Bruce Nielsen • Bruce's Haiku •

Nicholas A. Virgilio is as straightforward a haiku writer as I have read. His work hits all areas of the senses. It is easy to smell the dirt flowing from the streets or even from a freshly dug grave from his writings. He will take you to a country scene where you can see and feel the birds and reach right out and stroke the blades of grass. There are also times when you are feeling the air, the temperatures, humidity or even the chill that is present. Emotions are heightened, as he seems to touch many places most people do not want to talk about. There is a sense about his work that says be prepared, almost to caution the reader, as he seems to let everything go when he is writing. Some writers ignore some of the harsher points of life such as death and street life as if they do not really want the reader to remember that it exists. On the other hand, this is where Virgilio will show up and capture the audience with so few words. He genuinely captures a sense of the past and present in many of his haiku giving strong feelings of how good things were and how quickly traumatic experiences, illnesses, or just general changes can alter them. always returning to the turd on the tombstone cemetery flies Nicholas A. Virgilio, Selected Haiku, 12 Many people would look at this haiku and say something like, that is gross or sick. When it is looked at closer it paints a picture of real life and how serious Virgilio was about putting all of the chips on the table and holding nothing back. It is reality at its worst. How can one not picture the animal that came to the cemetery in the dark of the night leaving behind this turd, as he describes it? It is somewhat gross, however it is real and the flies are there right in the picture. The flies have only one thing on their mind and it is not the pain and suffering that the people visiting the cemetery have. They are busy carrying on life and this is how it happens for them. So many people see the cemetery as a place of death, where the flies are the ones who seem to capitalize on this being just a simple fact of life. on the darkened wall of my dead brother’s bedroom: the dates and how tall Nicholas A. Virgilio, SH 21 According to Rod Wilmot (1988), Virgilio’s younger brother died in Viet Nam. This is when it seems that Virgilio really faces the cold hard facts of death. He speaks from the heart in every memory or descriptive haiku when he writes about his brother. In this haiku portraying the room where his brother grew up there is a feeling that he is still present. By using the adjective darkened, there is automatically a feeling that there is not happiness and joy flowing through the room. It seems almost as if the room no longer gets any traffic of any kind. There are no lights on and there are no other family members around. The last line of the haiku refers to the dates measured and how tall his brother was. This paints a picture of a child with many years ahead of him. The markings on the wall are a progression of his brother in size. When a sibling looks at markings like these they most likely have the same progression chart on their childhood wall as well. There are many special memories that come with the dates on the wall. Many would be able to look at a wall such as this and remember the holidays and all of the different occasions associated with the dates. There are many big moments that occur in a childs life and the dates on this wall bring back every single one of them for every place the lines stop. When the lines are never ending and the person who was being marked can reflect upon them it is different, because they share new memories and experiences. In this case, Virgilio captures the exact moment and the past all in one room with memories of not only one past occasion but many. rising and falling… a blanket of blackbirds feeds on the snowy slope Nicholas A. Virgilio, SH 24 This is a good example of the senses being tapped into. There is not much emotion, as many of Virgilo’s haiku seem to have, however there is an absolute transformation of the visual sense from light to dark. One can picture themselves looking up and down as these birds rise and fall from earth to the skies above and back again. There is almost a sensation of a wave of black going across the white snow. The birds seem to be searching the snow for some trace of food. They were probably not expecting this kind of snow, as they would have migrated. Someone has spread some sort of food across the snowdrift in hopes to help the birds get on their way. There is enough food cast across the area that the birds just cover the snow. Not only is there a change in the colors, there is a sense of bitter cold in the air. The birds are moving in a motion that seems as if the wind is blowing them up and down while the snow blasts away at them. The snowy slope that they are flying over is probably a big snowdrift growing with every gust of wind. Each time the birds go up the food they are seeking becomes buried deeper in the snow blowing off the top of the drift. Virgilio really adds a sense of urgency among the birds when he speaks of them rising and falling in the last line of this haiku and referring to the birds blanketing the snow. If he were to speak of birds slowly pecking and picking through bird feed making sure to get the best piece, the reader would have a sense of calmness and easiness among the birds. Instead, Virgilio freezes the body on the spot and makes the reader want to head right for the fireplace inside. not a breath of air in the crowded cathedral: the sermon on Hell Nicholas A. Virgilio, SH 41 This is another example of Virgilio’s straight to the point honesty and truth that he shares in his haiku. The first line itself takes the breath away from the reader. There is an automatic sense of seriousness right from the start. Anytime someone speaks of breath not being in the air, people get a sudden feeling of the comfort factor quickly exiting the room. When people are holding their breath, usually something has caught them off guard or made them very uncomfortable. When someone has a brush with death or they do something defined as death defying, people will generally hold