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humour in haiku
Even with such a simple heading there are three pairs of relationships which need to be discussed in some depth: humour—haiku; humour—the writer; haiku—the writer. In attempting to avoid a series of definitions, I want to share my personal thoughts about these elements.
Haiku is very important to me. It is a serious way of experiencing the world, gained through senses and intuition, and comes out of a fundamental way of looking at the world, not necessarily Zen or Taoist (I have never done an organized meditation). It includes seeing the unusual in the usual; finding the extraordinary in the ordinary. This attitude has in fact been honed in over thirty years of my own photography and appreciation of nature. One of the skills of the haiku is its ability to transmit to a reader a sense of the writer’s feelings and emotions, with enough space left over in which to develop their own. Any humour which develops in a particular haiku comes out of that ordinary experience of living in the world.
No matter how much the developing haijin may try to eradicate ‘self’ in order to share the ‘experience’ directly with the viewer, he/she will be unable to do so. Everyone has a series of filters which lie between them and the world. Reality is constructed by the viewer and is coloured by, for example: emotions; all previous personal experience; associations; intuitions; vocabulary; etc. So no two people can “see” the same thing. All I can try to do is to communicate through my haiku, as honestly as I can, the things that seem to me to be significant at any particular moment in time.
This area is almost as difficult as haiku to pin down in terms of definitions, and the simplest thing is just to recognise the existence of different traits in my own sense of humour. Like most people I have enjoyed a long line of films focused on humour. The early B&W slapstick comedies and those following on from them, including Monsieur Hulot, Mr Bean, for example, in which much of the humour often depends on the viewer being aware of a situation which is unknown to the actor. In Britain the Monty Python series and various John Cleese films, such as Fawlty Towers, display a manic, surreal humour, which explore the edges of human response in desperate situations, and point in film after film at the weaknesses which we all share.
One of the earliest haiku I came across which set me laughing was Raymond Roseliep’s hibiscus haiku:
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to get hibiscus red
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| the artist eats the flower |
It just touches a nerve in the way human behaviour might work under extreme frustration.
In my own work, I have never set out to write a humorous haiku. Early on I was so confused by definitions of haiku and senryu that I focused just on the writing and thought about it later. By training I suspect I am quite strongly focused on classic haiku, so my energies are focused on what is happening in the moment, including a seasonal awareness.
I would like to finish off this initial look at humour by picking a few of mine for brief discussion:
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winter chill
a pigeon strolls with shoppers
along the mall
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I think that fits the bill well enough for my own consideration — there is humour in the movement, in the mimicry, even in the choice of a warm place, yet dignity is still accorded to the subject. When I look through my archives I find it hard to offer good humorous haiku. Each of the three words needs to make a contribution to the process and the product may be a near-miss in any of them.
I personally like:
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lunar eclipse
too much cloud
for his brand new telescope
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I think it is sufficiently funny but perhaps it is dangerously close to failing to be a haiku due to a focus on the human condition and a weak link with nature. It does however bring a smile to my lips, and the subject, himself a good friend, laughs too.
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angry words
softened by the coffee skin
on his father's lip
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Although this haiku lacks seasonality, I would want to include it for its universality - there can hardly be a person out there who has not been involved in this embarrassing experience.
In looking at haiku and humour from such a personal perspective I am sure I have not helped to advance the debate a great deal. I hope I have drawn from the cupboard enough dusty papers and shaken them about a bit to let in some fresh air. I wish haijinx well in coming to grips with some of these problems.
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