Tonya Parrish • Tonya's Haiku • Profile on L.E. Harr

Lorraine Ellis Harr is one of the most influential women haiku authors that has ever been published. She has motivated and inspired many other women to write haiku and to enter contests that they didn’t think they could win. Half of the women respondents to the Jane Reichhold’s online history, Those Women Writing Haiku, stated that Lorraine Ellis Harr was the first influence on their haiku. Lorraine Ellis Harr was assistant editor of Haiku Highlights until 1972 when she was named editor. She was a very energetic leader with direction, even going so far as to change the name of the magazine to Dragonfly: A Quarterly of Hakiu. Harr even changed her own name to Tombo, which means dragonfly in Japanese. Harr remained the editor of Dragonfly until she turned it over in 1984. As seen by the changing of her name, Lorraine Ellis Harr was much in tune with the Japanese culture. She was a close follower of the pattern of Japanese haiku. In 1972 she organized the Western World Haiku Society, basing the society on Japanese pattern. Subscribers to Dragonfly became members of the organization. In Japan, belonging to a group is belonging to a magazine, which is to belong to a school of writing. It is with this belief that Lorraine Ellis Harr set up the Western World Haiku Society. She amazed the world of haiku with the ease at which she did this. This work, which would have been very difficult for anyone else, came natural to Harr. It was as if she had organized this type of society before. One of the most remarkable things about Lorraine Ellis Harr is how many people she has brought to haiku, well over a hundred. She encouraged beginners to take up the art of haiku and helped develop them through participatory publishing. As an editor, when returning unpublished submissions to her magazine, she would send corrections, suggestions, and a list of do’s and don’ts of writing haiku. Harr was the first to write the do’s and don’ts of writing haiku in English. Most of the submissions she returned were edited with her suggestions, rewritten, and resubmitted, many of which became published. She was an incredible teacher of writing English haiku. Harr is one of the few Americans, even today, that have a secure understanding of Japanese haiku. As Jane Reichholds’ history states, Lorraine Ellis Harr pretty much carried the banner for traditional methods and values of haiku, almost single-handedly. Included in each issue of Dragonfly was an article by either Harr herself, or Japanese haiku experts, about the terms, attitudes, and other aspects of writing haiku. Harr was passionate about bringing English haiku up to Japanese standards. This amazing haiku author has had several books published as well as having haiku published in other places. Looking at the dates her books were published, which span from 1975 to 1986, Lorraine Ellis Harr has had a successful and lengthy career. She has ten books of haiku, senryu, haibun, and haiku sequences published, as well as two books of children’s poetry. It is one thing to write haiku, but quite another to have them accepted and entered in contests. Harr began her career of winnings with an Honorable Mention in the Japan Air Lines Contest of 1964, and has won almost every year in the Mainichi Daily News contests. It is remarkable that she has won over the span of so many years, considering that times and tastes change. Lorraine Ellis Harr amazed people of the haiku scene by how much time and energy she put into doing all that she has accomplished. In addition to writing, editing, and teaching haiku, Harr also enjoys teaching Ikebana (Ryusie-Ha) [flower arranging]. However, as Tombo she continues to write haiku and articles for several magazines for Ikebana organizations in the U.S. and abroad. Lorraine Ellis Harr was an author that stuck out to me and I found great interest in her work. I really enjoyed what we read in the Haiku Anthology and decided to study further into her life and work. Well, by reading several of her poetry books, I found out many of her inspirations. Harr writes an introduction to every one of her books. By reading these introductions I learned of her life and the things she enjoys. I found the format of her books interesting in that through the introduction she describes a certain time in her life. The entire book of haiku is then based off of this time, the memories and the things that she saw and felt and experienced. Another interesting aspect of her work is that Harr includes haiku and senryu together in the same book. She keeps the subject matter consistent and makes one realize how much detail can be found in life. There are so many moments that we let us pass by unnoticed, yet Harr captures them in three simple lines. Haiku written by Lorraine Ellis Harr are so passionate that any reader can create their own image from the words she writes. She captures events that give the reader a sense of being there and feeling the memory with her. Lorraine Ellis Harr finds ordinary moments, but somehow makes them special and real to the reader. She poses questions and describes feelings that make the reader find their own feelings. Harr has a very special way of capturing the simplicities in life. As mentioned earlier, Lorraine