Making the Common Uncommon
Paul O. Williams no doubt loves writing nature haiku. Although most of Williams’s haiku have to do with nature and are very soothing to read; he also throws in some humorous ones as well. He can also take the simplest things and turn them into a great haiku. “It is an opening up to the unexplained happenings of the things” (Williams, Outside Robins Sing: Selected Haiku). He can find the most insignificant and unnoticed things, write about them, and make it into something bigger and better.
the pause
before the big wave
breaks
Paul O. Williams, Outside Robins Sing: Selected Haiku
I like this haiku because it is something that only he would notice. It’s a simple pause before a wave breaks, but he turns it into a great haiku. When I read this haiku, I take it as a couple arguing nonstop. I see them going on and on, and just when it gets silent and they think it’s over, one of them says something to start it all back up again. A reader can translate this into almost anything.
This is also a great example for why I chose my title. I picked my title after I read “The Burst in Haiku” by Paul O. Williams in Outside Robins Sing: Selected Haiku. “Thus haiku makes the common uncommon, shows the rarity of the everyday…” (Williams, Outside Robins Sing: Selected Haiku).
Although the majority of Williams’s haiku are serious, he does have some very amusing haiku (or senryu) too. He definitely has a great sense of humor. “He always weighs in with a combination of reasoned thoughtfulness and humor to point out the absurdities of extremes” (Lee Gurga & Michael Dylan Welch, The Nick of Time, 7).
in the park
her “Let’s Keep Fit” t-shirt
extra large
Paul O. Williams, The Nick of Time: Essays on Haiku Aesthetics, 47
This is one of my favorite haiku of his because it is very funny and ironic. I don’t think there is any more meaning behind it, besides just what it says. It is simply about a woman who is supportive of keeping in shape, yet she is wearing an extra large t-shirt.
Williams show wittiness by talking about a word that him and a friend made up called “Tontoism”. Williams defines Tontoism as a haiku that sounds as if Tonto is having a conversation with the Lone Ranger. It leaves out important articles such as “the” and “a” where they would usually be in the natural English language. The example Williams gives is:
old man
digs potatoes
in rain
Paul O. Williams, The Nick of Time: Essays on Haiku Aesthetics, 77
again the old man
digs supper potatoes
in a cold rain
Paul O. Williams, Outside Robins Sing: Selected Haiku
Williams believe that adding a few simple words makes it into an even better haiku.
I’ve noticed that Paul O. Williams seems to continue some of his haiku as if it were a story. One might not notice this unless they have read a lot of his work. In Tracks on the River, he has a couple haiku about a still or motionless heron. Then again, in Outside Robins Sing: Selected Haiku, there is one more haiku about a still heron.
two fisherman
almost as still
as the herons
Paul O. Williams, Outside Robins Sing: Selected Haiku
It almost seems like Williams is referring to the heron from some of his earlier haiku. I see the connection because I’ve read a lot of his haiku, but most may not catch this. Williams does say in Tracks on the River, that “I have limited the collection to poems about one place – a stretch of southern Illinois near the Mississippi River – in the hopes that one poem may contribute to another in helping to create a larger impression.
I think that Paul O. Williams writes a lot like Peggy Lyles in the fact that they both write a lot about nature; especially animals. They both write about what surrounds them; things that they are familiar with and see everyday. Just as I had mentioned before; Williams’s haiku in Tracks on the River are all taken and written from where he is from; southern Illinois and near the Mississippi river. And in Lyles book, To Hear the Rain, she calls her haiku “pieces of the story of my life”. “It is possible to rip through the whole collection in minutes. That will produce a shrug and a yawn” (Williams, Tracks on the River, 6). Both Williams and Lyles ask their readers to look deeper into their work and read them slowly and focus while doing so.
bitter wind…
the hand that cups the flame
aglow
Peggy Lyles, To Hear the Rain, 63
November wind-
the sound of one shutter
clapping
Paul O. Williams, Outside Robins Sing: Selected Haiku
Paul O. Williams seems to have quite a few haiku about wind, but I chose this one to compare with Lyles because the wind is an annoyance in both haiku. What I take from Lyles haiku is that the wind is bitter which is obviously not a good thing, and the person is trying to light a cigarette, but can not because of this wind. When reading Williams’s haiku, I picture a very calm and quiet night until the wind picks up this shutter is making all this noise that disturbs everyone. So in both of these haiku, the wind is the nuisance.
silver salmon scales
rinse from his hands
back into the sea
Paul O. Williams, Outside Robins Sing: Selected Haiku
This is one of my favorite haiku by Williams. How awesome would it be to live on an island? That’s what I see when I read this haiku. I picture a man on a beautiful, peaceful island where the only thing he has to worry about is catching dinner for the day. There is nothing else to be bothered by. No sitting in traffic, no violence, no pollution; nothing! The images I picture when reading this are very soothing and that’s why I love this haiku.
Williams does an excellent job using the seasonal element in his haiku. Whether he just comes out and says that it is summer, or if he uses a certain word that gives the reader an idea of what season it is.
turning the glass—
the yellowjacket
drank from this side
Paul O. Williams, Tracks on the River, 16
This haiku has the seasonal element without coming right out and telling us what season it is. The use of the yellowjacket implies that it is summer. Williams does a good job doing this in most of his haiku.
Overall, I love Williams work. I like how he voices his many opinions in The Nick of Time: Essays on Haiku Aesthetics and I love his sense of humor. His senryu are all great. His haiku have all the elements that a great haiku should have. Including the seasonal element and great imagery, which I believe are very important.
Work Cited
Williams, Paul O. Outside Robins Sing: Selected Haiku. Decatur, IL: Brooks Books, 1999.
Williams, Paul O. The Nick of Time: Essays on Haiku Aesthetics. Gurga, Lee and Welch, Michael Dylan. Foster City, CA: Press Here, 2001.
Williams, Paul O. Tracks on the River. Coneflower Press, 1982.
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