Hailee Peck on Dietmar Tauchner

Global Haiku
Millikin University, Spring 2012

Hailee
Hailee Peck

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No More Words: A Reader Response Essay on Dietmar Tauchner's Haiku

by Hailee Peck
May 2, 2012

Dietmar Tauchner was born in 1972 in Austria. He currently works in Puchberg and Vienna, holding various positions. He is a social worker and world traveler, yet he is most well-known for his work as an author of haiku. Tauchner's work has been published in several anthologies and haiku collections including Simply Haiku: A Quarterly Journal of Japanese Short Form Poetry, TinyWords, and Nachtnautik. He recently published his first collection of haiku, in the form of a short print book titled as far as i can, by Red Moon Press, 2010. In addition to publishing print and electronic haiku collections, Tauchner has been the co-director of four short haiku films, and he currently works as editor of the Austrian-based international haiku web magazine Chrysanthemum <http://www.chrysanthemum-haiku.net>.

Tauchner is a highly recognized author in the haiku genre, having won First Place at the Croatian International Haiku Contest Ludbreg in 2004, and First Prize for the Haiku International Association in Tokyo in 2008. He competed in the Kusamakura International Haiku Competition several years in a row, earning second prize in 2011 and third place in 2005, 2009, and 2010. In addition to having his name on several award-winning haiku, he has attended several national Haiku Conferences and participated in lectures and readings throughout various countries.

In his essay, "The Playful Mind: What Makes American Haiku Different," which he presented at the Haiku North America Conference in Port Townsend, WA on September 22, 2005 and published on his official haiku website <http://www.bregengemme.net/>, Tauchner reveals characteristics of what he believes makes a good haiku. He writes that " . . . it is important . . . to integrate our own historical background in form and content . . . I think it is most important to be open for everything in our daily lives, to allow the open and playful mind." I wish to focus somewhat on Tauchner's incorporation of his daily life and personal historical background in his own haiku, and how this makes him stand out from other authors.

In his recent haiku collection as far as i can, Tauchner includes a section called lurid light, containing haiku written in the summer of 2003. That summer, Tauchner took a trip to visit the historical site of Mauthausen, a historic memorial that was once the largest concentration camp in Austria. Having been born and raised in Austria, this trip was largely connected to Tauchner's historic background, and through his poetic accounts of the trip, he intertwines his haiku writing with his historic background.

the child's eyes green beyond barbed wire

Tauchner writes this haiku to capture a moment that may or may not have actually been viewed, and yet it still holds a deep symbolism. Because we as readers do not know if this moment was actually viewed or simply fictionally constructed by Tauchner, this poem is a prime example of Tauchner's belief in "allowing the open and playful mind," as well as his belief in incorporating his personal background into his work. While the haiku includes the obvious imagery of a child inside the camp looking out between barbed wire, it also alludes to a well-known saying. Most people are familiar with the saying "The grass is always greener on the other side," but in this case it really does apply. People could assume that the child's eyes are green, or if a pause is entered, it could be read "the child's eyes, green beyond barbed wire." Then, the haiku gives the effect of seeing the color green reflected in the child's eyes from the grass and the world beyond the cruelty he is confined to. In his experience, it really is greener on the other side, and his hopes and wishes are to escape the confines of the concentration camp and go on living the life he had before the war. The color green is often used to represent new growth and new life, so in a way, this poem could also be suggesting that there is a hope for this child. Although he is being subjected to cruelty, he hasn't lost his sense of hope that he will one day be free again.

someone laughs on the way to the quarry

This is another example from the same section of as far as i can that incorporates Tauchner's personal historic experience. I like the way it captures that awkward moment when someone does something so out of place for the situation. A concentration camp, especially one that is now a national memorial, is supposed to be a somber place, a place of remembrance where those who were killed can be honored. Instead, when a person laughs in such a place, it seems almost disrespectful. The haiku also shows how the passing of time can heal all things—in a place previously filled with cruelty and death, there can now be joy and life.

