In the early 1960s, Leonard Cohen published what is likely the first haiku by a leading Canadian poet. His haiku was written in North Hatley, Quebec’s Eastern Townships, titled ("Summer Haiku") and dedicated to his friends, Frank and Marian Scott. It appeared in his collection, The Spice-Box of Earth (McClelland & Stewart, 1961).
Summer Haiku
for Frank and Marian Scott
for Frank and Marian Scott
Silence
and a deeper silence
when the crickets
hesitate
Comments:
The poem called "Summer Haiku" has a self-explanatory title. This work, dedicated to the poet and law professor Frank Scott and his wife Marian, although not a regular three-line haiku (it has four lines), approaches the genre by quoting a season, being lexically minimalistic, and basing the meaning on two nature-related images: deepening silence and hesitating crickets.
-- Natalia Vesselova, "The Past is Perfect": Leonard Cohen's Philosophy of Time, p. 71
This quest for silence, non-expression, this antidote to Romantic loquaciousness (Wordsworthian incontinence) is inherent in the Oriental Haiku, a poetic form much favored by Pound,... and skillfully executed in "Summer Haiku."
-- Peter Billingham, Spirituality and Desire in Leonard Cohen’s Songs and Poems: Visions from the Tower of Song, p.120
This is classical: an image (the silence) and a contrast -- the silence is really the sound of crickets, and only when they stop... Apart from the superficial matter of form this is a haiku.
-- Andreas Schoter, "How to Write Haiku - A Discussion of the Work of Leonard Cohen"
Note: Below are my poems written in response to Leonard Cohen's "Summer Haiku" and included in Gift of Silence, 2018
The poem called "Summer Haiku" has a self-explanatory title. This work, dedicated to the poet and law professor Frank Scott and his wife Marian, although not a regular three-line haiku (it has four lines), approaches the genre by quoting a season, being lexically minimalistic, and basing the meaning on two nature-related images: deepening silence and hesitating crickets.
-- Natalia Vesselova, "The Past is Perfect": Leonard Cohen's Philosophy of Time, p. 71
This quest for silence, non-expression, this antidote to Romantic loquaciousness (Wordsworthian incontinence) is inherent in the Oriental Haiku, a poetic form much favored by Pound,... and skillfully executed in "Summer Haiku."
-- Peter Billingham, Spirituality and Desire in Leonard Cohen’s Songs and Poems: Visions from the Tower of Song, p.120
This is classical: an image (the silence) and a contrast -- the silence is really the sound of crickets, and only when they stop... Apart from the superficial matter of form this is a haiku.
-- Andreas Schoter, "How to Write Haiku - A Discussion of the Work of Leonard Cohen"
Note: Below are my poems written in response to Leonard Cohen's "Summer Haiku" and included in Gift of Silence, 2018
cricket song
between us what's left
unspoken
the wake
of cricket song ...
stillness
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