The State of Haiku in New Zealand by Cyril Childs


The word "state" has several meanings. My dictionary lists 19, one of them being "a sovereign power". Now I know New Zealand is one of those, so first I'll say that I think New Zealand is a "haiku state", and without having obtained any statistics, I'd be prepared to argue - on a population basis - that New Zealand has more than its fair share of haiku poets. And when it comes to quality I believe that New Zealand haiku writers turn out more than their fair share of excellent haiku - as witnessed by the names that appear in reputable haiku publications around the world, and the names among the winners of reputable haiku competitions.

Beyond that meaning of the word I've decided to talk about a few things that seem to me sto be worthy of mention, and also to raise an issue - or two - that seem relevant now and also relevant for the future.

Over the past two years four people who have been a big part of our haiku community for many years have died. I'm referring to Ruth Dallas, Bernard Gadd, Veronica Haughey (also known as Veronica Kelly-Reynolds) and Jeanette Stace. Their contributions have been considerable, and collectively their passing represents a significant loss to haiku in New Zealand.

in the park
looking up at the tree
the same age as me
                    - Jeanette Stace


night sky
the part with no stars
the mountain
                   - Veronica Haughey

One of the criteria one might use to test the current state of haiku in New Zealand is to what extent individuals within the haiku community make voluntary efforts for the benefit of the community as a whole. Several people come to mind:

Pat Prime and Owen Bullock who edit and produce Kokako, a magazine of haiku, haibun and related forms. This magazine is increasingly attracting overseas contributors. I was especially impressed by issue No. 6 which features the winners of the first Kokako Tanka Competition, with several of the entries coming from the US. This issue also includes some fine haibun and three useful book reviews. Pat and Owen's efforts have done much to foster interest in tanka in New Zealand in recent years.

I believe Kokako has the potential to become New Zealand's equivalent of Presence, which is edited by Martin Lucas, in the UK. Presence serves both a national and an international role. It invites a high degree of reader participation and maintains a high standard of poetry, commentary and debate. I would encourage New Zealand haiku poets to contribute more of their very best work to Kokako. In the end that is what will determine the future of the journal.

Sandra Simpson who edits and updates the haiku pages on the NZPS website. This, I'm sure, is no small task.

Nola Borrell who collects and edits the haiku news column for the NZPS newsletter a fine line.

Pat Prime who edits the KiwiHaiku spot in a fine line, recently taking over from Richard von Sturmer.

Tony Chad who edits and produces Valley Micropress.

Nola Borrell and Karen Butterworth who instigated and edited the taste of nashi, the new anthology of New Zealand haiku. Their efforts include considerable and sustained efforts towards obtaining funding. From my own experience I suspect they will have put in several hundreds of hours work on this project.

Catherine Mair who edits Tanka Moments in a fine line, and for her enormous contribution towards furthering the reach and knowledge of haiku through the development of the Haiku Pathway in Katikati.

To all of these names can be added Barbara Strang, Judith Walsh, Anne Edmunds, Nola Gazzard, Helen Yong and others in The Small White Teapot Group for arranging Haiku Aotearoa 2008. That we have poets like these - using their skills and time in many ways for the benefit of haiku - says much about the state of haiku in New Zealand.

As I mentioned earlier another measure of "state" is the quality of the haiku and related forms that we produce and get published in reputable haiku journals. It would be a daunting task trying to find and count them all. I have not tried.

Books can be another measure. I applied the "arm's length rule" and looked for recent books by New Zealand haiku poets. As I sat at my computer I reached out - only one arm's length - to see what I could find. Within 30 seconds or so I had five books: Jeanette Stace's Green Tea (2007); John O'Connor and Eric Mould's Working Voices (2003); Barbara Strang's Duck Weather (2005); Richard von Sturmer's Suchness - Zen Poetry and Prose (2005); and John O'Connor's parts of the moon (2007).

Overall these excellent books contain a healthy blend of tradition - and innovation - and a wide range of subjects. There is also a range of voices - they are New Zealand voices and the haiku (and related forms used in them) include a good number that could only have been written in New Zealand, perhaps because of the subjects or because of nuances that are specifically "of New Zealand".

One cannot put limits on "state". Yes, the art of haiku in New Zealand could always be in a better state than it is now. But it could also be much, much worse. Such claims of course presume - as I think I may - that haiku is a worthwhile pursuit with a valid place within the greater art of poetry.

The Haiku/Mainstream Relationship

In 1999 I took part in a British Haiku Society walk around the Norfolk Coast. Three nights, four days, about 50km overall. There were about 25 in the group, which included David Cobb, Martin Lucas, John Barlow, Caroline Gourlay and Alison Williams. I spoke at length with Caroline, who was editor of Blithe Spirit at the time, and concerned about the gap - in Britain - between "haiku poetry" and what can be called "mainstream poetry", for want of a better word. From what Caroline described, better words for the "gap" would be "chasm" or "gulf".

