Baja Bernie
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Location: Sunset Beach
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Thinking of Baja
For the newer folks here is some of what I see when I think of Baja...
A Puzzle
Wandering along the seashore
A storm brewing
Waves loudly crashing
A solitary hang glider
Like a Raven
Riding the thermals
A motorcycle rider
Vision obscured
Storming across a desert
A native mountain man
Eyes of a hawk
Surveying his domain
A tourist tied to the highway
Shifting shadows
Tall mesas and dead volcanoes
A lone hiker leading a burro
Hot and sweaty
Visiting isolated ranchos
Pilots high in the clouds
Gazing down trying
To make sense of this land
Campers gathered round a fire
Comforting each other
Strange sounds in the night
Spent old men in a cantina
Vision diminished
Ignoring life passing them by
People in the bays and coves
Palm covered canyons
High up in the wind and snow
All seeing but a small piece
Of this wondrous puzzle
That is Baja
Bernie Swaim, January 2004
Revised May 21, 2007
My smidgen of a claim to fame is that I have had so many really good friends. By Bernie Swaim December 2007
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Pompano
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Simply a great Baja love affair, Bernie. Bravo and thanks for this morning's read...it was great as always.
I do what the voices in my tackle box tell me.
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BajaBlanca
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Baja is indeed a puzzle .... nice poem, do you have more?
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David K
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That's very nice Bernie, thank you.
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Mexitron
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Nice one Bernie!
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jak
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Haiku??
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Frank
Senior Nomad
 
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I was driving down the road with you Bernie! Thanks
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CaboRon
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Quote: | Originally posted by jak
Haiku?? |
Not quite, but beautiful nontheless ...
Haiku (俳句, haikai verse?) listen (help·info), plural haiku, is a form of Japanese poetry, consisting of 17 moras (or on), in three
phrases of 5, 7, and 5 moras respectively.[1] Although haiku are often stated to have 17 syllables,[2] this is inaccurate as syllables and moras are
not the same. Haiku typically contain a kigo (seasonal reference), and a kireji (cutting word). In Japanese, haiku are traditionally printed in a
single vertical line, while haiku in English usually appear in three lines, to parallel the three phrases of Japanese haiku.[3] Previously called
hokku, haiku was given its current name by the Japanese writer Masaoka Shiki at the end of the 19th century.
[edit] Kireji and kigo
Main articles: Kireji and Kigo
In Japanese haiku a kireji, or cutting word, typically appears at the end of one of the verse's three phrases. A kireji fills a role somewhat
analagous to a caesura in classical western poetry or to a volta in sonnets. It lends the verse structural support,[4] effectively allowing it to
stand as an independent poem. Depending on which cutting word is chosen, and its position within the verse, it may briefly cut the stream of thought,
suggesting a parallel between the preceding and following phrases, or it may provide a dignified ending, concluding the verse with a heightened sense
of closure.[5]
In English, since kireji have no direct equivalent, poets sometimes use punctuation such as a dash or ellipsis, or an implied break, to divide a haiku
into two grammatical and imagistic[citation needed] parts. The purpose is to create a juxtaposition, prompting the reader to reflect on the
relationship between the two parts.
The kireji in the Bashō examples below are, respectively, "ya", "ya" (や
and "wo" (を .
A haiku traditionally contains a kigo, a defined word or phrase that symbolizes or implies the season of the poem.
Kigo are often in the form of metonyms and hence can be difficult for those who lack Japanese cultural references to spot. The Bashō examples
include "kawazu", literally "frog" but implying spring time (when frogs emerge into the paddy fields) [6] and "shigure", a rain shower in late autumn
or early winter.
Among traditionalist Japanese haiku writers, kireji and kigo are considered requirements of the form. Kigo are not always included in non-Japanese
haiku or by modern writers of Japanese "free-form" haiku.
[edit] Syllables or "on" in haiku
Main article: Onji
In contrast to English verse typically characterized by meter, Japanese verse counts sound units (moras), known as "on". The word on is often
translated as "syllable", but there are subtle differences between an "on" and an English-language "syllable". Traditional haiku consist of 17 on, in
three phrases of 5, 7, and 5 on respectively.
The word onji (音字; "sound symbol") is sometimes used in referring to Japanese sound units in English[7] although this word is archaic
and no longer current in Japanese.[8] In Japanese, the on corresponds to the kana character count and hence moji (or "character symbol") is also
sometimes used[8] as the count unit.
