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Southard’s Genius:
The Versatility of Kigo in Deep Shade Flickering Sunlight
Like haiku master Basho, the contemporary haiku poet O Mabson Southard was not content to confine his life to the same town in which he was born. Born in New England, before his death in 2000, Southard had traveled with his wife Malia to Mexico and Alabama, Alaska and New York City. O and Malia Southard spent a decade living in Hawaii before moving to Vancouver Island where he died (9-12). In Deep Shade Flickering Sunlight, his daughter, Barbara Southard, comments that “Friends who accompanied them on frequent jaunts into the wilderness remember their endurance and enthusiasm as they embarked on adventurous treks to high peaks, deep ravines, treacherous river crossings, and precipitous waterfalls” (11). Southard clearly drew inspiration from these travels, for each haiku featured in Deep Shade Flickering Sunlight includes a seasonal word. According to Kato Koko in A Hidden Pond, a “haiku is a poem of the seasons,” (xxvii) as such it is traditional to include the seasonal element of kigo in the creation of a haiku. In his poetry, Southard exhibits a rare versatility in the utilization of kigo. Nature acts as a vehicle in his haiku to convey human emotion, to illustrate the outdoors, or simply to capture the essence of the seasons. O Mabson Southard is a kigo master whose natural haiku use kigo as a tool to describe different landscapes and seasons, to express emotion, and to explore various facets of nature.
Southard’s haiku encompass a wide range of environments which reflect the many places he visited. Several section names in Deep Shade Flickering Sunlight support this; names like “Distant Mountains,” “Old Northeast,” “Leafless Woods,” “Island South 1,” and “Windswept Grassland” suggest settings from all over America. Of course the kigo in his haiku spans boundaries as well. The following examples will sample some of the rich landscapes entailed in Southard’s poetry.
The waves now fall short
of a stranded jellyfish…
in it shines the sky (17)
The nouns “waves” and “jellyfish” suggest a tropical, coastal region. In this scene, night approaches the beach as the tide ebbs gradually more and more. Several feet past where the waves now reach, miscellaneous shells and other sea debris form a gentle line across the sand. The transparent body of a jellyfish corpse lays inanimately a short distance from shore. I imagine the curious face of a child peering down over the jellyfish to see the sky reflected back. Now that the sun has gone, taking the tide with it, the pinks and purples of sunset can be seen among the evening clouds. With his haiku “The waves now fall short,” Southard demonstrates his mastery of kigo in a coastal element.
In contrast to the beach setting mentioned above, the following haiku take the reader to a much different landscape. The poem “Caribou-barrens…” is featured in the “Far Northwest” section of Deep Shade Flickering Sunlight and takes place far from a coastal region.
Caribou-barrens…
Out from the distant mountains
wanders a shower (42)
Southard crafts the haiku so as to intentionally leave the scene ambiguous and thus open to individual interpretations. In one scenario, Southard describes the mountain land as “caribou-barrens.” This phrase implies a rocky, grassless terrain that has been vacated by the caribou herds. Surprisingly, from this bleak mountain comes a rejuvenating spring shower. Another perspective separates the caribou barrens from the distant mountains. In a lifeless field the caribou graze on stray tufts of hardy grass. The equally stark mountains provide relief in the form of healing rain drops. The next haiku specifies the location in vast grassland interrupted by ravines.
Flush with the treetops
a wedge of windswept grassland
divides the ravines (94)
From the soaring peaks of the distant mountain, the reader is now plunged into a wooded valley in the earth. Southard invokes the compelling image of treetops aligned in height with the windblown blades of grass. The lush, green foliage of the trees matches the blooming hue of the grass on a blustery day in the ravine. With tools of waterfall and cliff, forest and valley, and many more Southard creates his haiku’s images in Deep Shade Flickering Sunlight. From coastal jellyfish to mountain showers to windswept valleys, Southard’s limitless sense of kigo seems pervade the country.
As well as a multiplicity of landscapes, the kigo of Southard’s haiku are able to convey a multiplicity of emotions with the technique ninjo-nashi. Through ninjo-nashi, haiku poets combine the natural world with the human world, simultaneously creating a refreshing tension and Zen-like harmony. Southard’s talent is such that he can successfully integrate kigo with a plethora of emotional elements. For example, in “forgetting bluets” the themes of love and nature coalesce as another product of kigo.
Forgetting bluets
he’s just brought me—he buys me
with the summer sky (98)
An analysis of this haiku yields a conjunction of nature and love. Southard does not contrast the human with that of the natural, instead he blends them. The lover does not merely woo his beloved amidst a backdrop of wildflowers and sky; he woos her with the sky. The haiku implies that the nature of their love does not suit that of a bluet, albeit beautiful, which is small and mortal. No, their love soars about the atmosphere and stretches across the horizon in a dazzling expanse of cerulean blue. An expert utilization of kigo allows this expression of emotion through nature.
Within the pages of Deep Shade Flickering Sunlight, other haiku engage the reader using human traits such as triumph and ecstasy. “A stupendous wind” diminishes neither man nor nature by celebrating the essence of both.
