{"id":18335,"date":"2016-09-02T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-09-02T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leithart.level2d.com\/?p=98"},"modified":"2016-09-02T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2016-09-02T00:00:00","slug":"lightning-flash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2016\/09\/lightning-flash\/","title":{"rendered":"Lightning Flash"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Haiku is the most mockable poetic form. It seems easy, and a lot of bad haiku gets written. The best haiku exemplifies the nature of poetry, which I have described as a \u201cconcentrated excess of language<\/a>.\u201d Reading a well-constructive haiku is like viewing a scene in a flash of lightening or under a strobe light: The scene becomes visible then instantly fades, but leaves you with sensation of glimpsing a larger story in the midst of its unfolding. The words are still on the page when you read the poem a second time, but the second reading gives the same sensation, though perhaps it unveils a little more of the life that remains mostly in the shadows.<\/p>\n

That is partly due to the visual-art character of haiku, its capacity to communicate immediately, almost like a painting, nearly without the sequential revelation normally associated with reading. Unlike a sonnet, its flashes of insight are taken in in an instant.<\/p>\n

<\/span>Gary Hotham is a very good haiku poet, and in his recent collection, Stone\u2019s Throw<\/a>, is full of flashes. Hotham has a knack for looking at the world backwards and upside down. Like:<\/p>\n

hauled into air<\/em><\/p>\n

the ocean escapes<\/em><\/p>\n

the lobster trap<\/em><\/p>\n

Or, the title poem:<\/p>\n

stone\u2019s throw<\/em><\/p>\n

the rest of north<\/em><\/p>\n

behind us<\/em><\/p>\n

Some evoke a cozy melancholy that somehow emerges, miraculously, from three brief lines:<\/p>\n

missed appointment \u2013 <\/em><\/p>\n

late morning sun spreading over<\/em><\/p>\n

the faded sofa<\/em><\/p>\n

Or this, which captures the difference between presence and absence:<\/p>\n

home<\/em><\/p>\n

for Dad\u2019s funeral \u2013 <\/em><\/p>\n

not the same quiet in the kitchen<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

A blurb on one of his earlier books stated \u201cGary Hotham is<\/em> haiku.\u201d He still is.<\/p>\n

(Full disclosure: Gary is a friend, and the copy of his book came with a personal letter and a signature.) <\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Haiku is the most mockable poetic form. It seems easy, and a lot of bad haiku gets written. The best haiku exemplifies the nature of poetry, which I have described as a \u201cconcentrated excess of language.\u201d Reading a well-constructive haiku is like viewing a scene in a flash of lightening or under a strobe light: […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3021,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1658,1098],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18335","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-haiku","category-poetry"],"yoast_head":"\nLightning Flash<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Haiku is the most mockable poetic form. It seems easy, and a lot of bad haiku gets written. 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