One on is counted for a short syllable, an additional one for an elongated vowel, diphthong, or doubled consonant, and one for an "n" at the end of a
syllable. Thus, the word "haibun", though counted as two syllables in English, is counted as four on in Japanese (ha-i-bu-n). In addition, some
sounds, such as "kyo" (きょ are perceived as two syllables in English
but as a single mora in Japanese. A word that illustrates both these issues is "Tokyo", which is perceived as having three syllables in English
(To-ky-o) but four moras in Japanese (To-o-kyo-o).
Most writers of literary haiku in English use seventeen or fewer syllables.[9][10]
[edit] Examples
Possibly the best known Japanese haiku is Bashō's "old pond":
古池や 蛙飛込む 水の音
furuike ya kawazu tobikomu mizu no oto
This separates into on as:
fu-ru-i-ke ya (5)
ka-wa-zu to-bi-ko-mu (7)
mi-zu no o-to (5)
Translated:[11]
old pond . . .
a frog leaps in
water’s sound
Two more haiku by Bashō:[12]
富士の風や 扇にのせて 江戸土産
fuji no kaze ya ōgi ni nosete Edo miyage
the wind of Mt. Fuji
I've brought on my fan!
a gift from Edo
初しぐれ 猿も小蓑を ほしげ也
hatsu shigure saru mo komino wo hoshige nari
the first cold shower
even the monkey seems to want
a little coat of straw
[edit] Origin and development
[edit] From renga to renku to haiku
Main articles: Renga and Renku
Hokku is the opening stanza of an orthodox collaborative linked poem, or renga, and of its later derivative, renku (or haikai no renga). By the time
of Matsuo Bashō (1644–1694), the hokku had begun to appear as an independent poem, and was also incorporated in haibun (a combination of prose
and hokku), and haiga (a combination of painting with hokku). In the late 19th century, Masaoka Shiki (1867-1902) renamed the standalone hokku to
haiku.[13] The latter term is now generally applied retrospectively to all hokku appearing independently of renku or renga, irrespective of when they
were written, and the use of the term hokku to describe a standalone poem is considered obsolete,[14] although this approach has been challenged.[15]
[edit] Bashō and independent hokku
Main articles: Matsuo Bashō and Hokku
In the 1600s, two masters arose who elevated haikai and gave it a new popularity. They were Matsuo Bashō (1644–1694) and Ueshima Onitsura
(1661–1738). Hokku is the first verse of the collaborative haikai or renku, but its position as the opening verse made it the most important, setting
the tone for the whole composition. Even though hokku had sometimes appeared individually, they were always understood in the context of renku.[16]
The Bashō school promoted standalone hokku by including many in their anthologies, thus giving birth to what is now called 'haiku'. Bashō
also used his hokku as torque points within his short prose sketches and longer travel diaries. This sub-genre of haikai is known as haibun.[17] His
best-known book, Oku no Hosomichi, or Narrow Roads to the Interior, is counted as one of the classics of Japanese literature[18] and has been
translated into English extensively.
Bashō was deified by both the imperial government and Shinto religious headquarters one hundred years after his death because he raised the
haikai genre from a playful game of wit to sublime poetry. He continues to be revered as a saint of poetry in Japan, and is the one name from
classical Japanese literature that is familiar throughout the world.[19]
[edit] Time of Buson
Grave of Yosa BusonThe next famous style of haikai to arise was that of Yosa Buson (1716–1783) and others such as Kitō, called the Tenmei style
after the Tenmei Era (1781–1789) in which it was created. Buson attempted to revive the values of Bashō, and rescue haiku and renku from the
stultified condition into which it had sunk since Bashō's day.[20]
Buson is recognised as one of the greatest masters of haiga (an art form where painting is combined with haiku or haikai prose). His affection for
painting can be seen in the painterly style of his haiku.[21]
[edit] Kobayashi Issa's humanistic approach
No new popular style followed Buson. However, a very individualistic, and at the same time humanistic, approach to writing haiku was demonstrated by
the poet Kobayashi Issa (1763–1827), whose miserable childhood, poverty, sad life, and devotion to the Pure Land sect of Buddhism are evident in his
poetry. Issa made the genre immediately accessible to wider audiences.
