Haiku is meditative. It helps us to focus – to distil our experience to a moment in time. When I was introduced to haiku as a college sophomore, my writing was chaotic. An English major, I was writing across genres: journalism, essays, papers, short stories, novels, and poetry. Focus was something I was, obviously, struggling with.
Then along came haiku. Not the restrictive 5-7-5 poetry form I was taught in high school, but a meditative practice of placing an individual moment into words. As I explored haiku as a poetic philosophy, my writing in other genres improved – as did my meditative practices.
After getting my feet wet in publishing, I started to think more and more of creating an on-line haiku journal. A place where haiku could be shared and celebrated. By creating Riverbed, I did not create something new, as there are other wonderful voices for English-language haiku out there. My hope is to add a voice to the choir.
Thank you for checking out this, our first issue. Please spend some time with the poems presented on our pages, consider submitting your work to Riverbed, or even subscribing to our print annual.
I would like to thank those who have been instrumental in the formation of this journal: my wife, Michelle; my friend and mentor, Randy Brooks; and every poet who sent me a submission for this issue.
Now I invite you to relax, and enjoy.
-Brock Peoples, Managing Editor
jay
rain drops
japanese maple
two blades of grass
crippled grasshopper
vacant bird house
april morning
David Baird grew up during the Beat Generation. Retired from a variety of careers, including trumpet player, news reporter, encyclopedia salesman, waiter,sailor and the beat goes on. White-haired, young at heart and living with my wife of 42 years, been writing haiku for only a short time. Discovered the form in the mid-1950s while reading some of the beat poets including Kerouac and Ginsberg and listening to Ken Nordine's Word Jazz.
first winter snow
the mirror I look into
shows my mother’s face
pot of soup
I lift the lid
to warm my hands
walk to class
a slight breeze gives me
an ice cream headache
her withered hand
offers the wooden bowl . . .
orange popcorn balls
soft mud
squishes up through toes
best friends
cool darkness
of the well house . . .
something splashes in the tank
baby asleep in his stroller . . .
a dog’s growl bristles
the hairs of my neck
almost through
the barbwire fence . . .
a briar snags me
spring rain . . .
two horses nudge muzzles
over a white fence
Randy Brooks is the owner of Brooks Books and publisher of the haiku seasonal Mayfly. He is a professor at Millikin University where he introduces many students to haiku through his course offerings. His involvement in the haiku community is extensive, with MU Haiku being one of the his many significant contributions.
sleeping together
the trees outside the window
touching each other
through the train window,
calling me, and repelling.
A place of spoiled love.
Here I once fed on
petits four of gold and flesh:
confection of tears.
Peter Gow is a writer and teacher residing in Dedham, Massachusetts; author of THE WATERY REALM (WoodenBoat Publishing, 2006). Poetry in SAHARA, RED OWL, TICKLE ACE, and ADIRONDACK REVIEW.
restless squirrels
I discover a walnut
in the mailbox
shampoo bottle
slips from my hand
my toes retreat
cold night
sisters share the bed
three across
woodstove—
steam rises from
snow soaked socks and gloves
frigid wind
he lights the kerosene heater
by candlelight
I when the first round
she wins the second …
my corner … is on the couch
wet gloves
and cold hands …
shaping my ammo
her grandmother’s teacup
the sun shines through
a crack
train whistle
a gust of wind moves
the windmill’s arms
stone angel
a set of footprints
in the snow
Petar Tchouhov was born in 1961 in Sofia, Bulgaria. He holds a B.A. in Library Science and an M.A. in Social Sciences, and is currently working for the Bulgarian National Library. He has published six books of verse, including Pedro’s Mule (1999), Provinces (2000), and Small Days (2002). Tchouhov has been published in Bulgarian and international collections of verse and has won poetry awards, as well as the “Agatha” prize for the best detective story. He is the winner of the 2004 MTel text-message poetry contest, as well as the recipient of the Development Group special award for the best manuscript for his novel Snowmen (2003).
His haiku and related forms have been published in A New Resonance: Emerging Voices in English-Language Haiku 5, big sky: The 2006 Red Moon Anthology of English-Language Haiku, dust of summers: The 2007 Red Moon Anthology of English-Language Haiku, Frogpond, Modern Haiku, bottle rockets, Contemporary Haibun, Haiku Presence, Ginyu, World Haiku 2006 and 2007, Simply Haiku, The Heron’s Nest, Full Moon, Roadrunner, Mainichi Daily News, and tinywords. He is the winner of the top prize at the 61st Basho Festival.
