[notes from an exile / noter fra et eksil]

still in mid-air a conversation a withdrawal

stadig i luften en samtale en tilbagetrækning

*

brilliant trees as in making sense

strålende træer som i at give mening

*

barbed wire kiss and then again: another green room

pigtrådskys og så igen: endnu et grønt værelse

*

lidocaine I bump into anything with a face

lidokain jeg støder ind i alt med et ansigt

*

sombre reptiles among umbrellas I walk for the abyss

dystre krybdyr mellem paraplyer går jeg mod afgrunden

*

future sound of falling a kite in a parallel world

en fremtidig lyd af et fald en drage i en parallelverden

*

WWII in color the shadows as massive as now

2. verdenskrig i farver skyggerne så massive som nu

*

the man who was me and not there ::: a riddle can

manden som var mig og ikke tilstede ::: en gådedåse

*

king's lead hat a sparrow falls (in between calendars)

kongens blyhat en spurv falder (ind mellem kalendere)

*

proposing a white room ::: last thunder of August

foreslår et hvidt rum ::: sidste torden i august

*

blue Monday seven in a row and a raven's feather

blå mandag syv i træk og en ravnefjer

*

end of the endless a word crawls back in the dark

slutningen på det endeløse et ord kravler tilbage i mørke

*

transparency a state of non-being carved from sleep

gennemsigtighed en tilstand af ikke-væren skåret ud af søvn

*

now, that is rolling! the sky is inside a boulder

se, det er rulning! himlen er inde i en klippeblok

[gendai haiga?]

--
Haiga
- some loose thoughts -

Is there such a thing called "gendai haiga"? Guess not, but maybe there should be in the sense, that image and haiku should create a third whole instead of merely "suit" each other ... IF haiku is (or is supposed to be) images in words, why interpret it with another image? And maybe time has come to express these times - good or bad, they're here - with all it implies in haiga too, not just some vague nature dream in it's core only looking backwards ...

All haiku "theory" (I hate that word and when it comes down to it: all theorizing - in the open, anyway) says, that a haiku is mainly a juxtaposition of two images in conjunction giving "meaning" and light to the other. In that way they make up a third, the intended, the "ku", the actual haiku - which in turn is completed in the readers mind. Baffling.

Much haiga these days seems to be illustrative and very "neat" - and frankly mere decoration pieces from nature romantics w cameras and photo-editing software - endlessly repetitive and BOOOORING. It leaves very little to the viewer/reader - the image usually repeats what's in the ku or vice versa. That sort of takes the reader/viewer out of the process, as he/she seems to be told how to complete the poem.

What about making the haiga a third image in whole to expand the haiku using other means than the illustrative ones?

What about introducing picture-language from all over the wide range of art history? The possibilities are now endless, but it demands a greater "image-awareness" from the "haiga-ist" and it demands a need to more than just showing forth a piece of soothing nature. The blog "See haiku here" is a good example of this.

[chaos / kaos]

a historic kiss
leads to this insomnia -
one butterfly, two and three

et historisk kys
fører til denne søvnløshed -
en sommerfugl, to og tre

[spejle / mirrors - ver. 2]

[spejle / mirrors]

[still an insect / stadig et insekt]

[pianoless / pianoløs]

pianoless
putting the salt back
into the earth

pianoløs
jeg putter saltet tilbage
i jorden

[ ...]

swallows leaving youshouldhavesaidsomething

svalerne forsvinder duskullehavesagtnoget

[salt / salt]

low pressure -
in a bloated brain
the I-slug hits salt


lavtryk -
i en oppustet hjerne
støder jeg-sneglen på salt

[Tree? / træ?]

this means something -
a mess of leaves
with a trunk inside


det her betyder noget -
et roderi af blade
med en stamme indeni

[August / august]

August is a month for rope
behind the mirror
there is no ”I”


august er en måned for reb
bag spejlet er der
intet ”jeg”

[Hiroshima & Nagasaki]

Cities of the Dead -
a sober sky citing
the cloud-book


De Dødes Byer -
en nøgtern himmel citerer
sky-bogen


*

burned footsteps -
will a thousand suns
remember


brændte fodspor -
vil tusinde sole
huske

--
these days it's 60 years ago man-made hell exceeded even the grimmest of our fantasies

i disse dage er det 60 år siden et menneskeskabt helvede overtrumfede selv vor værste fantasi

[thunder fish / tordenfisk]

the saddest thing:
a thunder fish belches
from loneliness


et trist syn:
en tordenfisk bøvser
af ensomhed

[heart / hjerte]

wide open heart -
ships and dogs
crash there


vidtåbent hjerte -
skibe og hunde
går omkuld dér

[haiga]

[untimely fall / utidigt efterår]

untimely fall -
I retrace an old drawing
in water


utidigt efterår -
jeg kopierer en gammel tegning
i vand

[haiku]

still air -
will a dead butterfly
become a butterfly?

stille luft -
vil en død sommerfugl
blive til en sommerfugl?

*

something heavy -
how much of my sweat
seeps into a golem?

noget tungt -
hvor meget af min sved
siver ind i en golem?

*

beathing tree -
we exchange shadows on
an uneven scale

træet ånder -
vi udveksler skygger på
en ulige skala

*

house of cards -
at this time I start
the fan

korthus -
det er nu jeg starter
viften

*

flying ants -
form here on the universe
gets livelier

flyvende myrer -
fra nu af bliver universet
livligere