Carol's poetry ballot

My empty mind, aka the writers block (no wonder after last night's meeting and my resignation as the team captain, and today's couple of unscheduled chats over a glass of beer) is a good enough opportunity to do the questionnaire from Carol's blog...


1. Where do your poems start? What causes you to sit down and write a poem? Is it a certain emotion?

They usually come from everyday life, something that draws my attention: a sight, a sound, a smell, a movement (or lack of movement) I want to record and use for expressing the mood or emotion I’m trying to convey.

2. Do you have different stages to your poetry? Can you see how you've matured or changed over the years through your poetry?

I’m still very much in a process of learning. I never wrote a poem until the beginning of last year when I discovered haiku. I only write short form poetry, mainly haiku, but I have written some tanka lately.

3. Do you have a favorite poem that you have written? What do you like about it? What does it say about you that you like?

I can’t really say I have a favourite of mine. There are a few haiku that I like more than the others, but the list is constantly changing.

4. Do you have a favorite that someone else has written? What does it do for you? Does it give you an answer or cause you to think a certain way? Does it motivate you?

Before discovering haiku I wasn’t particularly interested in poetry. Perhaps that aversion stems from my primary school days when some poems we read would move me so much that I would burst into tears in front of the whole class… you can imagine the embarrassment and what it had done to someone so sensitive.
Thanks to the fellow bloggers I’ve discovered what I’d been missing all that time. Or perhaps it’s just a confirmation of the statement, “The teacher comes when the pupil is ready.”

I value the Japanese masters and many contemporary haijin, but it’s difficult to single out a name or a poem. One of the haiku that have made the most impression on me, though, is Seishi Yamaguchi’s:

umi ni dete kogarashi kaeru tokoro nashi

out to the sea --
bitter winter wind
has no place to return

A beautiful image in its own right, but so much more poignant in the context of the closing stages of WW2 when many young men were sent out on a one way mission.

5. Do you only write poetry or is it a part of a vast array of writing methods that you use to express your self or your thoughts?

I tend to write as concisely as possible, so haiku is in fact an ideal means of expression for me.