a sign
in front of the crematorium
"please don't smoke"

gas chamber
a man lifts up
his child

These haiku both incorporate Tauchner's background, and together they seemed to me to make a very good matched pair. The first haiku was not selected to be in the lurid light section of as far as i can, but when I saw it on the bregengemme site, it really spoke to me. It makes me feel sad because of the cruel reality that is pictured through irony—there is now a sign that says please don't smoke when, in the past, the crematorium had smoke pouring out of it every single day when it was used to burn the bodies of the Jews that were killed in Mauthausen. The second haiku makes me visualize a small child interested in seeing the gas chamber but too short to see anything. A father sees his child struggling, so he reaches down to help him or her up to see over the crowd. This haiku also makes me feel sad because it reminds me that this father sees his child struggling and does what he can to help it, whereas fathers that were in Mauthausen when it was a concentration camp were unable to do a single thing to try and help their own children. Again, I think this poem is ironic because the child in it is so curious, so eager to see this gas chamber, while children in the actual concentration camp before it became a memorial would be terrified to even see the gas chamber, let alone be near it. The reason I think these two make a good matched pair is because the irony within each one parallels the other. The irony in both cases is in reference to what Mauthausen used to be and the experiences of the people that were there in the past compared with what Mauthausen is now and the emotions and curiosity of the tourists that come to visit the memorial.

dark summer sun
dark summer sun
in the shacks

I include this example because it is one of Tauchner's haiku that incorporates his historical experiences, but it also allows me to relate my own background and experiences to his. Reading this haiku, I am instantly reminded of my summers spent on my grandparent's Pennsylvania farm. That was such a large part of my childhood, and there are many things that remind me of those periods. This poem especially brings to mind the warm sunny afternoons spent with my sisters and brother. My younger brother and two of my younger sisters would be on one team for hide and go seek, and my other younger sister, only three years younger than me would be on my team. We would spend hours seeking out the most exclusive hiding places, but my personal favorite was among the hay bales in the upper levels of the old barn. As the sun would begin to set outside, the cracks between the wall planks would highlight our faces like tabby cats. This haiku captures the essence of that scene—waiting in the barn as the sun sets and seeing the difference between the dark and the sun, each competing for a spot on my face. For Tauchner, the scene is an old barracks in Mauthausen, so despite the fact that my memories are happy ones of summers past, his thoughts are more in line with the feelings of the previous occupants and the memories they left behind. This response to Tauchner's haiku demonstrates the general ability of haiku to communicate different meanings to different people.

Another aspect of Tauchner's work that I want to respond to is his use of what Basho refers to as "sabi." Sabi can be defined as the technique of writing haiku that bring in personal and almost human emotions such as loneliness, but without ever focusing on human entities.

homeless…
a plastic bag drifts
across the sidewalk

This poem captures the essence of a lonely plastic bag floating across the sidewalk, nowhere to go and nowhere to be. It brings a sense of loneliness to Tauchner's writing, even though the plastic bag is an inanimate object. Tauchner has a talent for conveying profound human feelings and emotions without ever allowing humans to enter into his haiku. This haiku portrays the idea of isolation and loneliness perfectly without a single human entity or even a reference to one, but even with the lack of humans, we can each relate to the solitude the plastic bag represents. I hate to resort to pop culture references, but it reminds me of the Katy Perry song "Firework." The lyrics go, "Do you ever feel/like a plastic bag/drifting through the wind/wanting to start again?" That song relates a blowing plastic bag to a person's feelings of wanting to start over again because they feel so useless and purposeless, simply drifting through the wind, the same emotions that Tauchner personifies with the plastic bag haiku.

One of the books that we read in Global Haiku class was Haiku Guy by David G Lanoue, and from it I pulled a snail haiku in order to compare Tauchner's style with Lanoue's.

little snail
inch by inch, climb
Mount Fuji!

a snail
thrusts out its horns
soft rain

This matched pair provides a good example of the idea behind sabi. I matched the two haiku because of their focus on the snail, although I feel that each haiku has its own emotional association. The first haiku seems to be encouraging and uplifting, reminiscent of the Little Engine that Could. At first when I read this English translation, I imagined simply a snail traversing a mountain. I took this to be signifying a huge challenge that someone is trying to overcome. My interpretation changed somewhat upon a second reading. I now take this haiku to be depicting a snail slowly creeping up the side of a hill which, in his world, appears to be Mt. Fuji, but in ours is little less than a good sledding hill. Now, my mind interprets this as an encouraging poem, a reminder to not give up. The snail may think he'll never make it to the top, but we know the hill isn't as big as it seems and if he keeps going, inch by inch, he will finally make it. He cannot simply take the obstacle at face value because he is deceived—it is not nearly as large as it appears. The second haiku, to me, was a bit more subdued. I picture a snail, cautiously testing its surroundings. Where the first snail was headstrong and anxious to get on its way, this snail is more careful. He doesn't want to rush into anything, he wants to take his time and enjoy his journey. Neither haiku deals with humans, yet through the use of snails and nature, human emotions are depicted.

