tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-786207835641480928.post6623834138043316354..comments2024-03-28T12:59:41.910-04:00Comments on NeverEnding Story: Butterfly Dream: Oystercatcher Haiku by Nola BorrellChen-ou Liu, 劉鎮歐http://www.blogger.com/profile/06235248170011255532noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-786207835641480928.post-34685730924409017212013-04-12T14:25:39.457-04:002013-04-12T14:25:39.457-04:00In the haiku, Nola skillfully makes a structural a...In the haiku, Nola skillfully makes a structural allusion to the famous haiku by James W. Hackett:<br /><br />A bitter morning:<br />Sparrows sitting together<br />Without any necks.<br /><br />Most importantly, every "headless" oystercatcher is not sitting, but preying upon "limpets, mussels, gastropods, and chitons ..echinoderms, fish, and crabs."<br /><br />Below is an excerpt from Charles Trumbull's Frogpond articles, entitled Shangri-La: James W. Hackett’s Life in Haiku, which can be accessed at http://www.hsa-haiku.org/frogpond/2010-issue33-2/essay.html<br /><br />In any event, prompted by a desire to travel to Japan and meet R.H. Blyth, Hackett entered the JAL contest. The now-iconic haiku that was the National Winner was one he had not originally intended to submit, but was suggested by his wife: [16]<br /><br />A bitter morning:<br />Sparrows sitting together<br />Without any necks.<br /><br />As we noted before, this haiku had been published a year earlier in American Haiku 1:1 (1963) in a more succinct (and, in my opinion, superior) version:<br /><br />Bitter morning<br /> sparrows sitting<br /> without necks.<br /><br />It also appeared in Blyth’s book in this version, but printed in small caps. Curiously, the text of this haiku that was included in Hackett’s collection Haiku Poetry (1964) was the prizewinning version but with the Blyth-style indentations and small caps. Over the years at least seven versions, mostly with slight formatting or punctuation changes, have appeared.<br /><br /><br />Note:<br /><br />16. James W. Hackett. “Why I Entered the 1964 Japan Airlines Contest.” Kô autumn–winter 1992, 20.<br />Chen-ou Liu, 劉鎮歐https://www.blogger.com/profile/06235248170011255532noreply@blogger.com