Ellis Harr was very involved in teaching how to write English haiku. She taught with a passion of making the English haiku just as good as the Japanese tradition of haiku. In order to facilitate her teachings, Harr wrote guidelines for writing haiku and senryu. These guidelines go over what haiku ISN’T and what is IS. Harr states that haiku is not simply three lines in a 5-7-5 format, but it is an art form that must require study and discipline. Realizing that most haiku do come in that format, Harr explained why many thought it necessary. She states that the pattern refers to Japanese onji, not the English syllables. However, because haiku usually in short/long/short format, Harr warns writers that it should not be filled with modifiers to take up space. She states that haiku is pure poetry, different from English poetry filled with simile and metaphors. In fact, Harr states that haiku is turned into English poetics when simile and metaphor is added to it. The do’s and don’ts continue to say that haiku is a moment of heightened awareness which can be shared by the reader. It is not just a pretty picture, but should have depths of meaning. Harr believes that all three lines of a haiku should be important in clarifying the haiku. Some people may use one line as a title for the other two. Harr does not agree with this practice. She also believes that each line of a haiku needs finishing. Every line should be as complete a thought as possible, not a mechanical poem with rhythms. No unnecessary words should be used. To use spring and April in the same poem would be repetitive, describing the same things twice. Harr states that each word should have importance to the meaning. Some other guidelines Harr mentions are to leave room for the reader to feel and react on their own, don’t tell them how to take the haiku. It should be left open-ended, not summed up by the poet’s intellectual comment regarding the experience. Haiku should be a specific thing, time, place, season, or event. It should not be a generalization, but should be in the present moment. The reader should be able to "co-create" the moment, so writers should be very specific when naming objects or elements to the haiku. A haiku should not be whatever comes to mind, but should be what is happening right here, right now. Once again, a haiku is not a pretty picture, but should tell of an interplay between two objects or things. The final guidelines are reminders that haiku is not easy, but is easy to get "hooked" on. The Masters of the Art worked a lifetime to get it right. The guidelines to what haiku IS often repeat some of the concepts mentioned in the ISNT’S, however there are a few statements that need to be shared. Harr states that haiku is simplicity, intuition, even a nudge of enlightment. She thought that haiku should be life enhancing, thus avoiding all grimness and violence. One interesting guideline is that Harr states that haiku should avoid anything vulgar and shocking, simply for the sake of shocking. Harr beautifully states that haiku should be "poetry of the enlightened spirit, eternity in a moment," and, "the whole truth, honed to purity, a flash of insight unresolved by intellectual comment." The guidelines that Lorraine Ellis Harr puts on writing haiku can only result in beautifully written works of natural elements. It is evident from these guidelines that Harr was passionate about haiku and about teaching others how to write it and really enjoy what they were doing. It is no surprise that she was an inspiration to many women in her lifetime. After reading the do’s and don’ts of haiku, I could understand Harr’s work better. One of the aspects of Harr’s writing that intrigued me was that she shows interactions between different elements of nature. Many authors show interactions between nature and man, but Harr puts extra emphasis of elements of nature. She paints very specific pictures with the words she chooses to use in her haiku. Here are some examples of the interactions displayed by her work. The dragonfly’s weight Moves the morning glory shadow On the quiet pond Tombo, 3 The black beetle in the red rooster’s beak— still struggles The Red Barn, 5 Distant thunder; Flies on the cows’ flanks Quit buzzing The Red Barn, 11 The gray winter sky; an antlered elk grazes with the dairy cows Snowflakes in the Wind, 20 All of these haiku show interactions between some aspects of nature. This interaction can take place between two animals, but can also be between other elements of nature. For example, the example from The Red Barn shows thunder’s involvement. The thunder in the distance is what causes the flies to quit buzzing on the cow’s backs. I enjoy this haiku not only because of the interaction, but because it gives me a sense of where I am. I can see the pasture with the cows, thick with grass and trees in the distance. I also can feel the coolness of the weather and the wind blowing the rain closer and closer. The flies become quiet and all that is heard is the swishing of the grass and the thunder in the distance. I also enjoy the example from Tombo because of the element of the shadow. The dragonfly must have landed on the morning glory and this forces the shadow to move over the pond. This haiku has a very specific