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A biography and description of haiku poetry
by contemporary author Francine Porad
Over the past 20 years I have had an interest in art and have studied numerous artists over that period. Throughout my studies not once did I connect an artist with the grace of poetry until I began to study haiku poetry and discovered Francine Porad. The marriage of Francine Porads haiku writings and paintings blends artistic creativity from one end of the spectrum to the other, using both visual and verbal communications with her art brings her work to the highest level. It is obvious to me that her haiku shows the emotion and feelings of life through the eyes of an artist totally in tune with her surrounding along with her realistic emotional side. As you will see, the marriage of the two offers Francine Porad a keen sense of what normal everyday life has to offer with intense awareness and feeling to her surroundings.
Francine Porad began as a painter and haiku writer late in life. Porad started painting only after trying to encourage her father-in-law to begin painting as a hobby. As a direct result of her encouragement she took a watercolor class with him and became increasingly enthralled and excited about the creativity of watercolor painting. In turn, at the age of forty, she began a new career as a watercolor artist. Shortly after Porad began painting, a friend, Flora Corria, had a discussion with her about writing poetry. At the time Flora Corria was actively seeking American Women Painters and Pen Writers of Washington and Corria encouraged Porad to write poetry by stating “if you could do one you could do the other” (Smith, 2005, p.6). Instead of expressing what she felt on a canvas she could express herself through haiku poetry. This form of expression, lends well to her life style of total awareness to her surrounding and unpretentious personality (Smith, 2005). This was the beginning of Francine Porads haiku career with years to come of creative haiku excellence.
Currently Francine Porad lives in Seattle Washington where she writes haiku and paints masterpieces. To name a few of Porad recent honors in writing begins with being picked as one of the top 100 writers in 2005 at the International Biographical Center in Cambridge, England. The Washington Poets Association in 2004 established a Francine Porad Haiku Award in her honor and she received 1st place in the Haiku Society of America Merit Book in 2002. She received the Cicada Award from the Mainichi Yearly Haiku Contest in Japan, and also has been listed for consecutive years in the Who’s Who in America in Editions 2001, 1999, and 1997 (Smith, 2005). She has books published in Japan, Canada, England, Croatia, Australia, Romania, as well as in the United States (Brooks, 2001). Porad was also a past Haiku Society of America president, when she at that time was not afraid to form a committee to evaluate the current haiku and senryu definitions and also added haibun and renku to the contemporary definitions (Thunell, 2005). She was the editor of Brussels Sprouts international journal for eight-years, and juried numerous show and competitions in haiku, senryu, and tanka (Smith, 2005). Porad seems to be an artist with a never-ending supply of creative avenues to express her love of poetry.
Porad has been creating haiku subjects containing a style of elegance, wit, nature, and creativity throughout her books since the 1970’s. I have reviewed five of Porad’s books published from 1986-2004. The six books I will be referring to are: Pen and inklings, Connections, Without Haste, All the games, and The perfect worry-stone.
Each book creates a theme connected to a realistic life journey. When you read Francine Porad’s haiku you feel fully alive and peaceful because of her selection of content is so down to earth and true to life. As I review two selections from each of her books listed you will begin to see her keen sense of awareness to her surroundings. Not to mention her obvious wit and humor about life.
Let’s begin with the book “Pen and inklings”. This book contains haiku, senryu and sketches from Francine Porad. I have chosen two haiku from this book that I was attracted to. The first of the two is:
downhill run:
skiing
the silent white
This haiku on the forth page has such feeling of the environment to it. Francine has created a picture in the readers mind along with pulling from the reader’s memories of nature in the wintertime. As I read this haiku over and over I begin to feel the wind against my face as if I was skiing down a hill at that moment. In reference to movement and motion with the words “the silent white” you can almost feel the snow and the cold chilling winter winds in the mountains. Porad here is totally putting you into the setting by selecting words that exemplify the feeling of the environment at that time of year. In the same way that Porad reaches the reader in the first haiku mentioned, she also pulls out the environment with the second haiku chosen from page 10.
creeping through
the patio cracks
chickweed, again
This haiku places you into the summer months of trying to get control of your weeds. This example shows Porad’s wit and humor. Although the reader can interpret this haiku in many different ways, I see throughout the summer me trying to keep the chickweed out of my sidewalk. It is a simple natural everyday summer accurance that Porad captures with wit and humor to place you into the moment (Porad, 1986).
The second book of Porad’s that I researched is “Connections”. Within this book the element of nature is predominate throughout along with pulling the heart-felt emotion and wit that Porad is so good at accomplishing. The first haiku from the book “Connections” is:
the fisherman’s grin
holding his catch close
to the camera
This haiku deals with the emotion felt when you go fishing and catch a fish. To a fisherman it doesn’t matter how small that fish is as long as he can say he caught one is all that matters. Porad’s wit comes out with the last line insinuating that the fisherman would hold the fish closer to the camera to exaggerate the depiction of how big the fish really was. As a wife of a fisherman I can relate on how those fish stories seem to grow.
