Penny Harman • Penny's Haiku

As a social worker and writer living in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, Joanne Morcom writes and publishes in two totally different genres. She is an accomplished and published writer of haiku, tanka, senryu, rengay, and haibun. She also writes and wins awards for her flash fiction and nonfiction articles. She is quoted in a flyer (“Pale Moon,” published 2001) as saying “I’m a haikuist, essayist, social worker and would-be freelance writer trapped in the urban wasteland of Calgary, Alberta.” She mentions that she sometimes takes herself to the outdoors to add depth to her creations but most of her writing is done in urban locations. One side of her writing includes the poetry of haiku, tanka, and haibun. She belongs to a group that also enjoys writing rengay. She has received awards for her poetry and recognition for her accomplishments in this field. The other writing side of Joanne Morcom involves crime. She is a voracious reader of true crime books and horror fiction. She is quoted (“Pale Moon”, 2001) that she sees “a parallel between haiku’s dualistic qualities and the moral polarities of the human soul.” While she can see similarities, she wraps up this self-evaluation with the comment (“Pale Moon”, 2001) “I also just like to be scared.” This mixture of her crime and mystery fascinations along with her talents and love of haiku poetry, help her to create haiku written with a haunting edge. While traditional haiku can be about nature and the pleasures to be found in the outdoors, Joanne Morcom puts a twist on her writings that can cause the reader to become frightened as they read. Causing that fright is one of the things she enjoys doing. She also likes to use humor to startle her readers. Reading each of her poems is an adventure. Will this one scare you or make you smile? In email correspondence with the author (from Joanne Morcom, dated June 29, 2004), she states, “I love a good mystery or crime, in fiction and in real life. Some of my writing reflects this rather morbid preoccupation.” Because she lives in the city, her poetry is more reflective about human nature. She takes what she knows about human nature and writes to capture the reader’s interests as she lets her writings take unexpected twists and turns. The first Haiku I read by Joanne Morcom (“The Haiku Anthology”, page 127) was surrounding the quiet bungalow yellow crime scene tape This appealed to me immediately because of the surprise of the crime scene tape around the bungalow. I was drawn to the poem because I was expecting to read that bushes, flowers, and trees surrounded the quiet bungalow. Those are all the pieces of nature that I have an expectation of seeing around a bungalow. In reading just those two lines, I can envision a very small white cottage with a short white picket fence around the property, and with trees and flowers caressing the house. However, that ideal mental picture is completely changed in her third line. Into this calm and serene scene comes a bright yellow crime scene tape stretched around the house. Now the house and its landscape have taken on a scary and stark atmosphere. With those four words, she has destroyed my tranquil vision of the cottage in the woods and turned it into a mystery that has to be solved. Now I want to know what happened. Did someone die here? Is someone seriously injured? Did they catch the person responsible for whatever happened in this serene setting? She has taken a twist with her writing that I did not expect, but one that excited and scared me. That is what she enjoys doing with her readers. Another example of Joanne Morcom’s writings is illustrated in the following tanka found on a website (http://www.ahapoetry.com/ts94.HTM visited June 26, 2004): crash bang boom goes the midnight thunder I snuggle closer to you and then remember you don’t live here anymore This tanka is startling to the reader. I am immediately drawn into the thunderstorm and the noises that have awakened me at midnight. I was disturbed in my sleep by the storm and sought my mate as a source of comfort. Being awakened by a loud clap of thunder is captured in the first two lines. The next line brings me comfort as I know that I am snuggling next to my mate and I will be safe in his arms. Then the next two lines build on a different outcome. There is no one else in the bed. I am alone. Now she has turned this tanka into a different direction that I wasn’t expecting. First I get drawn into the visions of the storm, then I get a hint of comfort, and then that is dashed by the realization that I am alone. She has put a twist on this scene that now leaves me uncomfortable as I am alone in a storm. She has captured elements of human nature as the first reaction to the storm was to seek comfort from someone else and the next reaction was a sense of being alone. The poem leaves the reader very disturbed and unsettled. She uses what she knows about human nature and our reactions to things in nature to make us vulnerable to the way she loves to twist the situation. If this had ended after the first three lines, this would have been a very pleasant haiku with a celebration of a close moment between a couple. Instead, she adds a twist that lets different feelings into the scene. Instead of comfort, now