Poetic Musings: Forget-Me-Nots and Echo Haiku by Mellisa Allen

the forget-me-nots

and the sky —

an echo

Red Dragonfly, December 2015

Mellisa Allen

Commentary: Allen takes on a centuries-old challenge here. Basho was known to advise prospective students, “Don’t imitate me; / it’s as boring/ as the two halves of a melon.”

In response to the following by Basho:

                The daffodils
                And the white paper screen
                Reflecting one another’s color 

Without mimicking, Allen closely copies image, structure of experience, and insight. She sticks with flowers—Basho’s daffodils become forget-me-nots. She substitutes the sky for the paper screen. She asserts similarity between reflection and echo. Grammatical structure and thus order of experience remain the same. So does insight and mood... 

-- excerpted from To the Lighthouse: "Copying to Create: The Role of Imitation and Emulation in Developing Haiku Craft" by Michele Root-Bernstein