eyes in secret places
deep in the purple middle
of an iris
Frogpond, 23:3, Autumn, 2000
Jane Reichhold
Commentary: The Technique of Double entendre (or double meanings)
Anyone who has read translations of Japanese poetry has seen how much poets delighted in saying one thing and meaning something else. Only insiders knew the secret language and got the jokes. In some cases the pun was to cover up a sexual reference by seeming to speaking of something commonplace. There are whole lists of words with double meanings: spring rain = sexual emissions and jade mountain = the Mound of Venus, just to give you a sampling. But we have them in English also, and haiku can use them in the very same way.
-- excerpted from "Dark Wings of the Night: Jane Reichhold's Haiku Techniques"
The haiku below could be read as a prequel to Jane's:
beyond the dark
where I disrobe
an iris in bloom
Love Haiku: Japanese Poems of Yearning, Passion, and Remembrance , 2015
Katsura Nobuko
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