Tchouhov has played guitar and written music and lyrics for various rock bands and is currently playing with the ethno-rock band Gologan /gologan.net/. He is a member of the Association of Bulgarian Writers, the Sofia Haiku Club, the Haiku Society of America, the World Haiku Association, and Musicautor.
holding the first
rays of sunlight—
curve of her spine
December
at the foot of our bed
the test result
wild wisteria
entwines the pine
where we carved our names
back road
tendrils of ivy hold
the wire fence up
the long day—
rain water seeps over
the top of the barrel
barren tree
the teen girl
lights a cigarette
Tony A. Thompson is the publisher/editor of Wisteria: A Journal of Haiku, Senryu, & Tanka. He has work in Modern Haiku, Acorn, bottlerockets, moonset and other journals. He lives in the pine woods of eastern Texas where the muse can appear in the strangest places.
Zen Aesthetics in the Haiku of Randy Brooks and Jack Kerouac
Joe Kramp
Jack Kerouac and Randy Brooks have written haiku that exemplify the Zen experience. Their poems exemplify some or all of the 6 principles of Zen (according to Eric Amann’s The Wordless Poem: A study of Zen in Haiku): wordless, suchness, nothing special, seasonal word/element, selfless, and oneness.
In the following comparisons I hope to show the reader how their haiku is similar in its relation to Zen. However, I also hope to show that the means through which this was done was in finding different moments that stuck out in the minds of each poet. Therefore, the reader will see both the poets’ similarities in their use of Zen principles, but also the different choice of moments that were special to the different poets.
Nothing Special
at the mailbox
the postman’s dust
passes him
-Brooks, School's Out, p.28
No telegram today
only more leaves
fell.
-Kerouac, American Haiku, 1959
These poems are both very similar in that they are showing what is not special. There does not seem to be anything grand at all in these. In a society that spends virtually all its time trying to transcend itself with pop music, movies, erotic sex, and so on…these poets are trying to bring a dose of what is real back. As Eric Amann wrote in The Wordless Poem: A Study of Zen in Haiku, "the haiku poet does not seek out rare and precious moments of life." I think the tendency of human beings to seek out those rare and precious moments of life leads to discontentedness and instability. In other words, we seek out constantly what we don’t have. What these poets are doing in a poem like this is telling us that we do have what we need and we can be content. These poems bring great peace of mind.
Brooks’ postman is special and unique by the dust that surrounds him and the wind that uplifts his spirit. Kerouac has absolutely no anticipation here. Kerouac is content with watching the leaves fall. Here is a similar Kerouac poem:
Missing a kick
at the icebox door
It closed anyway.
-Kerouac, Scattered Poems, 71
Suchness
she couldn’t forgive
what she couldn’t forgive
grave sunken in
-Brooks, School's Out, p.73
snap your finger
stop the world—
rain falls harder
-Kerouac, American Haiku, 1959
These poems exemplify suchness. In Dr. Randy Brooks’s poems there is a tie to the past and a sense of legacy that is continuing. These two poems by Brooks and Kerouac give the reader a sense of what it means to be a mortal and to have very little control over anything in our life; despite how desperately we would like to think otherwise. Yet, in suchness, there is something to thrive in a being happy with these finite characteristics humans have.
The woman in Brooks’ poem simply could not forgive despite her desire too and now there is rest in the last line.
Kerouac’s poem seems to encompass so much passing time I feel like I went from age 13 to age 50 from the first to last line. In the beginning we test our abilities in our desire to be god like. We snap our fingers in anticipation of the fulfillment of our own selfish desires. Yet, just as we do that the rain falls harder on us and we are forced to accept our limits as finite beings. These growing experiences are things we should be happy about and rejoice in our growth and understanding of the mystery of our life. Instead of wishing we could be something else (like the person in Kerouac’s poem), our acceptance of life and the way things are gives us joy.
Wordless
snowblind on the range:
homesteader feels
the barbwire home
-Brooks, School's Out, p.5
Crossing the football field
coming home from work—
the lonely businessman.
