com.

As I Struggle With Chapter Seven

Every thirty-three

words I lay the pencil down.

Yes, I have counted.

Read all of Lynne Jonell’s haiku.
Did you know that Lynne Jonell is a published children’s author? It’s true!
Check out her author web site.