Caroline was surprised to hear that interest in haiku in New Zealand - from a relatively early stage - stemmed from mainstream poets and from the late 1980s had been nurtured within the NZ Poetry Society. Part of her concern was what the future might hold for haiku - and for the British Haiku Society. In particular, whether a widespread public notion of "haiku" might develop that was far removed from what was understood within the British Haiku Society. She gave an address to the BHS on this subject in 2001 and an edited version of her talk, was published in Blithe Spirit in 2002.

In her article Caroline mentions a haiku competition run in The Times of London in 2001. She relates that although the competition was organised in conjunction with the BHS - and details of the society were given - very few, if any, of the 7000 people who entered felt moved to join the BHS. She goes on to say that in the early 1990s the BHS was virtually synonymous with "haiku" in Britain, whereas now many who write haiku don't care about its origins and traditions ... and much of what is being produced is trite and commonplace.

Caroline suggests that most people now probably get their understanding of haiku from the internet - where haiku is mostly seen as some form of game rather than an art form and is more likely to send off most serious writers. For the initiated there are a few good web-sites but for newcomers their first experience of "haiku" is likely to be Honk if you Haiku, Presidential Haiku, Dog haiku, Teen Crush haiku, Bad haiku, Gangsta haiku ... and so on.

Caroline suggested three routes down which haiku might go in Britain over the next 10 or 20 years:

  • Route 1: A kind of dumbing-down where the practice of haiku is uninformed by knowledge of - or any interest in - its history
  • Route 2: Where haiku's increased popularity is harnessed to a recognition that it is an art form, that it takes a lifetime of work and experience to become good at writing it, and that membership of an appropriate [haiku] society probably offers the best apprenticeship
  • Route 3: Where haiku gradually finds its own way into Britain's literary tradition, becomes accepted as a valid poetic expression written by serious poets, and protected by the integrity of the best journals whose editors care about poetry and strive to publish only what is good.

She believes that Route 3 which effectively pushes haiku towards amalgamation in mainstream is the best chance for the future of haiku in the UK - "doing... [as she puts it]... all we can to persuade those involved with the wider world of poetry to acknowledge that the time has come for haiku to take its place in [the UK's] own poetic tradition". In high contrast, haiku in Japan is central to and permeates all of Japanese poetry rather than sits to one side of it. The roots of haiku belong to the root system of all Japanese poetry.

I don't want to comment further about haiku in Britain or Japan but it is interesting to speculate in a similar sort of way about the relationship between haiku poetry and mainstream poetry in New Zealand. I see haiku currently as sitting on the side of mainstream poetry but with a much higher degree of overlap - of commonality - than is the case in the UK. There is a degree of separation, but not a chasm or gulf as seems to exist in the UK. Rather, we could call it a saddle or, at best, a high col between haiku and mainstream.
In New Zealand it is not hard to think of poets who are - or have been - significantly active, productive and recognised in both haiku and mainstream poetry. Names like Ruth Dallas, John O'Connor, Catherine Mair, Jeanette Stace, Bernard Gadd, Joanna Preston, Barbara Strang, and Richard Von Sturmer all come immediately to mind, and no doubt we could all think of several others.

We also have some mainstream poets whose poems, at least to my mind, often contain haiku-like imagery in haiku "byte" sizes. Two who I'd put in this category are Hone Tuwhare and Vivienne Plumb. And, again, I imagine that most of you could add other names.

Many will know that Hone Tuwhare wrote a small poem entitled Haiku 1. This is a short poem which would, without its title, be unlikely to be recognised as a haiku, but which - as pointed out by John O'Connor some time ago - could easily be "tweaked" to become recognised as a haiku, with a middle-of-the-road form and style.

In contrast to such examples I believe we do have some mainstream poets who have difficulty in regarding haiku as genuine poetry. I recall a few years ago hearing on National Radio that a well-known mainstream poet - often heard on the radio - was going to be discussing Japanese poetry. I waited with excitement and anticipation for something enlightening and erudite. I can report that haiku was mentioned, but only in passing. In fact, it was dismissed in one sentence which went something like this: "Of course, we can put aside haiku which is a 17-syllable epigram." And that was the sum of what was said about haiku. We may wonder how or whether the relationship between haiku and mainstream will evolve over the next 10 or 20 years in New Zealand. We may wonder too whether we would like it to evolve and, if so, in what direction and how we might help it along.

I'll end with some words from Caroline Gourlay's article:

"The popularity of haiku in the West proves that we are now ready to assimilate it into our own tradition and it is up to us as... [haiku poets]... to be in the vanguard of this transition by doing all we can by whatever means to see that the best haiku reach the poetry-reading public... [She goes on to say that...] "... the haiku stage must be large enough to give platform not only to our own established haiku poets but also to those in the mainstream who will bring their own vision to it. We must be prepared to approach poetry festivals with ideas for haiku events, maybe start a column in a local newspaper, join writers' groups and enter into dialogue with mainstream editors."

Editor's note: Cyril Childs is a highly respected New Zealand writer of haiku and haibun who lives in Port Chalmers, near Dunedin. This article is based in part on the opening address Cyril gave to Haiku Aotearoa 2008 in Christchurch. Other parts of the address will be prepared as separate articles. Cyril has assisted in the editing process.
Read Caroline Gourlay's article in full here.

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