there is a feeling of loneliness. She is very good at exposing these emotional reactions. Her haiku can also cause a sense of fright. A web published collection of various haiku (http://www.inzenity.com/mythku/mythsrc.shtml visited June 26, 2004) has several of her haiku. This website celebrates the uniqueness of different authors and encourages creativity. The rules are simple and stated on the main page (http://www.inzenity.com/mythku/ visited July 2, 2004). The haiku gathered here all have a raw edge to them and are not the typical nature-loving poetry that a reader would expect to find. Joanne Morcom’s haiku not only fit on these pages but also thrive there. Several of her haiku are on this page and it is not surprising that her haiku fit so well on a website devoted to unusual and frightening haiku. Some of her work found on this site includes: dark woods I won’t go near them even in the daylight In this haiku, she changes her format a little. She immediately lets the reader know that the woods are dark and dangerous. Her second line makes it even clearer that this is not a place to go. Her third line wraps the thought of danger around the woods. She knows human nature so well that she is able to create a sense of foreboding and danger. I know that the woods are filled with trees growing closely together. I know that stepping into this dark world would be dangerous and frightening. She again paints a picture with her words that convey danger and fright. She is using the human emotion of fear to make the reader uncomfortable. And it works! The next sequence of haiku (http://www.inzenity.com/mythku/ visited July 2, 2004). seems to tell a very chilling story. Several haiku on this site almost flow together as a rengay. This series scares the reader with a tale of murder as she has been able to weave a short murder story in these separate haiku. The first example sets the tone about someone who is very unstable. it’s better to be dead than live with these thoughts You know that they have thoughts that are difficult, if not impossible, to live with. There is a fear that she conveys in these few lines, but there are so many questions that do not get answered. What are the thoughts that are so evil or bad that the person saying this thinks they would be better dead? She has taken a fact of human nature and twisted it so that we know there is suffering because of terrible thoughts. As shown before, she makes the reader think and wonder. Her haiku seem to cause multiple questions to come to mind. What is so awful that being dead would be the best solution? She lets the reader arrive at his or her own conclusions. The next haiku immediately tells us that a murder has taken place. It starts off with “after killing him” so the reader knows this will not have a fairy tale ending. There is no sense of remorse for this killing. Actually, the facts are just stated with no emotional reaction. The emotional reaction is left for the reader. after killing him I bury the pieces except the head This piece tells so many details about the murder. For some reason the body was cut apart into several pieces. I can image the murderer taking a shovel and burying the pieces around a large area. The pieces are piled and the murderer digs a hole for each one. At the very end, only the head is left to bury. I can envision the murderer at that point realizing that they might get away with this murder. Now they want someone to know what has happened. In order to make a statement, they do not bury the head. That is their trophy, their prize, or maybe just the grave marker. Joanne Morcom knows that human nature makes some people so anxious for recognition of their evil deeds that they will do something stupid like not bury the head just so everyone will know what they did. She has a good handle on this dark side of human nature. For the readers who are not murderers and will not experience such a decision of whether to bury the head or not, she just plain gives them a scare. What a morbid thought that someone is murdered and the body isn’t buried but is cut into pieces. What a horrible thought. But she does not stop there. Now she tries to frighten the reader even more by leaving the head out of the gravesite. The reader can imagine walking in the woods and suddenly coming upon a head sitting on the ground! With three lines, she is letting the reader envision a horrible scene. She is so in touch with human nature that she knows how to write to shock the reader. Building on her understanding of human nature, she continues on this same vein. Now comes the realization of the punishment for the crime that has been committed. writing in my prison cell of the horror to come Again, the reader starts reading without knowing what is coming. The first line is just the word writing. The reader can imagine all types of writing. This is not a fearful word. Then she begins to make the reader uncomfortable. The next line speaks of a prison cell. Our mind paints the picture of a stark and dreary prison cell. But maybe it isn’t that bad. After all, the prisoner is writing. Those two lines make it seem like a prison cell could be peaceful. If you are writing in a prison cell maybe it won’t be so bad. Right? Wrong. She finishes the haiku with the last line that mentions the horrors to