-Kerouac, American Haiku, 1959
Amman wrote, "Nietzsche has warned human beings that words can be illusory, that they give the impression that we have discovered something when we have only named it, that the existence of a word guarantees the existence of what it stands for: ‘Through words and concepts we are continually tempted to think of things as being simpler than they are, as separated from another, as indivisible, each existing in and for itself.’" For this reason haiku attempts to be brief and, through a process of atonement, show the interconnectedness of life and the reality of it.The words are not used to win an argument but to show what is real.
Brooks’ background of living on the Kansas flatland has given him insight into the life of the homesteader. Kerouac’s portrait of the lonely businessman shows the routine and depth of the simplistic black and white war waged on the football field and in American life that he has despised and rebelled against the majority of his life. Still, while different moments are important to both men their writing styles are linked to the Zen principle of wordlessness.
Oneness
snow halfway up
all the windows . . .
the cat in heat
-Brooks, School's Out, p.70
The summer chair
rocking by itself
In the blizzard
-Kerouac, Scattered Poems, p.74
pinetree trimmings—
mating luna moths
fumble to the ground
-Brooks, School's Out, p.35
Juju beads on the
Zen manual:
My knees are cold.
-Kerouac, Scattered Poems, p.73
I consider the principle of oneness to be encompassing of all the haiku I have read by both these authors. There is nothing separate from the world to the self. Self and nature must exist in the same sphere just the same way our true life can be discovered in the service we give to other living things rather than to ourselves.
In the study of the world, students desire to separate religion from philosophy and English from economics. However, in the study of history, students must consider all aspects of life in one sphere. The world becomes decompartmentalized. This is the act of oneness in Zen and haiku poetry.
Selfless
farmyard girl’s
apron full of eggs . . .
a curl dangles loose
-Brooks, School's Out, p.32
Evening coming—
the office girl
Unloosening her scarf.
-Kerouac, Scattered Poems, p.72
In both of these poet’s writings, they are champions of those considered little people. There is no talk of the fancy model walking down the runway, but instead the farmyard girl or the office girl performing dutiful tasks before the end of the day when the girl dangles loose or the scarf is unloosened and all order falls away. There is a beauty of the balance between order and freedom in the haiku’s of Brooks and Kerouac. These poems have nothing to do with Brooks or Kerouac. These poems do not feed the ego of the author. Therefore, they are completely selfless, as the authors became lost in the service to the world around them. The authors found joy in the world around them and in that act they became apart of the world. The journey to selfhood involves the discovery and contribution to the world around oneself.
Seasonal Element
toes dangle in the lake . . .
watermelon juice
drips off his chin
-Brooks, School's Out, p.37
The bottoms of my shoes
are wet
from walking in the rain
-Kerouac, Scattered Poems, p.74
These haiku, among others by these authors, show the seasonal elements and the changes humans go through in the cycle of the year. The season becomes the background for the rest of the poem to interact with. Brooks does not use one word or phrase to show that he is writing about summertime. Instead, he uses objects such as a watermelon and toes dangling in a lake to evoke the feeling of summertime. Kerouac’s poem has squeaky and wet shoes from the rain though we do not know if it is spring, summer, or fall rain. The seasons are contrasted with the dripping of the juice and the wet shoes that have squeaked their last as you leave them on the mat to dry.
In conclusion, the choice of moments between Brooks and Kerouac are very different. Brooks is writing a message that appears very optimistic and playful, while the poetry of Kerouac appears to have a message of depression. Despite Kerouac’s call for a deeper meaning to life than what the lonely businessman goes through every day, he seems to have found another type of lonely and depressing life. Kerouac’s interpretation of life as suffering and his loss of control of the world lead to his loss of control in himself. He cares not for how much he drinks and while continually appealing to standards (what people should and should not do), he refuses to recognize any kind of standard.
Brooks’ haiku epitomizes the true flourishing and happiness that Zen offers. His haiku is non-judgmental, compassionate, impartial, non-discriminatory, optimistic, and joyous. The significance with both authors work shows how our lives need to slow down to where we work on one thing at a time and refuse to get caught on working on multiple tasks and losing control of ourselves. This oneness, or peace of mind, is found in not trying to control the world (as Kerouac says) but to instead control the way we interpret the world. Brooks and Kerouac are calling for an internal act of self realization that changes one’s outlook on the world-that outlook can be whatever the person decides.