[edit] Shiki's revisions
Masaoka Shiki (1867–1902) was a reformer and revisionist. A prolific writer, even though chronically ill during a significant part of his life, Shiki
disliked the ‘stereotype’ haikai writers of the 19th century who were known by the deprecatory term tsukinami, meaning ‘monthly’, after the monthly or
twice-monthly haikai gatherings of the end of the 18th century (in regard to this period of haikai, it came to mean ‘trite’ and ‘hackneyed’). Shiki
also criticized Bashō[citation needed]. Like the Japanese intellectual world in general at that time, Shiki was strongly influenced by Western
culture. He favored the painterly style of Buson and particularly the European concept of plein-air painting, which he adapted to create a style of
haiku as a kind of nature sketch in words, an approach called shasei, literally ‘sketching from life’. He popularized his views by verse columns and
essays in newspapers.
Hokku up to the time of Shiki, even when appearing independently, were written in the context of renku.[16] Shiki formally separated his new style of
verse from the context of collaborative poetry. Being agnostic,[22] he also separated it from the influence of Buddhism. Further, he discarded the
term "hokku" and proposed the term haiku as an abbreviation of the phrase "haikai no ku" meaning a verse of haikai,[23] although the term predates
Shiki by some two centuries, when it was used to mean any verse of haikai.[24] Since then, "haiku" has been the term usually applied in both Japanese
and English to all independent haiku, irrespective of their date of composition. Shiki's revisionism dealt a severe blow to renku and surviving haikai
schools. The term "hokku" is now used chiefly in its original sense of the opening verse of a renku, and rarely to distinguish haiku written before
Shiki's time.[25]
[edit] Senryū
Main article: Senryū
Senryū is a poem that is written in a similar form and emphasizes irony, satire, humor, and human foibles rather than seasons; it may or may not
contain a kigo and kireji.
[edit] Haibun
Main article: Haibun
Haibun is a combination of prose and haiku, often autobiographical or written in the form of a travel journal.
[edit] Haiga
Main article: Haiga
Haiga is a style of Japanese painting based on the aesthetics of haikai, and usually including a haiku. Today, haiga artists combine haiku with
paintings, photographs and other art.
[edit] Kuhi
The carving of famous haiku on natural stone to make poem monuments known as kuhi (句碑 has been a popular practice for many centuries. The city of Matsuyama has more than two hundred kuhi.
[edit] Haiku movement in the West
The earliest westerner known to have written haiku was the Dutchman Hendrik Doeff (1764-1837), who was the Dutch commissioner in the Dejima trading
post in Nagasaki, during the first years of the 19th century.[26] One of his haiku:[27]
inazuma no
kaina wo karan
kusamakura lend me your arms,
fast as thunderbolts,
for a pillow on my journey.
Although there were further attempts outside Japan to imitate the "hokku" in the early 1900s, there was little understanding of its principles. Early
Western scholars such as Basil Hall Chamberlain (1850–1935) and William George Aston were mostly dismissive of hokku's poetic value. One of the first
advocates of English-language hokku was the Japanese poet Yone Noguchi. In "A Proposal to American Poets," published in the Reader magazine in
February 1904, Noguchi gave a brief outline of the hokku and some of his own English efforts, ending with the exhortation, "Pray, you try Japanese
Hokku, my American poets!" At about the same time the poet Sadakichi Hartmann was publishing original English-language hokku, as well as other
Japanese forms in both English and French.
In France, haiku was introduced by Paul-Louis Couchoud around 1906. Couchoud's articles were read by early Imagist theoretician F. S. Flint, who
passed on Couchoud's (somewhat idiosyncratic) ideas to other members of the proto-Imagist Poets' Club such as Ezra Pound. Amy Lowell made a trip to
London to meet Pound and find out about haiku. She returned to the United States where she worked to interest others in this "new" form. Haiku
subsequently had a considerable influence on Imagists in the 1910s, notably Pound's "In a Station of the Metro" of 1913, but, notwithstanding several
efforts by Yone Noguchi to explain "the hokku spirit," there was as yet little understanding of the form and its history.
A translation of Bashō's Oku no Hosomichi to Spanish was done in 1957 by the Mexican poet and Nobel Prize winner Octavio Paz in collaboration
with Japanese diplomat Eikichi Hayashiya.

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Baja Bernie
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Ron
Yep! Right on...I tried to study that stuff and decided that this ol' Oakie guy would stick with the stuff that flows out of his fingers...sometimes
it even works.
My smidgen of a claim to fame is that I have had so many really good friends. By Bernie Swaim December 2007
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akbear
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Thanks Bernie ! I can see your thoughts. What a GREAT view.
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