Haiku Number 3
Christmas time haiku -
“tableaux d’une exposition”
post-it notes on walls
Long Tooth
May 25, 2016
The painting here is a beautiful portrait of Mussorgsky the composer of the famous classical work 'Pictures At An Exhibition.'
This haiku is a very dense multi-layered haiku perhaps unlike any you have ever seen
before. Let me explain what it means to me and then please share if you think I
accomplished my goals in writing it.
The Christmas appellation refers not only to a season of the year but also stretches
this seasonal reference in nature to include the gift giving season which, for a poet
like myself, is any day that my muse offers me an idea for a haiku or a poem.
Since haikus are usually images, like a painted picture, the haiku suggests that
the post-it notes on my wall are frames of each picture (or different individual
haiku) in my exhibition. Using the seven syllable French phrase for 'Pictures at an
Exhibition, ' a very famous piece of classical music by Mussorgsky, gives the
exhibition an erudite air as if my haiku were hung in the Louvre rather than my
office. Vanity, vanity, all is vanity!
My questions for more experienced haiku writers include:
1. Can a real haiku be intentionally dense. ie., carry emotional overtones?
2. Can a real haiku have only one real interpretation, ie., the poet's intention?
3. If a haiku has as many possible interpretations as it has readers, how can it possibly be art?
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