f/k/a . . .

[note: because we’ve gone into hiatus status, as of June 4. 2006, the “Haibun Pundit” concept and weblog name are being put on hold.]

Welcome to the very premature unveiling of the haibun pundit. Due to recent chronic problems at the old Harvard-weblog webserver, the Editor of f/k/a has decided to rush this very imperfect version of his “next stage” weblog into online publication on the new, improved Harvard webserver. If you travel down this Home Page, you will find a few sample posts featuring the new theme and haibun format.

The f/k/a Gang has been searching for something a bit less stressful (and maybe even more effective) than sermons or commentary on the legal profession and its ethics. Frankly, being judgmental has become a physical and psychic drain on all of us here. We’d also like to become a bit more creative and “literary”.

Although we are going to continue to feature haiku and senryu from some of the very best haiku poets around — see our Guest Poet Archive — we are also going to experiment with the “haibun” genre, twisting it a bit to fit into a weblog format that focuses on current events and issues of interest to its Editor (and his alter egoes), and contains relevant links and blurbs.

“Haibun” is a literary and poetic genre with origins in 17th Century Japan and the writings of Master Haiku poet Bashō. It is a “linked form” — and, as the haibun editor of Simply Haiku magazine tells us, “The link is between narrative, prose sections and one or more haiku.” We will be presenting our brand of “haibun punditry” using prose and poems written by the Editor (aka “dagosan“), as well as published haibun written by our Honored Guest Poets.

winding road –

under the influence

of a strawberry moon

- by dagosan - The Heron’s Nest (VII: 4, Winter 2005)

Disclaimer: It is novel, and rather unorthodox, to try to use haibun in a “punditry” context, since haibun usually steers clear of drawing conclusions. Our hope is that it is the punditry rather than the haibun aspect if this union that will be influenced most by the linkage. In addition, please bear in mind that your Editor has never attempted to write “real” haibun before this week. This is, then, a bit of brash experimentation and perhaps a neophyte’s folly. It’s hoped that those who already appreciate the haibun genre will forgive my taking the name in vain. I hope to quickly get the hang of writing passable haibun, while figuring out how to do it in a weblog-commentary context.

We’re going to try to present “non-judgmental” commentary, using a haibun sensitivity — meaning “showing rather than telling,” and using imagery and narrative rather than conclusions, with as much brevity as is possible, given the DNA of the Editor. Most of our home-grown haibun will be followed by links to online news articles and other resources that are (more or less) relevant to the topic. Please let us know how this new approach to our weblog is working for you — and don’t forget that this website will continue to contain the Archives of both ethicalEsq and f/k/a.

 

full tummies

and empty bladders –

soon, vice-versa

 

…………………. dagosan from  simply senryu

p.s. Please bear with us on the formatting of this weblog. We have much work to do with the SideBar, as well as learning some of the basics, like spacing and font use, not too mention images. It’s like starting all over again, after getting too used to the prior weblogging software and architecture..

p.p.s. For a better idea of what good haibun should be like, please go to the website of Contemporary Haibun Online, which has lots of examples, a good definitions page and many helpful links. The haibun editor at Simply Haiku, who is now w.f. owen (one of our f/k/a Honored Guests), offered the following perspective on what makes good haibun:

Readers of this and other journals will see the wide range of styles of haibun writing. Content also varies. Traditional haibun have focused on such “mundane” topics as a broom or a gate or a tea cup. Some prose presents stream-of-consciousness, occasionally surreal, writing with little or no punctuation or conjunctions. Other prose sections use reflective memories set off by ellipses and still others offer autobiographical events. Bashô’s writings give excellent examples of one’s travels (e.g., Narrow Road to the Interior). All of these forms of haibun are welcome.

In the context of this flexibility, there are some common standards or criteria submitters should heed. One criterion is to limit or eliminate repetition of words and phrases. Just as haiku are sparse and economical in wording, so too are good haibun. This does not mean a haibun needs to be short in length; it means what is written is tightly constructed. Another major criterion for a successful haibun is a successful haiku. So many fine narratives fail to be good haibun because the haiku do not stand alone as solid poetry. And there is more. Haiku, especially those that end a haibun, need to relate to previous prose sections yet not be an extension of the prose. The oblique but relevant association between haiku and prose is the defining moment of the haibun. Thus, I look for an ending haiku that does not repeat, nor does it seem so unrelated as to leave the readers scratching their heads. The haiku link offers readers a springboard to multiple, and often unexpected, meanings. That is the challenge I hope you embrace.

Note: Your Editor will be on the road June 1st and 2nd and apologizes in advance for any tardy response to Comments.

 bad for the gander - a tale from the news, by the Haibun Pundit

  She had me up at sunrise making “Save the Geese” signs. This must be penance for ogling that waitress with the great legs last weekend. Instead of picnicking, we’re spending a hot and humid Memorial Day on a picket line, on about the only shadeless stretch of road in the Village of Scotia, New York.