Porad has once again captured the reader within the moment. The second haiku from “Connections” is the very last one in the book:
a cloud of wrens
the rhythm and melody
round the bird feeder
This haiku takes you directly to the sounds of birds around the bird feeder and how pleasant that sound is. Porad’s choice of words again draws you into the moment and helps you remember the times when you heard or saw a bunch of birds around the bird feeder singing. The element of nature and choice of subject puts you into a peaceful feeling and captures the moment in your mind.
The third book I have chosen of Francine Porad is “Without Haste” published in 1989. This book takes on a different tone then the previous two books. Porad’s haiku in “Without Haste” seems to take on a more inner feeling and serious tone not conveying her wit as she did in the other two books mentioned before. These two haiku that I have chosen seem to pull you into your inner thoughts of your past. On page 4 she writes:
from her bare shoulder
he plucks
an imaginary speck
With this haiku I am drawn to think of a couple fighting and how neither one wants to make the first move to reach out. So the man pretends to remove something from her shoulder to break the ice. This haiku has the reader thinking of why he would pluck an imaginary speck from her shoulder. It is the element within Porad’s haiku that provokes the readers thoughts to remember in our own life a similar situation. Another haiku from “Without Haste” that has the same elements is:
twilght deppens--
the wordless things
I know
Porad shows once again the ease of putting the reader into a specific time or place. This haiku takes me outside on a summer night, looking up at the stars, not talking, just thinking and looking at the night sky. This setting helps me leave all my worries behind about work, kids, family, bills, and etcetera. Porad accomplishes taking you away from where you are and puts you into another place.
The fourth book of Porad’s is “All the games” published in 1997. In this book she makes reference to painting in her haiku on page 8.
plein air painting my complex painting
dense clouds but no rain --even I can’t access
one last brushstroke its meaning
Being a person who studied art and paints I can relate to these two haiku. The first one that makes reference to plein air painting is from the Impressionist era. Plein air is when an artist would go on location in the out doors to paint directly from the subject. This technique created bright vivid painting by some of the masters like Monet and Cézanne. As an artist I can relate to the last line and how she shows the wit that artist are never done. You can always see one more thing that needs to be done. In my eyes, the second haiku in reference to art is where she is really making fun of the artist itself. Sometimes as an artist you just paint something and it really doesn’t have a meaning to it. You created it just for fun. Not everything needs to always have a purpose and this haiku explains that to me. Live a little, paint something for no reason at all.
The fifth and final book is the “The Perfect Worry-Stone”. This book I will have to say was my favorite. The preface in the beginning is what sets the mood for the book. I have a worry stone rock that I keep in a special place and I liked the way Porad made reference to haiku being the perfect worry stone as a “calming, effect, reducing anxiety”(Porad, 2000, pg. 5,). Throughout this book I feel Porad’s haiku takes on an almost spiritual undertone. “The perfect worry-stone” is a book of haiku that has you stopping and thinking how each haiku relates to your life. Like on page 14:
Tide’s in
Slipping through her fingers
Sun sparkle
I imagine going through hard times feeling as though everything is slipping away and then at the end you see the sun sparkle telling you God is with you and that everything will be O.K. Another in the “The perfect worry-stone” book is on page 15:
From deep in mud
The long neck of a geoduck--
Outgoing tide
You get the feeling as you read this haiku that someone is going through something that is very stressful but in the end it will work out because of hope. It is the kind of haiku that Porad writes that draws you into your inner feeling and captures a personal moment that only you know or feel.
Now that you have seen an overview of who Francine Porad is and what kind of a haiku she creates, you can see how the marriage of artist and poetry blend together to create a haiku writer with a keen sense of awareness to her surroundings. Whether it is feeling from the heart, representing everyday life, viewing nature, expressing humor, or bringing inspiration, Francine Porad is a master in my eyes in the art of haiku.
References
Brooks, R, (2001). Haiku Writer Francine Porad. www.millikin.edu
Porad, F. (2004). Sunlight comes and goes. Bellevue, WA: Vandina Press.
Porad, F. (2000). The perfect worry-stone. Mercer Island, WA: Vandina Press.
Porad, F. (1997). All the games. Mercer Island, WA: Vandina Press.
Porad, F. (1989). Without Haste. Bakersfield, CA: Amelia.
Porad, F. (1986). Connections. Seattle, WA: Vandina Press.
Smith, C. (2005). Allied Arts Foundation. Women Painters of Washington, 1, 6.
Thunell, C. (2005). Haiku Basics, Shadow Poetry. Spring 2005. |
