Poetic Musings: Snow Shoe Haiku by Scott Glander

snow

shoe

falls

Scott Glander

Commentary by Aubrie Cox (Ripples, 28:3, November 2013, p.23)

Glander's poem draws upon the white space within the painting to bring the reader into winter. It also complements the sparseness of the image with bare bones language. Then, it takes the reader into a slightly different direction by bringing in the snow shoe... As for within the poem itself, Glander links and subtly shifts subtly within the line breaks. Isolating snow provides the reader a chance to imagine it -- the whiteness, the frigidness -- and the second line alters the meaning of the word. Snow works double-duty as snow itself and the adjective for shoe. Within the third line, just as there's a shifting away in the painting, the poem shifts from winter, from the shoe itself, to the act of falling. The last line also links back to snow itself while guiding the reader into the multiple possibilities of the meaning of falling.


... It also complements the sparseness of the image with bare bones language... Glander links and subtly shifts subtly within the line breaks...the poem shifts from winter, from the shoe itself, to the act of falling...

Technically speaking, this minimalist haiku is a good example of utilizing the link-and-shift technique and Glander's use of vertical placement enhances the poem visually and thematically. Furthermore, this haiku is deliberately composed on a single object ("snow shoe") and it can also function as an example of ichibutsu shitate (one object/image/topic haiku). However, in terms of imagery, this haiku is a little too weak to create enough internal contrast presented within the image of a falling show shoe.

Note: For more information about the effective use of ichibutsu shitate, see my "To the Lighthiuse" post, Ichibutsu Shitate (One-Image/Object/Topic Haiku).