Back in 1989, a pair of Canadian geese were brought from a state game farm to our nature preserve. As the flock grew, we’d bring the kids to see them on Collins Lake — sitting on that knoll that’s covered in bird shit today. “Which ones are coming, Daddy?” . . . “Which are going?” . . . “Which ones live here?” By now, almost two hundred of them are considered “resident birds,” staying until the 50-acre Lake is frozen and coming back in the Spring.

 

The beetle I righted
flies straight into
a cobweb

George Swede from Almost Unseen

Most Scotians love the idea of hosting those honking immigrants, but there’s so much goose excrement around Collins Park, no one wants their children to play here, and the Lake and beach had to be closed last summer. Still, the Wife and her Geese-Savers want to stop Mayor McLaughlin from euthanizing part of the flock. They say it’s inhumane and he hasn’t tried hard enough the past ten years to use nonlethal methods — like border collies and noise-makers, and the always-mysterious “egg-addling”.

Except for that one guy with the graying pony tail and Birkenstocks, who keeps trying to start those lame cheers, every male on this line — from 8 to 80 — looks dispirited, drafted, drug-here. It wasn’t enough that I gave up hunting geese years ago, to please her and the kids. Now I’m spending a perfectly good holiday baking my buns on the pavement, not grilling burgers in the backyard. Her crusade has become mine.

There is one consolation: my sweaty face and “Kinky Friedman” t-shirt embarrass the crap out of her.

the cricket keeps singing –
a spider spirals
down the drain

- haibun by dagosan (with thanks to George Swede for “the beetle”) –

In the News, see:

- - “Protesters reacting to decision to gas Canada geese” (CapitalNews9, May 28, 2006) “The clock is ticking for 150 Canada Geese in Scotia, and residents are rallying against plans to exterminate the birds. The village is planning to control the geese population in Collins Park by trapping, and then gassing them. Officials approved the plan and said it’s the only way to stop the birds from contaminating the pond. But members of a group called, “Save the Geese in Scotia” said the plan amounts to cruelty to animals [and that “proven nonlethal management techniques are more effective and humane”.] . . . “Protestors also said that instead of killing the geese they should be relocated. However, that approach would not be legal under current-state law.”

- - Schenectady Blah-Blah Bulletin Board, “The Geese on Collins Lake” [see, e.g., replies 184 through 187]

guest haijin:

clouds of pollen
drifting through sunbeams —
a sparrow’s sudden flight

the web between stumps —
a tree frog answers
the pond frog

a white swan shakes her tail
at last the ripples
reach her mate

stones on the trail . . .
a downy feather
wafts in the breeze

by Michael Dylan Welch from Thornewood Poems at Captain Haiku’s Secret Hangout.

 

 

 

droping stone after stone
into the lake I keep
reappearing

 

 

 

 

seventeen
starlings on the telephone wire
sixteen

George Swede from Almost Unseen

* Don’t forget #59, the special Memorial Day edition of Blawg Review, hosted by their very own Edit.

Such a silly woman. I had to change my dress before he drove baby-&-me to the hospital. As if maternity nurses never saw hemorrhaging or a bloody skirt. “I’ll be right back, Dear,” I promised, as I stepped off the curb and hurried to the house. Never said how dizzy I felt.

Such a silly man. Herbert did a little eye-roll, but didn’t argue with a woman going into labor. Then, I collapsed onto the street behind our old car. Herbert saw that gray Buick sedan passing by — with the license number he got almost right — and thought “hit-’n'-run.” Over and over, he yelled “Call 911! Call 911!” to everyone, and no one, his tears wetting my face.

Silly police. Hours of roadblocks and interviews. On the tv news, neighbors outraged over a “black driver” who would knock down a full-term, pregnant woman and keep on going. A “very nice woman” I was.

Silly Medical Examiner. It took him a day to figure it out. “ ‘The cause of death was not consistent with injuries being struck by a motor vehicle,” said Amsterdam Chief Thomas Brownall. She fell backwards at just the same time the vehicle was going by. Fell backwards, struck her head and died of those injuries.” [WNYT.com]

They did a C-section, but my baby was dead. They examined the gray car and it never hit any body. When I got to the hospital, my clothes had more rusty splotches. I can hear my mother wailing in Uganda. Such a silly woman.

midnight fire alarm –

stumbling toward

the wedding album

by dagosan

from the news:

- “Amsterdam Woman’s Death Not Caused by Hit and Run,” WNYT.com, Albany, NY (May 27, 2006) “So it appears when all is said and done, this was just a tragic circumstance where the initial report of the vehicle striking the person was inaccurate” said Chief Brownall. Police say it helps to know that what was believed to be a heinous crime is just rather an unfortunate event, but they add it doesn’t make the situation any less tragic.