nightflight
Tokyo an arrangement
of lights

I like that this poem once again incorporates the human emotion without humans. I imagine a bird's eye view looking down on Tokyo and seeing all the tiny flickering lights that attest to the presence of humans, and yet there are no specific humans in the scene. It is almost as if an outsider is watching the city, yet the people are content to stay in their tiny world and focus on their own lives. It makes me think about how the world moves on despite the actions of one solitary person. Again, this haiku captures the feeling of loneliness, realizing your physical insignificance in such a large world, paralleling the reaction from "homeless . . . " In addition, it is specified by Tauchner on the Bregengemme site that the rengay collection that this haiku belongs to was written while on a night flight to Tokyo, so this is evidence of Tauchner's use of personal connections in his haiku.

crashing between rocks
even the sea
seems frustrated

no more words
rain
over the sea

Here, I have another matched pair, but this time I selected a haiku by Tauchner compared to one of my own original haiku. I picked these two to compare because I think that they really complement one another well. When put side by side, they almost seem to tell a story; however, the way they tell the story incorporates human emotion without the presence of any human characters. In this way, both haiku communicate the feeling of loneliness and isolation through the technique of sabi. I think the matched pair represents a couple having an argument, and how the sea is reflecting the dynamics of this argument. In my haiku, the argument is just starting, and the couple is frustrated with each other. Tensions are rising and voices are getting louder and angrier just as the waves of the sea are getting more and more violent. Then, moving on to Tauchner's haiku, the fight has ended and it didn't end well. One of the persons has left and the other is extremely sad. There are no more words to be said, nothing that can fix what has already been said. The person left behind looks out over the sea and their tears fall like the rain that has moved in.

A final aspect of Tauchner's poetry that I wish to comment on is his reminder of the way life can simply pass someone by. He seems to be incorporating somewhat of a "call to action," or at the very least, a wake-up call to society. He is constantly touching on how fast life passes, and seems to be encouraging his readers to wake up before they miss what life has to offer them.

cherry blossoms
my life
my death

This one represents the fragility and brevity of life, and it does so through the use of observations Tauchner makes about his daily life. As mentioned in the introduction, Tauchner defines a good haiku author as being open to instances in his or her daily life. He incorporates his own advice into this poem—his simple watching of cherry blossoms inspires a thought-provoking haiku. Tauchner is relating his life and death to cherry blossoms. These blossoms are so fragile that by the time they have fallen, they are already dead within two days. Their life span is brief, lasting only the short time they are allowed in the spring. I think watching the blossoms fall and die reminds Tauchner that he must embrace life while he has the chance because it won't last forever. Perhaps this idea originates from his personal experiences. Tauchner enjoys traveling, and does so quite often, so maybe throughout his travels he has come to appreciate life more and realize that the time we have is fleeting, so we better enjoy it while we can.

morning fog
passengers lost
in newspapers

I find humor in the double meaning throughout this haiku. At first glance, the line morning fog appears to be observing the actual fog in the morning. However, I see it as the sleepy morning fog that envelops everyone in the morning before they have fully woken up. No one wants to talk, so they pull out their newspapers to avoid conversation. Then, instead of being lost in the newspapers meaning being engrossed in them, I see it as meaning they are literally lost, not understanding what they are reading because of the morning fog they are in. This haiku reminds me again of the theme of appreciating life, as Tauchner seems to be portraying a moment lost in the lives of all of the passengers—a moment which they could all be making the most of but are instead lost in their own worlds and missing out on the bigger picture.

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Works Cited

B R E G E N G E M M E. Dietmar Tauchner. Web. 19 Apr. 2012. <http://www.bregengemme.net/>.

Lanoue, David G. Haiku Guy. Winchester, VA: Red Moon. 2000. Print.

Tauchner, Dietmar. as far as i can. Winchester, VA: Red Moon. 2010. Print.

Tauchner, Dietmar. "Homeless." Tinywords: Haiku and Other Small Poetry 10.3 (2010). Tinywords. WordPress. Web. 17 Apr. 2012. <http://tinywords.com/2010/10/13/4237/>.