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Rod Willmot's Journey of Haiku Transformation
Rod Willmot is a very interesting and intelligent individual. “Born in Toronto, Canada in 1948, Willmot was always interested in English. He started writing verse at 13 and continued on with poetry soon after. He spent a year in Quebec City’s Conservatory of Music studying writing, haiku specifically. He continued to study and completed a BA in Honours French and an MA in Comparative Canadian Literature (Sherbrooke).
During his pursuit of an MA, Willmot started writing again. He focused his critical and theoretical attention to the haiku movement after his span of writing book reviews for academic journals. 1982, Willmot left an unfinished doctoral thesis at the Universite de Montreal. One year later, he founded Burnt Lake Press. This press is dedicated to publishing the work of haiku poets. Living with his wife and son, Willmot still works as a publisher, editor, translator, and novelist,” (Sayings for the Invisible [SOTI], p. 80).
Working for the greater good of the haiku future in North America, Willmot illustrate a specific tarot card that describes the path that haiku has taken in North American poetry. “Willmot explains the Tarot card—The Moon. This tarot card has a crayfish emerging from the water this crayfish has a winding path leading upwards, where on either side two dogs will attempt to bar the way. A journey of transformation is implied by this card,” (SFTI p. 4). “This journey is what Willmot sees in the future of haiku. He believes that haiku has come a long way in our culture. However, Willmot thinks that the art of haiku has a struggling path left to take,” (SFTI p. 4). The path left is Willmot’s approach to haiku. His desire is to further the art of haiku by writing, editing, and publishing remarkable works of the Japanese art-form, haiku.
The following five haiku are among my favorites of Willmot’s collection. I have included my personal responses to them. I believe that these few haiku illustrate Willmot’s achievement of his desire to create another step in the upward path of the art of haiku in North America.
The first haiku I selected gives the reader a clear sense of the idea of haiku arts. This haiku describes a specific moment in time. This idea is among the basic foundations of the haiku tradition.
night-swim…
thinking I’m alone
until the moment she speaks
The Ribs of Dragonfly [TROD], Rod Wilmot p.59
I like this haiku because of its subtle surprise. The effect of this haiku is unexplainable. It gave me all kinds of emotions as well as mental pictures and continual thoughts about what might happen next. I love the thought of night swimming. This act is very emotional in itself. Swimming at night is always thought to be dangerous and/or rebellious. So, in writing this haiku, I like the feeling of doing something forbidden and being sort of scared or surprised by what happens.
The next haiku, much different than the first, demonstrates Willmot’s ability to focus on unimportant things that happen throughout our lives. I added this second haiku to my list of favorites because of its diversity.
near the river
a copy of Time
frozen in the mud
SFTI Rod Willmot p. 11
I really like this haiku because of the insignificance of the object in the mud. I also like how the author uses the specific title to maybe indicate how he feels about life right now. Maybe it is an issue of Time because nothing is moving how he wants or maybe things aren’t moving at all. I really like this haiku also because I admire Irving Penn’s photographic works. This seems strange at first, however, Penn is pretty famous for his photographs of random items collected off of the street and their arrangement and his use of space. This haiku’s arrangement is also interesting to me while the subject is still discarded items of others.
The third haiku helps bring assortment to the basics of haiku tradition. One of Willmot’s goals is to allow the art of haiku to go beyond the specific traditions, guidelines, and rules of haiku. I believe that the following haiku does a great job in demonstrating his achievement of his goal.
jazz from a naked speaker:
on the edge of the bathtub
wondering what to do
TROD Rod Willmot p. 29
This haiku has a very playful sense to it. I like how it is specifically a jazz artist. After reading this, even though it said jazz, I still thought of a poet. I still believe it is a jazz poet, however, I am not sure if this is possible. I like the uncertainty of the entire haiku. I like wondering why there is a naked speaker and a bathtub all in the same haiku. I think the sporadic nature of this haiku makes it a diverse addition to Rod Willmot’s collection.