their breath and let out a gasp only when it is over. There is a whole group of people in one area gathered together. When people get together, generally someone is talking or making sounds. In this haiku there is not a sound being made, it is as if a pin could be heard hitting the ground between the preachers’ words. The sermon is so hard hitting everyone is just frozen. They do not even want to move, not a breath. The subject of Hell is one that will run first timers right out of a church and some of the regulars as well. This is such a harsh subject that even preachers seem to preach it with all seriousness. It is so real that when one really sits and thinks deeply about it, if they are not right with God, it will put a weight on their chest that will not allow a breath of air. This is where Virgilio hits home, with the actual setting of people in the church, realizing what they may face, for all of the sins that they have committed in their lives. This is definitely, where most people step out of their comfort zones and Virgilio seems to step right in with his haiku, he seems to fear no subject when it comes to his writing. on the petition condemning Agent Orange the names of the dead Nicholas A. Virgilio, SH 51 There is a section of the book Selected Haiku titled Litany for the Dead where Virgilio goes into several areas containing people’s deaths that most do not want to discuss. One of the haiku in this series is listed above. It starts with a petition, which most people associate with a group of people looking to change or make something better for a cause that they support. It may not always be better for other people however, the ones who sign it are usually in favor of the subject matter. This particular petition seems, at the beginning, to be a positive one trying to ban Agent Orange, which was used in the Vietnam War. Later, it was found to be a known carcinogen. This is when people decided that it should no longer be used because of the harm it was causing people who were exposed to it. What takes this haiku for a spin is the way that the names are on the petition. Generally, you will find the names of living people on petitions that have recently signed their names in support of whatever the cause is listed. Virgilio throws another curve in when he adds on the petition the last line stating, the names of the dead. This really adds to the seriousness and urgency of this petition being passed into a law. There is probably actually a list of names in support of the condemning of the Agent Orange and the list of those who are dead would definitely support this as well. You can hear the cries of those who are still alive coupled with those who have passed in trying to get rid of this awful killer. One cannot help but have a sense of the past with those who died tied directly in with the present time and those who are still alive. The texture of the paper and the countless number of names can be seen right in the palm of the hand holding the petition. the old neighborhood falling to the wrecking ball: names in the sidewalk. Nicholas A. Virgilio, SH 65 The first line of this haiku relates to everyone who reads it. It truly does have a sense of allness to pull the reader in and capture them in time. One cannot help but picture the old neighborhood that they grew up in, no matter where it was. The friends they grew up with and the games the kids used to play. The roar of traffic found in some neighborhoods and the quietness that a cul-de-sac brings in others. No matter where a person was reared, the old neighborhood brings back particular memories of the past. The second line is a crushing blow to many of those memories that are created everyday in neighborhoods across the country. The harsh reality is that demolitions happen and progress continues. Some areas are renovated and others are just left idle. This line also adds a current timeline of the building being crushed by a wrecking crew. These people have no idea of what they are destroying, as it becomes just a job to them. The link back to when this neighborhood was once new is felt when the names in the sidewalk are revealed in the final line. Many times people will write names in brand new concrete and sometimes even a date. This mark gives people an idea of when the concrete was poured along with who did the work. It is very similar to an artist signing their work. Virgilio purposely goes from old to new and back again in this haiku making the memories of the reader to go into overdrive of past memories, all while picturing a large building coming down whether the readers or someone else’s. heat before the storm: a fly disturbs the quiet of the empty store Nicholas A. Virgilio, SH 11 summer night we turn out all the lights to hear the rain Peggy Lyles, THTR 45 Although the above comparison is between two summer weather patterns, it is from very different perspectives. Virgilio tends to take the reader out of their comfort zone and it shows in the comparison of the above haiku. He makes the summer heat almost unbearable, and you can feel the humidity in the air, where Lyles adds a softer more comforting mood to the summer rain. Virgilio makes you want to go and get a drink, where Lyles almost immediately quenches that thirst with her softness. The fly that is added in Virgilio’s haiku just seems to make the skin crawl and gets on every nerve possible and Lyles, once again, just settles all of that when the lights are turned out. This is a good example of the tougher and harder hitting side of Virgilio when it comes to haiku writing. Nicholas Virgilio is an excellent writer who is not afraid to touch the areas of our lives that many people would rather keep left somewhat hidden. He seems to have the answers to unknown questions, like the psychologist that so many people visit, with hopes of getting to the root cause of their pain and anguish. He gets right to the heart of what is on his mind, without any worries of what others may say. Virgilio knows exactly how to bring the spaces between now and the past right together in a single haiku and can place the reader in a position standing right next to him, many times taking us right out of our very comfort zone into true reality.