come. Now our vision of a prison cell goes back to our original thoughts. Prison is not a nice place to be. Prison and prisoners are to be feared and avoided. She has now tugged at the human emotion of fear again. Just when we think it might be tolerable to be in prison, she reminds us of all our memories and fearful thoughts of being in prison. She has managed to scare the reader again. The last haiku in this series that seem to fit together is: only you and I know the terrible truth soon, only you This haiku starts slowly with a mental picture of two people. The use of the word only seems this will be a very private moment or thought. Then in the next line she manages to start to scare us. What is this terrible truth that only two people know? It has to be something pretty bad or frightening or evil. As the reader’s mind starts to wonder what this terrible truth is, she slams the last line at us. Now we know that the person saying these lines to us is going to die. Is this our murderer who was writing in prison? Was this murdered caught because they did not bury the head of their victim? And how do we know all these things but will still be alive? Did we help with this awful deed? She knows how to tap into our fears and create a situation where we are frightened. Joanne Morcom is an accomplished writer. She said (email from Joanne Morcom, dated June 29, 2004), that she is inspired by “reading other poets’ work.” She enjoys writing “from observation of ordinary, everyday things.” She is a social worker by profession so she is trained in how to help people; sometimes because they know how to ask for the help they need, and sometimes because she is observant and can read between the lines. This ability comes in handy for her when she is creating her haiku. When asked how does she write haiku, her tongue-in-cheek but honest answer was (email from Joanne Morcom, dated June 29, 2004), “with great difficulty.” She mentions fantastic “haiku moments when the poems seem to write themselves.” She goes on to mention other times when she finds herself “struggling with every single word and its exact position in the haiku.” This care to find just the right word is appreciated by the readers as her words create visions in their minds. She went on to mention that “some poems require a lot of editing, and others none at all.” Her humor comes out again in the comment that a few poems “deserve nothing less than a decent burial.” She acknowledges that writing haiku can be difficult but it is very rewarding. She admits that along with writing with a sense of humor, she also enjoys writing that reflects her “morbid preoccupation.” Three examples of this are shown below: spring thaw the river gives up another body The reader almost expects that the spring thaw will be the river giving up the winter ice and snow. She manages to twist that around so the river is letting a body rise to the top to be discovered. What a gruesome picture that creates in the reader’s mind. She takes a scene that is pleasant, a river, and causes it to scare us. from her cherry red lips . . . a gruesome confession Wow. The vision of a beautiful woman with her make-up carefully applied is rather exciting. Then we get to the word gruesome which makes us apprehensive. What will be gruesome about this scene? She finishes it off with the one-word line—confession. The woman with the cherry red lips has done something awful. Joanne Morcom uses what we expect from human nature and uses it against us. We expect a beautiful, maybe even delicate, woman with the cherry red lips. Instead, we have someone who has committed a gruesome crime. By having a break in the words between the red lips and the phrase including gruesome, she gives the reader time to use their imagination. When I first read this, I thought something was wrong with this woman. Maybe it would be a gruesome death. Or maybe the red lips were included in a gruesome sight. By using the word confession, she has twisted what we expected from this woman and now she is a criminal. badlands highway the rough road sign bullet riddled This haiku seems to be building on the first line where she tells us what it will be about. We are on a badlands highway and things will probably get worse. Then they do get worse. Now the road sign, that has probably been there forever, has had bullets shot at it. Is this a place we want to stay? Absolutely not! She again uses our emotion of fear to make us want to not think about this place any longer. She again succeeds in causing fright. In conclusion, Joanne Morcom is a great horror haiku writer. She knows that she enjoys writing about human nature, rather than Mother Nature. She can take innocent and benign settings and turn them into terror by using our human emotions against us. She enjoys causing the reader to feel fright or apprehension as she attempts to scare her audience. She also likes to work humor into her writings. Sometimes the humor is also unexpected so she is able to surprise the reader. I think her best writing incorporates her ability to cause the reader to become frightened or surprised at what she has written and her ability to select just the right words to string together. She deserves all the awards and honors she has received so far and will be interesting to watch in the future.