James Hartnett • Jim's Haiku •

In his book entitled Haiku Guy David Lanoue uses a the form of a novel to not only teach the art of haiku but to understand that haiku is life and life is haiku. Using the work of the great haiku poet Issa(Cup-of-Tea) as the foundation of this lesson he takes the reader on a journey through time and space of no importance. This lack of time period is used to illustrate that the basic ideologies of the haiku poet are relevant and appropriate for any time, place or situation. Throughout the book he refers to is own lack of a plan and structure while writing the novel. This lends itself to the a idea that haiku should be written as a stream of conscious and have no agenda. The thought becomes merely a breath falling on to a page. It is clear throughout the novel that this state of being is not easily achieved and explaining it proves to be even harder. With the help of an imagniary poet name Buck-Teeth and his travels we can understand not only the art of haiku but live it. Using the novel as a pros to tell the stroy and haiku to accent, the book takes form in a series of what are basically haibun. Lanoue introduces the reader to a farmers son Buck-Teeth an aspiring haiku poet. His father cannot understand why his son would want to devote his life to something that will bring him no fortune or material benifit, however, when he is made aware that his son will be in the company of the great Lord Kaga his father agrees to let him leave his chores and study with haiku master Cup-of-Tea. Here the great teaching begins and through the life of Buck-Teeth the reader becomes a student on the same journey. In the first chapters of the book Lanoue uses the charater of Lord Kaga to show the reader the birth, creation and celebartion of a true haiku. Lord Kaga comes to visit Cup-of-Tea eager to show him his haiku. After a moment of silence following the reading of the haiku Cup-of-Tea walks away and drops it onto a cow pie smashes it with his foot returns only to say “you’ll have to try harder”. For many weeks following Lord Kaga keeps trying to satisfy the master with the same result. During this time he has been writing for his love that will have nothing to do with him. It is only when he is up in arms over her that he is willing to let whatever fall from his ink brush does he achieve success. The old fart stacks the winter kindling (page 19) The haiku has nothing to do with what has clouded his mind for that past one hundred days, he finally reaches the state mind to write a haiku. Immediately following there is a show of fireworks to celebrate the accepted poem. The celebration represents the power that one good haiku can have, and the accomplishment of achieving the stream of conciousness required to write true haiku. “There can be no hesitation no second thoughts and no rewrites.”(Lanoue 25). Part one is all about learning for Buck-Teeth, who is constantly struggling to clear himself enough to write. He is filled with questions which he finds no answers for, and latches on to the words of others to try and draw his inspiration. His learning takes place over the course of a year during which he meets the friends of Cup-of-Tea. Mido who is enthusicatic and loves to drink, Kuro who basically believes everything is meaningless, and Shiro who remains silent. All these charaters are extremely different yet share one common theme, they have found theire muse. Be it in silence negativity or drinking all of them have discovered a way to separate themselves from whatever world they exist in and write. It is through these charaters that Lanoue teaches the the heart and soul of haiku. What makes Cup-of-Tea the master poet is that he can understand all of them as if they were all the same person, they all have vices and things that distract them but he holds them together. An exapmle is when they are out on the boat drinking and carrying on, Mido is singing, Kuro is complainging and Buck-Teeth is asking quesitons but Cup-of-Tea through the distraction whispers a haiku about inspired by Mido. The boatman pisses but misses the real moon (page 47) His skill is so sharp he is able to ignore distractions and points out not only the hilarity of the situation but also the fact that Mido has missed this beautiful moon that they had originally gone out there to see. Without hesitation or question it falls out of him. What is so interesting about Cup-of-Tea is he never really says much and only speaks in haiku, which is what makes it so hard for Buck-Teeth to understand him. He cannot move forward in his writing because he is constantly asking questions and not looking at what is in front of him. Cup-of-Tea would say that his problems stem from the upbringing he received. Constantly surrounded by restriction and chores, never being to taught to just stop and look at what is really in front of him. It is the three characters that help Buck-Teeth see the truth. Although they are not masters as Cup-of-Tea, all three men have the ability to push restriction aside and get to the truth inside themselves. Their downfall is that they are all so extreme in their forms, unlike Cup-of-Tea who is a neutral being able to understand and comprehend all of them. Through these extremes Buck-Teeth is able to find what he needs to find within himself. His first teaching comes from Kuro, who’s philosophy was geared more towards the sadness and reality of life. He is able to illustrate well the subjects of loss, death, despair which the recently love sick Buck-Teeth finds he relates very well to. He shows Buck Teeth how when dealing with such topics it is necessary to stay true to the reality though it is sad. He edits Buck-Teeth’s latest haiku to make his point. In the dead cat’s eyes harvest moons to no moonlight there— the dead cat’s eyes (page 45) He points out that seeing the moon in the cats eyes is a sign of light, life, and hope. Which are all nice things but when your capturing this particular moment, it is not true. Buck-Teeth is avoiding what is really there to spare something that should not be spared. Kuro believes that nothing means anything in the grand scheme of things. Poets don’t matter and no one will remember them as people. However, life must be recorded and therefore although things are meaningless they still have purpose. Writers must write to record life, but they must be true to it and not hide what is really there. Mido is the exact opposite of Shiro, constantly drinking and celebrating. This is what makes his wisdom very important to the development of Buck-Teeth as a writer. Kuro taught him how to interrupt life in its truest form no matter how sad or dark. Now Mido brings him to a different part of life and shows him how to relax and separate himself so that he can create. Mido talks about the right mind and as a poet you have to be able to leave the right mind. He professes that the right mind will only hold you back keeping you trapped in the pain of reality. Things like love and happiness are illusions of the right mind. These are things that cloud you from the truth. The ability to leave the right mind is letting go of fear and inhibition, it allows the poet to detach and look on from the outside to truly observe what exists. Mido does this by drinking himself silly completely letting go of all that is real. What can also be learned from Mido is not to rely on one thing to release you from the right mind. Because when he grows tired of the drink which releases him he dies. You have to allow yourself to leave the right mind but understand the dangers and be able to balance between the two. Shiro is by far the most interesting character of the three, perhaps it is because he says nothing at all, but he seems to understand everything. With a smile and a glance you know that Shiro has just written a haiku but does not ever release it to the outside world. It is when Buck-Teeth finally gets a chance to sit with Shiro and talk to him that he finally realizes the answers have to be found within yourself for you to truly understand. What Shiro has to offer Buck-Teeth is inner peace, the ability to just exist, to understand what you see and be happy. Of all the lessons learned throughout the novel there is one that sits above the rest. Cup-of-Tea tried to teach Buck-Teeth this lesson all along and finally after a year of questions, sleepless nights and trials, he figured it out. You have to trust, in yourself in god or whatever spiritual being you believe in. Cup-of-Tea tells Buck-Teeth to trust not to try, that he has been so busy trying he has forgotten how to trust. Trust in what you know and the rest will fall into place. In life and in poetry have faith and remain true to it and you can go wrong.