interaction between the dragonfly and morning glory, but then has another interaction between the shadow and the pond. The word quiet in this haiku is significant because it makes it seem like the movement of the shadow disturbs the pond. Quiet and still are words that sometimes go together and I imagine that the quietness of the pond also implies that it is still. It is a time of the morning in which all of nature seems to be still, except this dragonfly causing movement of the shadow. I also enjoy this haiku because the picture is so specific. Of all the elements and actions Lorraine Ellis Harr could have focused on, she chose to focus on the movement of one flowers’ shadow over the pond. This is a small shadow and a small movement compared to what happens all around a pond. Yet, Harr is able to capture such a moment and make it seem important and beautiful. Lorraine Ellis Harr writes her haiku based on nature and what she can see in nature. As I studied her work, I often found that she wrote many haiku about the same subject, only from different views. Harr includes different perspectives about the same event. One specific example of this was found in Tombo. It is unknown whether she really formed these haiku from the same moment, but it is possible. A drop of warm rain Falls "splat!" on the dragonfly Resting on the rock Tombo, 25 The rock’s one raindrop; a dragonfly stops and takes a sip of it . . . Tombo, 25 These two haiku, found on the same page of Harr’s book, paint the same picture. They both tell of an interaction between a raindrop and a dragonfly. The significance of the haiku is that although it is the same interaction, it is from two totally different perspectives. The first one gives power to the raindrop as it lands on the dragonfly, which is resting on the rock. The second haiku gives the power to the dragonfly, telling of how it sips the water that is on the rock. Harr’s observations of nature are amazing because she expresses in her haiku events that really do occur. In Harr’s "do’s and don’t’s" of haiku, nature is one of the things she mentions several times. She claims that haiku "is an intuitive response to nature" and that it is "not a humanizing of nature or personification! Rather, naturalize man." She also states that there is a subtle difference between humanizing nature and naturalizing man. When stating what haiku is, Harr states that it is an expanded awareness of our One-ness with nature. Haiku also should deal with nature’s purity as nature. Harr states the word "natural" several times when describing what haiku is. An intriguing part of Harr’s collections is that she uses punctuation in her work. I always thought that this was a newer trend in haiku, but Harr was using punctuation in her work from the 1970’s. I was impressed by the use of punctuation and the emphasis it put on certain haiku. Moving it— Under the old driftwood long —sand flies! A Flight of Herons, 35 The sandpiper runs a few steps—then take-off And the skyward climb! A Flight of Herons, 44 The old squaw duck Bobs for minnows . . . head down Bottoms-up! A Flight of Herons, 61 Scooping up a dipper of chicken feed Mouse dropping! The Red Barn, 9 These are examples of how an exclamation point can put emphasis on haiku. When reading these haiku, the exclamation point at the end just adds that little something that helps the reader to feel the urgency or surprise at the ending of the haiku. The punctuation puts emphasis on an ending that is not expected by the reader. I believe that the exclamation point can even change a haiku from being unaccepted to accepted, and liked! I also found that Lorraine Ellis Harr sometimes uses punctuation, especially exclamation points to put emphasis on the humor of senryu. Examples of this are the duck "bottoms-up!" and the scooping up of "mouse dropping!" Another punctuation that Harr used to emphasize her haiku is the question mark. A flock of hens Scratch through the scattered hay —searching for what? The Red Barn, 19 Does the kitten play with the grasshopper—or does it Play with the kitten? Cats, Crows, Frogs,21 A rock on the path? Taking a closer look . . . Toad hops away. Cats, Crows, Frogs, 17 A weary farmer leaning on his rake handle— Or an old scarecrow? Cats, Crows, Frogs, 16 All of these haiku stick out in my mind as favorites. The questions seem to draw in the audience when they are placed in the first line of the haiku. "A rock on the path?" does not seem like a likely question to ask, yet I know I have had this experience myself. The best part is that question is what runs through your mind. I can remember times walking down trails in the woods at my grandma’s house and thinking that exact thought. Then, reading the rest of the haiku, it is like telling my own experience. The haiku about the kitten and the grasshopper is posed as one question. The whole haiku is written in a way that the reader gets to the end and is still wondering. The set-up of this haiku really gives room for the reader to create their own picture. Each reader of this haiku may have a different memory of watching a kitten play as a child, or even as an adult with a first pet. Some readers may not have a memory of kittens, so they are free to make up their own picture. This question of a haiku leaves