The Extraordinary Ordinary Haiku of Cor Van Den Heuvel Haiku has been popular in the Japanese culture for several centuries. Yet in our American culture, it has only been popular for about fifty years. Cor Van Den Heuvel has been a major contributor to this new American haiku society. In 1974, he put together one of the first American collections of haiku, The Haiku Anthology, and he has written several additional books since that time, including two additional editions of his haiku anthology. He believes that haiku are not simply three lines of 5-7-5 syllables and they do not simply paint a picture for the reader. He believes what distinguishes haiku are not the set number of syllables, but the "concision, perception, and awareness" of them. It is a short poem which "records the essence of a moment keenly perceived in which nature becomes human nature." Haiku are refined into touchstones of suggestiveness and for the reader to pick up on the author’s suggestions, they must share in the creative process. They must be willing to associate and pick up on those echoes, which are implicit in the words of the poem itself. He writes about everyday events: nothing profound, life-altering or earth-shattering. I have found most of his haiku have to do with the disappearance or emergence of something, usually light. I think that he does this because of the fact that most people do not experience such profound events often. Therefore, it is hard for people to relate to those issues. However, by writing so eloquently about such everyday, ho-hum events, he turns ordinary life experiences into extraordinary and gives the reader a sense of appreciation for what they experience daily. While Van Den Heuvel’s haiku subjects vary greatly, it was his collection on baseball that first caught my eye. In The Haiku Anthology, the topics of seven of thirty-five haiku are on the subject of baseball. As an athlete myself, I was able to relate very closely to these. They brought back fond memories of playing catch with my father in my yard, youth softball leagues with both my sisters and friends and three years of high school softball. Despite my personal background, I believe Cor writes these haiku in such a way that any reader, despite their athletic background, could easily and vividly relate to the situations he is trying to project. lingering snow the game of catch continues into evening           The Haiku Anthology, p 228 This first haiku describes playing a game of catch in early spring. Even though he does not directly mention the season, the spring season itself is in fact alluded to in this haiku by the mentioning of the snow that lingers from the winter. The reader can feel the dampness of the ground and even though the snow has not yet melted and there is still a chill in the air, the two people are so excited about playing catch and the fact that spring has arrived, that they do not care. It conveys the emotion of excitement and relaxation at the same time and one can feel the grittiness and dustiness of the baseball or softball glove that has been sitting in the attic or toy chest all winter. It also made me remember the way a glove smells, leathery, dusty and dirty, and the sound of playing catch outside. after the game a full moon rises over the left field fence           The Haiku Anthology, p 229 Even though this haiku does not directly deal with baseball, it has wonderful imagery of the moon and sky. This haiku also indirectly conveys many emotions. It conveys the excitement of the game winding down in the evening and one can feel the emptiness of the field and the coolness of the evening descending like a blanket. Perhaps in the distance, the reader can hear a cricket chirping or a dog barking. I really enjoy this haiku because Van Den Heuvel deliberately chose not to focus the excitement of the game itself and to write about something most people may find insignificant. Which as I discussed earlier, is one of his trademarks and I think, one of his most appealing features. The fact that Cor can turn ordinary moments in life into extraordinary is the second reason why his works attracted me. His works on simple everyday events are relaxing and provide very vivid imagery. the sun goes down my shovel strikes a spark from the dark earth           The Haiku Anthology, p 238 From this haiku, I imagined a person either gardening or building something and in the process of digging, they strike a rock. Something that may seem insignificant to most people, but Van Den Heuvel writes it in a way that it becomes beautiful and transfixed in our minds. This haiku gives the reader a very specific image and allows them to interpret anything they want to after he is finished. It makes me think of my father in his garden. Still in his work clothes, he sometimes will stay out until dusk tilling and weeding. Gardening for him is something he enjoys and takes pride in. He loves the hard work and labor it takes, while at the same time, the same task requires patience and a caring hand. Once again, Van Den Heuvel manages to take an everyday event, nothing profound or earth shattering, and turn it into something beautiful. Another example: the little girl hangs all the ornaments on the nearest branch           The Haiku Handbook, p 140 This haiku is describing a little girl decorating a Christmas tree. The imagery presented by this haiku is very vivid, also. The reader can see the little girl reaching to put the ornament on the tree, the bareness of the upper section of the tree, and the different colors of the ornaments. Yet at the same time, Van Den Heuvel again manages to leave room for the readers’ own interpretation. There are many questions that we still wonder when reading like, where are her parents? Is it snowing outside? Are the lights on the tree yet and if they are, are they the same color or different? Each person may have different answers to these questions therefore leading to the image that each individual reader wants. A number of other haikus Van Den Heuvel has written have to do with the disappearance or reappearance of something, usually light. This is something that happens to almost everyone, almost everyday: the sun comes up, the sun goes down, people enter our lives and people exit, we lose things and we find them. It is something that sounds very simple, but the ability to write about something that seems insignificant is what distinguishes Van Den Huevel as a great haiku writer. While the actual disappearance or emergence itself is sometimes, but not always, the main focus of the haiku, it adds an extra touch of simplicity. To see what I am talking about, look at the aforementioned haiku about the shovel. That haiku has both a disappearance and an emergence of light. While the sun is setting and disappearing, that is not the main focus of the haiku. The main image is the spark from the shovel and its contrast against the dark earth. To see example where light is alluded to, but not the main focus, let’s look at some additional haiku. autumn twilight— in the closed barbershop the mirrors darken           The Haiku Anthology, p 233 You can see the sun setting, feel the coolness of the shadows and yet, the light itself is not the main focus of the haiku. The main focus is the emptiness of the closed shop and the fact that the disappearing sun is making the job of the mirrors more difficult. Another which has nothing to do with light, but with the branch of a tree instead: a branch waves in the window and is gone           The Haiku Anthology, p 233 In this haiku, I interpreted the primary focus of the haiku to be the branch disappearing from the window. The tree simply adds the connection of the haiku to people’s everyday lives. However despite what I envision, this haiku, like I have mentioned before, provides the reader their own opportunity to imagine what exactly they can see from their window, perhaps if it is storming, and who’s home they are in—maybe they are at a slumber party. Great haiku and great haiku writers do not to give too much information and instead allow the reader to answer those questions on their own. One more example: an empty wheelchair rolls in from the waves           The Haiku Handbook, p 123 Again, while this haiku leaves many open ended questions for the reader (i.e. who does the wheelchair belong to, where are they now, who is on the beach and what type of day it is), it brings up one of the final reasons why I chose to write my paper on Cor Van Den Heuvel. I love the way he can make lifeless things seemingly alive. The wheelchair is empty, yet it is rocking back and forth in the water like it is fighting the force of the waves, each time losing the battle to be swept out into the ocean and each time being swept back onto the shore. We could look at the haiku about the branch waving in the window. He describes the tree as if it itself actually made the branch wave like a hand in front of the window. I love that. Also, in the shovel haiku, he writes "my shovel strikes a spark," giving the shovel the action and not himself. Cor Van Den Heuvel is one of many influential haiku writers in America today. His haiku are simple, yet distinguished, and while his subjects are often very specific, they still manage to give the reader the freedom and opportunity to draw their own conclusions. He has an uncanny ability to bring inanimate objects to life. His subjects are simple, everyday topics, which allow all readers not only the ability to relate to his writings, but to be able to draw meaning from their own everyday experiences. These three reasons are what attracted me to him as a reader and also why I believe that Van Den Heuvel is one of the great American haiku authors today. —Maggie Hart