A stupendous wind
lays me naked in a field—
and I laugh aloud (103)
Southard seems to express the power of the self in regards to the man and the wind. The wind is characterized as “stupendous,” which according to Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary means “of amazing . . . greatness” and “causing astonishment or wonder.” Adjectives are unusual in haiku so Southard chose his carefully by both describing the wind’s power and celebrating it through the connotations of one word. The speaker’s power manifests in two ways: his nudity and laughter. Rather than feel vulnerable without the protective cover of clothing, the author rejoices in the essence of himself free from societal restrictions. His laughter proclaims the ecstasy and triumph of his realization of this power. Together, the natural and the human, the wind and the man exult.
Kigo performs another function in the art of Southard’s haiku; it studies the many roles of nature. From the sun’s warming rays to the cat’s shedding fur, to the horse’s chipped hoof and the sea’s salty waves, nature is everywhere. It can be as kind as a budding lily or as cruel as a mother deer’s corpse, as reliable as the stars or as fickle as the moon. Through kigo Southard captures nature from many different angles, thus revealing its versatility with haiku such as “Hearing a whinny.”
Hearing a whinny
the old horse leaves the dust bath
to the young sparrow (39)
This haiku takes places upon a gritty country road in spring. Interrupting the silence, a delightful neigh beckons. The departing view can be seen of a chestnut horse churning up dust as it gallops eagerly toward the whinny. Left behind, a toddling sparrow flaps its wings furiously to stave off the whirling dust. Southard contrasts the circumstances of the horse and the sparrow; the horse presumably finds companionship with the owner of the whinny, yet the sparrow remains alone. Under the same spring sun, a lone baby sparrow battles a choking cloud of dust while two horses can be found enjoying each other’s company. The haiku also juxtaposes the old and the new. To the sparrow, this spring may be the first and yet the old horse has galloped through many seasons. Both senility and youth, companionship and loneliness can be found in the grand scheme of nature.
Contrasting perspectives of nature also appear in “Over the tundra” in the form of warmth and cold, spring and winter, and life and death. These opposites are reminiscent of a Zen-like philosophy in their unity through nature. In “Over the tundra,” kigo acts as the source through which each of the haiku elements connect to each other.
Over the tundra
pale butterflies come streaming
through a sun-shower (43)
This haiku takes place in those transitional weeks between winter and spring, as one of nature’s roles gives way to another. Snow still covers the ground, but the air has lost that distinctly biting chill which intangibly signifies winter. In place of the bitterly cold air, the subtle warmth of a coming spring pervades. From behind the clouds, the sun bursts forth and with its rays proclaims spring to the melting snow. A flutter of butterflies with wings the color of the sun follow the nascent spring. Spring breathes life back into the barren tundra. The haiku’s kigo implies the cycle of death and life that follows the seasons. The frozen tundra, bereft of foliage and animals, personifies nature as an administrator of death. Yet the inclusion of butterflies and a “sun-shower” reinforces the epithet Mother Nature. Southard’s keen eye and masterful use of kigo are able to render the shift as nature discards one role and assumes another. Far from simply adhering to Japanese tradition, Southard makes use of the kigo in his haiku to perform on several different poetic levels.
In the haiku presented in Deep Shade Flickering Sunlight, Southard asserts his status as a kigo master. Not only can his poems transcend different regions and emotions, they are able to commemorate nature in a multitude of roles. His haiku speak of Southard as a persona in touch with nature more so than most contemporary haiku authors. However, the haiku “Shooting the rapids!” by Robert Spiess in The Haiku Anthology also exhibits the ability to depict the contrasts which exist underneath the theme of nature. When paired with Southard’s “Spanning the rapids,” the reader may witness their similarity in style.
Shooting the rapids!
—a glimpse of meadow
gold with buttercups (199)
Spanning the rapids
half-hidden by upthrown mist—
a new-fallen tree (56)
Both haiku expound the theme of power and weakness using the kigo subjects of rapids, trees, and flowers. The foamy white of the fast flowing river suggests nature’s power and domination. Conversely, the delicate gold of a buttercup petal or the slim trunk of a fallen sapling is enshrouded with vulnerability. The over-arching theme of nature unites these opposites in the harmony of the haiku. Deep Shade Flickering Sunlight contains many other such haiku that artfully bend the kigo technique to their own purpose. Southard’s versatile utilization of kigo emphasizes the talent and uniqueness of his nature haiku.
Works Cited
Kato, Koko. Introduction. A Hidden Pond. Japan: 1997. xxvii.
Southard, Barbara. “The Life and Work of Ordway Southard.” Deep Shade Flickering Sunlight. By O Mabson Southard. Decatur: Brooks Books, 2004. 9-12.
Southard, O Mabson. Deep Shade Flickering Sunlight. Eds. Barbara Southard, Randy Brooks, and Brock Peoples. Decatur: Brooks Books, 2004.
Spiess, Robert. “Shooting the Rapids!” The Haiku Anthology. Ed. Cor van den Heuval. New York: Norton, 2000. 199.
“Stupendous.” Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary. 11th ed. 2004. |