I added the following haiku because it holds hidden meaning, which I describe later. Most great works of literature hold an underlying meaning, I believe that this haiku is also a great literature work.
abortion clinic—
backing away from their shouts
she stumbles
SFTI Rod Willmot p.11
I like this haiku because of the visual and audible details included. I like how the reason for the shouting is due to controversial issues and her stumbling could reflect how she felt on the issue, such as her making a decision and as soon as someone questions or disagrees with it, she stumbles in her decision or she is uncomfortable with people yelling it makes her unaware of her surroundings causing her to physically stumble.
This fifth and final haiku I’ve selected has a great before and after questioning effect. I really admire his ability to give just enough information, this is a difficult task to defeat. my head in sun
the neighbour’s wife
cries out in love
SFTI Rod Wilmot p. 22
I like this haiku because of the before and after thoughts of what is going on. Before the neighbor’s wife cries out, for whatever reason, I am wondering what has happened to the author to make him daydream. Did something terrible happen or did he just wake up? These and many other thoughts went through my mind. This haiku gives me a very vivid image to work with and I like it. I like the white picket fence I saw and the man in shorts and a t-shirt staring off into the sky. I like all the bright colors brought to this haiku just by entering the word sun in the first line.
Other than looking at Willmot’s haiku individually, I have compared some of his haiku to two other author’s haiku. The first pair of haiku I compared allows one to take in all of the goodness of both haiku. I put the two together to bring out the best in both.
morning shadows
toothbrushes
lean from a jar
TROD Rod Willmot p.26
after the funeral
just one toothbrush
in the rack
Mayfly 40 Anne LB Davidson, p.11
I really like the image given off by these two haiku. Although they both have toothbrushes in them, I get the feeling of loneliness from both. It is more of the reaction I have as opposed to the words displayed. I like the calmness of both. By placing them together and comparing them I notice how such a regular and normal part of everyone’s day can mean so much and how universal it is. I never thought about how simple toothbrushes are and I like how both haiku bring out their simplicity and yet give them great meaning.
The second set of haiku I placed together includes one by an amateur and one by Willmot. I did this to show the good of both and also to show how difficult it is to write this short poem. I have included specific reasons as to why I liked both and why Willmot’s is better in certain senses.
looking away from each other
tick of sleet
on the car roof
TROD Rod Willmot p. 81
away from you
I embrace
my pillow
Brian Rohde, Millikin student
I like the comparison of these two haiku because they both involve two individuals and their dissatisfaction with the other. I like how the focus is not on the disagreement or argument but on what the author is thinking about or doing instead of working on the problem. I like the haiku by Rod Willmot more because the verb tick makes the haiku more interesting. Rod’s haiku gives me a more visual and emotional ties to the haiku. I like how the uncomfortable silence is very obvious, yet unstated.
Overall, I really admire the work of Rod Willmot. I think he has a great sense of what a good haiku is and how it should be written. He is a scholar and a very intelligent individual. I hope my analysis has given a fair representation of Willmot’s work and allows you to better understand his reasoning for his goals and ambitions.
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Sources Katô, Kôko, Editor. A Hidden Pond: Anthology of Modern Haiku, 2nd edition. Translated by Kôko Katô and David Burleigh. Tokyo: Kadokawa Shoten, 2003.
Willmot, Rod, Editor. Erotic Haiku. Windsor, Ontario: Black Moss Press, 1983.
Willmot, Rod. Montages. Haiku Canada Sheet, 1988. Broadside.
Willmot, Rod. Mountain Sequence. Aylmer, Quebec: Haiku Canada Sheet, 1987.
Willmot, Rod. The Ribs of Dragonfly. Windsor, Ontario: Black Moss Press, 1984.
Willmot, Rod, Cor van den Heuvel and Marlene Mountain. Saying Something Inaudible: Renga. Haiku Canada Sheet, 1989. Broadside.
Willmot, Rod. Sayings for the Invisible: Haiku and Haiku Sequences 1977-87. Windsor, Ontario: Black Moss Press, 1988. |
