("Braided Haiku" was first published in Frogpond, 47:2, Spring/Summer 2024, and reprinted here by kind permission of NeverEnding Story contributor, Pravat Kumar Padhy)
Braided Haiku: Shaping Meandering Thoughts by Pravat Kumar Padhy
In March 2016, I explored a new form of poetry “Hainka”, which is a poetic fusion of haiku and tanka. It is characterized by the image-linking of the fragment of the haiku as the ‘pivot line’ (kakekotoba) of the following tanka. Jim Kacian liked the format and archived the essay with examples in the digital library of the Haiku Foundation. Some of the hainka are translated into the Japanese language by Prof. Hidenori Hiruta and into Arabic by Dr. Mohammad H Raisha.
Taking a cue from ‘hainka’, I experimented the branched or link haiku form in July 2021. Initially, I tried to entwine or weave together a one-liner and a normative three-line haiku having the fragment as the word phrase (the italicized part) of the monoku:
origami a paper boat with memories
a paper boat
I loop from one fold
to another
Later, with minor modifications, I attempted to introduce it as braided haiku, a plaited form having a three-line haiku embedded within two short one-liners (monoku). The italic word (s) of the first one-liner acts as a fragment of the following three-line haiku. The second and concluding one-liner acts as a complement component with an overall subtle link and shift. I submitted a few haiku to Eric A. Lohman, the editor of Fresh Out Journal:
hiding behind a half-clad moon
a half-clad moon
the other hemisphere
sun-brightened
sliding clouds richness enlivened the serrated edge
*****
origami memories she kept folded
memories
I unloop plait
by plait
the flow of long hair shapes the wind
Lohman suggested instead of using the italicized part of the monoku as a “repeated line,” it would be interesting to work on “finding more pieces that could be set in italics because they go together and form a separate ku by themselves, but become something else when joined with the non-italicized parts (which in turn might be able to stand on their own as well).”
There were many exchanges of emails with Lohman during May 2023. Indeed, Lohman appreciated my passion to sprout the plant of the new form that I seeded long back in 2021. I did some word-play and poetic twists as advised by Lohman so as to have a meaningful combination of the distinct parts of all four lines (italicized and non-italicized or plain text) and create a braided form of haiku:
hiding behind a half-clad moon
the other hemisphere
sun-brightened
sliding clouds the serrated edge
There are two monoku: one at the top and one at the bottom and with a two-liner in between. In all, the braided haiku is finally framed out to be of two three-line standalone haiku: one in italicized, the other in plain text, and two monoku out of a 4-line micropoem. The form is titled ‘braided haiku’ as three plaits are required to braid or weave. Here we have two parts in each of three plaits (one part is italicized and the second part is in plain text) to compose two standalone three-line haiku.
Let us examine this braided haiku form as enumerated below:
hiding behind a half-clad moon
the other hemisphere
sun-brightened
floating clouds the serrated edge
*
a half-clad moon
sun-brightened
the serrated edge
hiding behind
the other hemisphere
floating clouds
Pravat Kumar Padhy, Fresh Out: An Arts and Poetry Collective, 28 May 2023 (Ed. Eric A. Lohman)
origami memories a twist-folded rose
I gently unloop
plait by plait her long hair
the flow contours the wind
*
origami memories
plait by plait her long hair
contours the wind
a twist-folded rose
I gently unloop
the flow
Pravat Kumar Padhy, Fresh Out: An Arts and Poetry Collective, 11 June 2023 (Ed. Eric A. Lohman)
smoke of the battlefield the scattered silence
a thin patch of grass
mingles with the winter fog
the rising sun swaddling for hope
*
smoke of the battlefield
mingles with the winter fog
the rising sun
the scattered silence
a thin patch of grass
swaddling for hope
Pravat Kumar Padhy, Fireflies’ Light, Issue 28, October 2023 (Eds. John J. Han & Mason Arledge)
The following steps can be followed to write a braided haiku:
1. Write one one-liner (top monoku) , a short with a one-breath poem would be ideal.
2. Write a two-liner in a formal meaningful form.
3. Write another monoku (bottom monoku).
4. Keep in mind that these have some common meanings of link and shift technique, which results in a holistic poem of four lines.
5. Now italicize the words or word phrases of part of both monoku and the two-liner in such a way as to write two independent three-line haiku: one combines vertically with the italicized parts and the other combines with the plain text. So, in the end, there will be two standalone three-line haiku with line one, line two and line three respectively by independently combining the italicized text and the plain text (from the monoku at top, two-liner and the monoku at the bottom).
6. The three-line haiku can be arranged one after the other to have a meaningful sequence.
7. Thus with two monoku and one two-liner in between, we plait the italicized words and plain text to further generate two more three-line haiku. Hence, the genre is named ‘braided haiku.”
8. This can be written solo or in a collaborative way.
9. The form can be displayed as 1/2/1 with both italicized and plain text, and as 1/2/1/3/3 having two braided haiku.
Word choice and its placement are very critical to composing a braided haiku. In the end, it should form legitimate poetic imagery with a haiku spirit, and each needs to stand on its own merit.
Although braided haiku can be written solo or collaboratively, writing them solo is often preferred because the poet has the liberty to twist the words and place them accordingly. However, collaboration can be more fun.
The literary leads can be enumerated by merging the images from monoku along with the two-liner and composing three-line haiku. It appears a bit challenging, but fulfilling as it braids into a new form with distinct imageries. The interplay of creativity and language fabric gives birth to two haiku having distinct newness. It may be noted that the braided haiku as such with a four-line poem needs to reflect a broad thematic reference with the link and shift technique. Aspects of reference to both nature and human dimensions would make the genre more elegant and poetically rich. The format of braided haiku adds a different literary dimension to the haiku genre by braiding with linked images. Finally, it portrays a meaningful poetic storyline or cinematic scene.
There have been many innovative experiments on haiku and related genres. Garry Gay invented the linked version poem, rengay in 1992. Peter Jastermsky introduced the concept split sequence, a collaborative (or even solo) haiku genre in 2017 by splitting lines of haiku and placing a haiku in between.
Inspired by Grant Hackett, Johannes S. H. Bjerg is credited with the creation of the parallel haiku form. The haiku are arranged side by side in two parallel columns in such a way, they can be read vertically as two poems and horizontally as one poem. “Parallels” is a form that Johannes describes as “two simultaneous instances, two trains of ‘thought’, in juxtaposition with each other while often with their own juxtaposition,” which had grown out of an email exchange with Grant Hackett.
Dietmar Tauchner in his essay, “Raindrops in a Wine Glass,” which is archived in the Wales Haiku Journal, says, “Basho actually drew attention to renewal as an important poetic principle in haikai, the principle of atarashimi ─ finding new subject matter, content (imagery) that poets have not ventured to use before, or approaching established themes in new ways (honkadori). Basho expressed this in a straightforward maxim: “don't follow in the footsteps of the ancients, but seek their goals.”
I wish the attempt to germinate the ‘braided haiku’ so that it may nurture into a colourful plant in the garden of haiku.
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