room for the readers to be creative in thinking of the answer to their own personal answer. Readers can remember a specific experience or just get a general scene from the haiku. Also, the readers can react with feelings. When I read this poem I get a good feeling. I smile at the reactions of the kitten, I see the curiosity on its face as it learns about this new creature. I also imagine the grasshopper, hopping all over teasing the kitten because it knows how fast he is. This haiku is an example of the interactions that occur between animals in nature. These are just a few elements I found surfacing throughout all of Lorraine Ellis Harr’s work. There are so many unique elements throughout her work, I will not cover them all. However, I would like to end with just a another one of my favorite haiku written by Harr. Indian summer; Scarecrow’s jacket fades To a paler blue, Cats Crows Frogs & Scarecrows, 28 Published in Haiku West, July 1974. Front cover, vol. 8, No.1 and vol.8, No. 2, Jan. 1975, this haiku was also featured in the Haiku Anthology. I like this haiku because it paints a clear picture. We all know that "Indian summer" refers to a summer in which the sun and the heat are extreme. I feel the sun beating down on a field and I feel the stickiness of being outside. Then I see the scarecrow at the beginning of the summer with a denim jacket on that has a dark denim blue color. At the end of the summer, the jacket is faded with patches of white mixed with the dark blue color. This haiku makes me feel like it is an open field with not a lot of house near by. It is the type of field that you have to drive by everyday to get to work and back. Well, because there is nothing else around, you look at the scarecrow and notice something new about him everyday. You see the way the wind shifts him from side to side and the way the crows pick at his straw body. And, of course, the way the weather wears on him and fades his clothes, in this case it is his jacket. Picking a daisy He loves me . . . loves me not . . . loves me! The Red Barn, 13 I enjoy this haiku because it seems fun to me. I remember as a young girl playing this game with every flower I could get my hands on. Of course, a daisy is the best one because they have a lot of little petals. Young girls often have crushes on older boys, or boy that they cannot date. These crushes usually change from week to week, or even day to day for some! This is what makes the game fun. You aren’t dating the boy yet so you believe the flower will tell you what your chances are. If you end with "loves me" then it can just make the day. Little girls will go outside to pout about something their mothers are making them do, such as make the bed. Well, within an hour they are back inside with bright smiles on their faces. When asked why, they simply say, "He loves me!" I can remember friends doing this to every flower until they heard what they wanted at the end. Or sometimes they would cheat and pull off two at a time to change the answer! This haiku provides a fun childhood memory for most girls. This haiku does not strike me as a traditional Harr haiku because it does not focus so much on nature. Although, it is one haiku that makes use of the exclamation point. This does fit Harr’s guidelines of senryu though because of the lackadaisical attitude and lack of nature. A blue dragonfly— Flies right through the rainbow Over the falls! Tombo: 226 Dragonfly Haiku, 9 I really enjoy this haiku simply because of the beauty it contains. There are three main elements in this haiku, a blue dragonfly, a rainbow, and the falls. Each one of these three elements, when left by itself, creates a beautiful picture in my mind. Therefore, putting them together just makes it all the more beautiful. The blue of the dragonfly stands in mind as a bright, beautiful, tropical blue. I think this is because I know she saw the dragonflies in Mexico. Then the rainbow seems so bright against a pale blue sky. I picture all rainbows this way simply because I want them all to be bright and extravagant. The waterfalls are beautiful because I see gorgeous, bright white flowing waters causing waves and ripples for a distance after they land. Waterfalls are one the most amazing of God’s creation and I love the sound they make and the mist that comes off of them. I can almost feel myself standing and watching this dragonfly make its long flight up so high. I am squinting at the brightness of my surroundings, but never taking my eye of the dragonfly. The rainbow seems to go on forever, covering the whole sky. All of the sights are echoed by the lovely sound of the waterfall crashing down to the bottom. It is hot outside and the mist of the waterfall is gently blowing on my face, cooling me off. When reading this haiku I just wish so bad that I was really in a place like this. Lorraine Ellis Harr has a remarkable talent in the art of haiku writing. She brings out the best of nature. By the best, I mean the most natural moments and interactions that occur in the wild. Then, to transform these things into words that all readers can understand and gain an appreciation for, is just incredible. I really enjoyed reading deeper into her work and learning about her beliefs and her life of haiku writing. —Tonya Parrish