Irony in Haiku by Caroline Giles Banks
While reading through collections of haiku by Caroline Giles Banks, I have noticed that the subjects of her haiku are very bleak but she responds with humor and irony. She tends to focus on the harsh realities of life. An example of this can be found in her haiku collection, The Clay Jar,
misplaced dictionary
forgetting how to spell
Alzheimer’s
Banks, TCJ, 58
In this haiku, Banks is describing incredibly sad circumstances, the unfortunate and depressing toll Alzheimer’s can take on someone’s memory. She is also recognizing the irony of the situation in which person is forgetting to spell Alzheimer’s, due to the fact that they are suffering from Alzheimer’s. While this haiku is clearly sad, sometimes Banks uses humor when describing these situations in some of her other haiku.
first Sunday in Lent
Girl Scouts deliver
Thin Mints
Banks, TCJ, 22
I think this haiku is very funny. My imagined response is someone coming home from church on a Sunday afternoon, feeling confident about their ability to give up sweets for lent. Then, there’s a knock at the door —it’s the Girl Scout cookies they forgot they had ordered. I think the person probably gave in and ate the cookies. Either that, or they hid them away in the back of a cupboard. Then, when Lent was finally over, they went to get the Thin Mints, only to discover that someone else had found them and eaten them. While this haiku is much more lighthearted than some of the others, it is still an example of a haiku that is brutally honest about life. People set goals all the time, and situations arise that can tempt someone and make it harder for them to achieve their goals.
The second pattern I’ve noticed within Banks’ haiku is that the second half or last line of the haiku often changes the tone and the overall meaning of the haiku.
World AIDS Day
a full page ad
for Viagra
Banks, TCJ, 49
If you only read the first two lines of this haiku, you would expect the full page ad to be for AIDS awareness. Instead, the ad is for an erectile dysfunction medication. This haiku reminds me of the Thin Mints haiku because they both present ironic pairs: AIDS awareness and Viagra, Lent and cookies. With this haiku, however, not only is the pointing out the irony, but I think she is also pointing out an issue within society. In our society, sex is so heavily used in the media and in advertising, yet for some reason people get so uncomfortable when it comes to sexual education and sexual health awareness.
his turn to cook
again he can’t find
the thyme
Banks, TCJ, 35
The second half of this haiku also alters the tone, but this one does it with the unexpected use of a pun. By substituting “time” with “thyme,” it adds a bit of humor to the haiku, as well as a double meaning. One could interpret the haiku literally, that he simply cannot find the thyme, which is a critical ingredient in whatever he was planning on cooking. However, I think it is obvious that what Banks really means is that he cannot (or claims he cannot) find the time to cook, that he is too busy.
job hunting
in today’s mail
Welcome to AARP card
Banks, TCC, 14
If you only read the first two lines of this haiku, you might expect there to be a help wanted ad or flyer in the mail However, it is a Welcome to AARP card. Searching for a job and preparing for retirement are two completely different things, and I think the interpretation of this haiku depends heavily on the reader. The third pattern I’ve noticed in Banks’ approach to writing haiku is that she doesn’t interject with her own opinions or emotions, but simply captures the moment and allows the reader to interpret it in their own way. In this haiku, Banks is clearly describing a situation, but she doesn’t include any insight on her own opinions or emotions about it. She captures the moment, and then leaves the rest up to the reader. I think the way this particular haiku is perceived depends a lot on the age of the reader. For someone younger, they may find the irony in this haiku funny. For someone older, this haiku may bring whatever emotions or opinions they have about the thought of retiring soon. Perhaps they are looking forward to retirement, so this haiku gives them a sense of ease and relief. However, if the person is passionate about working and doesn’t want to retire anytime soon, this haiku may make them feel disheartened or frustrated.
cat gone for good
turning off the radio
when leaving home
Banks, TCJ, 33
This is another haiku by Banks that suggests but doesn't state her emotions or opinions, which allows the reader to use their imagination. My imagined response to this haiku is that owner of the cat in this haiku always left the radio on when he left for work because his cat because he liked to hear the voices on the talk shows. He probably had the cat for years and years, that this became such a daily habit that he never even thought about. Then, after his cat died, he kept doing it, hoping that one day he’d come home to find his cat perched on the windowsill next to the radio. After a while, however, once he finally came to terms that his cat was gone, he turned off the radio before leaving for work for the first time. Although it’s sad, I like to think that turning the radio off was a relieving experience, because he was finally able to let his cat go and move on. Like all of Banks’ haiku, this one is focused on another harsh reality of life: death and loss. While this haiku has a much more tangible tone of sadness, it isn’t because Banks is inserting her own emotions into the haiku. The haiku is merely capturing the moment, the events of which are sad enough on their own.
