The Elusive Monoku
Blog Posted by
Charles Henderson: 7/27/2013 11:20:00 PM
I just read a new slant on monoku. I do not know how prevalent this is or if it is "old hat". Anyway it is the first time I have read anything like it and would like to generate some conversation around it.
Heretofore I have considered monoku to only be a one line Japanese poem of 17 syllables or thereabout, which carried some sort of fact within its structure.
Of course the one at the bottom of this blog just happens to be written in a way that it could read this new way, strictly by accident. But, after seeing the information on the net it got me thinking if I have been wrong in just writing any old 17 syllable statement.
Found on--- Shapingwords.blogspot.com/2010/07/haiku-analogs.html
The third source for the Monoku is modern free verse. One-line poems are a feature of short-form free verse and have been for some time. Since many Haiku poets have absorbed free verse norms and write in basically a free verse manner, it is not surprising that Monoku, or Haiku written on a single line, would appear as an option.
The Monoku has the ability to play on ambiguities which three line lineation would make problematic and thus there is often in the Monoku a deliberate use of wordplay. Here are some examples of Monoku I have written:
July late morning fog slowly lifting the pink camellias
An example of the ambiguity and word play is shown by dividing the above Monoku into two sections:
July late morning fog slowly lifting
late morning fog slowly lifting the pink camellias
By deliberately not using punctuation and just writing a single line the feeling of the fog communicates while it is lifting, and the seeming way it lifts the camellias, can be communicated.
////////////////////////////// end of quote.
I have never looked at monoku in this light and wondered if others have the same opinion as this writer. it really makes sense for squeezing two lines of thought into one line of space. I just wrote the following poem with the monoku separating the haiku. A new configuration of mine which I like very well.
smiling --
she stirs cold coffee
and waits
a vision of bottles, baths and baby powder in her life
again --
the movement
within
For my own monoku above it would be:
1) a vision of bottles, baths and baby powder.
and
2) bottles, baths and baby powder in her life.
I have been overlooking this all along. From a lot of the monoku I have read in contests, it seems many others on the soup to have not been familier with this concept either. What are some of your thought on this?