Shamrock
Haiku Journal
of the Irish Haiku Society
Focus on
Sweden
A Swedish View On Haiku
by Kai Falkman
Inchicore Haiku - 25 Years After
by Mark Lonergan
Born
in
In
1985, however, Hartnett
returned to the vernacular with a sustained sequence of 87 poems
entitled Inchicore Haiku. Although
the poems
are labelled haiku, it is more correct to call them senryu. They are
deeply
personal, and encompass a broad range of themes. Harnett had been in a
state of
personal turmoil, his marriage had broken down, his father had just
passed
away, and he had returned to Dublin after attempting to live in rural
Templeglantine
in his native west Limerick. He was also drinking very heavily. Added
to these
physical effects, he was in artistic turmoil in that he was
contemplating a
linguistic U-turn from his previous intention to write only in Irish.
Hartnett
was always
something of an enthusiast and was always open to the exotic. At 21
years of
age, while working as curator of the Joyce museum in Sandycove, he had
attempted
a translation of the fifth century Chinese poet Tao Yuan-ming.
Through his
life he translated Catullus, Heinrich Heine, Haicead,
O' Raithaille, etc.
The tight structure of haiku/senryu allowed him
to juxtapose his own
life and feeling with the urban landscape of Inchicore this gave him a
route
back to English. He chose to adhere to the 5-7-5 structure, which had
been abandoned
by most English-language haiku poets.
The
scene is well set in the title page.
My
English dam bursts
and
out stroll all my bastards
Irish
shakes its head
This
piece encapsulates
the poets return to English.
His
present life in Inchicore is alluded to in the first page.
Now
in Inchicore
my
cigarette smoke rises
like
lonesome pub talk
This
paints the image
of a lonesome man smoking in a pub while thinking after his wife and dead
father.
His
isolation and
inability to engage in social intercourse is touché on in the following piece:
In
the empty house
the doorbell
calls "Company"
I
hide on the stairs
Hartnett
is
particularly sardonic when address the question of the local clergy in
Inchicore, Hartnett, while being deeply spiritual, was no fan
of organised religion. There is a strong touch of William Blake in Hartnett's
commentary on
the religious.
In
Saint Michael’s church
a
plush Bishop in his frock
confirms
poverty
What
do bishops take
when
the price of bread goes up?
A
vow of silence
Unemployment
and politicians
are also commented on throughout his poems. This is still relevant 25
years
after, as
All
the flats cry out
Is
there life before Dole day?
The
pawnshops snigger
Along
politician’s
promises
blow
like plastic bags
Even
though most of the
poems can be classed as senryu, there is a strong imagist strain in Inchicore Haiku. Hartnett was much
influenced by Ezra Pound and the imagist movement. As Seamus Heaney
points out,
“It is also correct to say that there is a certain
resemblance between
vernacular Irish and the traditional way of looking at things. The
poet’s duty
is to be truthful and not be bounded in by abstractions of form.
Japanese
poetry, with its chastity and reticence, grows more
attractive. It has closeness
to common experience and sensitivity to the grieving nature of human
experience.”
Of
course, Michael
Hartnett’s Inchicore Haiku can’t
serve as a model for a modern-day haiku writer. Only one of these poems
passes
the time’s test and stands up as a perfect haiku, if a 5-7-5
English-language haiku
can be perfect.
In a green spring field
a brown pony stands asleep
shod
with daffodils
One
could, in the words
of Oscar Wilde, succumb to temptation and comment on all 87
Hartnett’s poems;
however it is more apposite to touch more generally on the wider
significance
of his work. Inchicore Haiku was
the
first ever collection of haiku and senryu by an Irish poet, so Hartnett
can be
regarded as a trailblazer. In the following 25 years there has been
significant
interest in haiku in this country. The haiku form has since
been embraced
by quite a number of outstanding poets, and it is only right that we
now celebrate
Michael Hartnett’s legacy.
Nocturne
by Jane Williams (Australia)
3am,
contemplative, I sit on the back step, close
enough to see into the neighbour's one lit room. The parted curtains
reveal a
vase of fake gerberas, the handle bars of a wheelchair and a familiar
print of
two ducks in flight. When I begin to feel like a peeping tom I look
away toward
the more public spaces of road and street light. Now and then a taxi or
semi
trailer passes. A cat pads along the curb. I think about who else might
be
awake: nursing mothers, shift workers, new lovers. Between these public
and
private scenes my head is turned again and again until I am half dizzy
with the
wonder of all lives - the seemingly fixed and inanimate, the ones in
full
bloom.
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DOGHOUSE Books have a limited number of copies left of two collections of haiku poems by two Irish haijin:
John W Sexton.
Shadows Bloom. DOGHOUSE Books. Reviewed here
Anatoly Kudryavitsky.
Morning at Mount Ring. DOGHOUSE Books. Reviewed here
One can get them postage free for the price of €12 to anywhere in the world.
Also, check out here
the range of poetry books and anthologies we've published.
DOGHOUSE Books
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Tralee
Co. Kerry
Ireland
Tel: +353 (0)66 7137547
Fax: +353 (0)66 7137547
info[at]doghousebooks.ie