Most of Banks’ haiku are three lines with little to no punctuation. However, she has a handful of haiku that are formatted in a really interesting way: one word per line. I think this is done very purposefully and it makes the haiku very effective.
she
gives
us
the
B&B’s
bridal
suite—
we
talk
of
separation
Banks, TCC, 15
This is another one of many of Banks’ haiku that starts off seemingly happy, and then the second half transforms it into something sad. The fact that they are staying in a bridal suite implies that they have just gotten married, perhaps they are on their honeymoon. For them to already be talking about separation is so disheartening and sad. It makes me think that maybe something happened either directly before or after the wedding to doom the marriage from the beginning. It sheds a pessimistic light on love. The formatting of this haiku is very intentional as well. By stretching out the words like a rubber band, the reader can really feel the tension within the haiku. In addition to using only one word per line, Banks uses a dash to separate the first half and the second half of the haiku.
he
tells
me
of
his
vow
of
celibacy—
the
pie
cools
Banks, TCC, 16
This haiku stood out to me both because the format of the haiku and the symbolism. Banks is describing a very awkward situation in this haiku, which is why I believe she used the format of one word per line. This format really draws out the haiku, which helps to represent the awkward nature of the moment. Similar to the previous haiku, this one also has a dash to separate the two halves of the poem. The pie cooling in the second half of the haiku is symbolic of their passion cooling as she learns of his vow of celibacy. My imagined response to this haiku is that two people were starting to get hot and heavy. Perhaps they just went on a date, one invited the other inside for a drink, and things progressed from there. Then, suddenly the man stops abruptly to tell her that it cannot go any farther because of his vow. They then have to “cool down,” and figure out how to proceed with their evening. I think Banks’ use of symbolism with the pie here gives the haiku an overall light tone to what would otherwise be a very tense poem.
bankruptcy
judge
asks
if
the
poems
have
value
Banks, TCC, 18
I love this haiku because it uses word play to raise a philosophical question. The word “value” means many things. In this case, the judge is probably asking if they have monetary value, because their worth would affect the proceedings of the bankruptcy hearing. However, because he just says “value” instead of “monetary value,” it opens up the question into a deeper realm. I think the one word per line format is especially effective in this haiku because of the philosophical nature of it. I imagine Caroline Giles Banks being asked this question, and not knowing how to answer because she immediately plunged into the philosophical aspect of it. I imagine this moment feeling very long and drawn-out to her as her mind raced, trying to figure out how to describe the haiku’s value in words.
the clay jar
some day
holding me
Banks, TCJ, 59
This haiku is a perfect example of a Banks haiku. It is blunt, it has a surprising twist on the last line, and her emotions do not seep into her writing. Banks is facing her own mortality in this haiku. One day she will die, and the clay jar will hold her remains. It doesn’t sugarcoat anything, and it doesn’t give us any insight about her feelings about it. Maybe seeing that jar fills her with fear and dread because she is afraid of dying, or maybe instead it makes her feel peaceful and comforted to know exactly where she will end up when she dies. Because she doesn’t impose her own emotions, it is up to the reader to interpret it in their own way, and everyone will interpret it differently based on their own perception of their own mortality.
Works Cited
Banks, Caroline Giles. The Clay Jar: Haiku, Senryu and Haibun Poems. Minneapolis, MN; Wellington-Giles Press, 2013.
Banks, Caroline Giles. The Clock Chimes: Haiku and Senryu Poems. Minneapolis, MN; Wellington Press, 2002. Sumi artwork by Lill Hipp. Signed.
|
