Jared Stahl • Jared's Haiku •

Timothy Russell: Seasonal Haiku in a Modern World What does a retired steel mill worker do with his time? Well, for Timothy Russell, a retired steel mill worker from the Ohio River Valley, he writes haiku. Russell has published many haiku, and has published several chapbooks including What We Don’t Know Hurts, and In Lacrimae. He has also won the 1993 Terrence Des Prize Award for his first full-length collection Adversaria. Timothy Russell is a narrative poet whose haiku display elements of nature, modern society, and the humor and irony in everyday life. His haiku display these elements in a simplistic form, which any reader can relate to. His haiku also display seasonal elements, and he even combines nature with modern society. For example, this first of the six haiku that I will discuss has a seasonal and nature element to it. late winter— the sound of icicles breaking in the night Shiki kigo kukai 1/17/99 (“icicles”) 2nd This haiku has a very Zen-like quality, and closeness to nature. It is as if all the sounds of the night are completely blocked out except for one. The only sound that can be heard is the breaking of the icicles. I can picture lying in bed and hearing this outside my window. The “late winter-“ gives a seasonal setting, and helps suggest that it is starting to get warmer outside, but it is still cold. However, it is not cold enough to keep the icicles frozen. This haiku is full of sound. I can hear, and visualize the water slowly dripping off the tips of the icicles and falling to the wet ground. Then the icicles begin to crack. I can hear the slow crackling noise of the ice. Then, suddenly, an icicle breaks and falls, crashing to the ground and shattering into tiny pieces of ice. Russell creates a strong image with lots of sound, yet he does this with a small, simple phrase. That is what makes this a good haiku. the swallow swoops barely rippling the canal’s surface —perfect kill shiki workshops 4941 This is on of Timothy Russell’s haiku that is completely from nature. The picture of the bird swooping in and getting its prey is something that can only been seen in nature. This reminds me of watching animals hunt for food on the Discovery Channel. The first line, “the swallow swoops,” is a great opener. The alliteration of the ‘SW’s’ works really well in helping to visualize the bird fly down to catch its prey. In the second line the word “barely” emphasizes the preciseness of the swallow attack as it skims across the surface. This line creates a good image of the water. I can see the small ripples of the water. Finally, the last line sums it all up; “—perfect kill.” glistening in the oriole nest— audio tape black bough 9, 1997 In this haiku Russell combines nature and modern urban society. The word “glistening” opens the haiku giving us a sense of sight. The reader doesn’t know what is glistening, but can picture the light sparkling off something and reflecting back into their eyes. When the second line “in the oriole nest—“ is read, the reader is still left wondering what it is that is sparkling. This line gives the reader a beautiful image from nature, and he/she can picture something beautiful glistening in this oriole nest, and the hyphen makes the reader pause and think, before the last line is read. When the last line of the haiku is finally read, and the reader discovers that this thing glistening in the nest is audiotape, it takes us, somewhat, away from nature and into modern urban society. I can picture the nest in a city park. Nowadays, birds will use anything they find littered on the ground or in the trash to make a nest. We have probably all seen a birds nest with pieces of newspaper and wrappers, and I have even seen nests with audiotape strung through it. This image is fairly familiar. I can picture the black, shiny tape in the nest. basketball game at the corner street light moths Brussells Sprout 11:3 (September 1994) This is another haiku where Russell uses both elements of nature, and urban society. The first line “basketball game” gives us a scene that can be pictured in the imagination, but it doesn’t give the reader a precise setting. I picture a basketball game being played, but I picture indoors in a gymnasium or a sports arena. However, when the next line is read we are led outside and onto the streets. After reading this, I picture a basketball game at an inner-city outdoor basketball court. I can see a group of guys playing a game of “street ball” on the cement court. The nets on the hoops are made of metal linked chains. A tall chain-linked fence surrounds the court. With one word, “moths”, the final line of the haiku draws our attention away from the basketball game and into the light where probably hundreds of moths and other bugs our swarming around the warm light. This brings in more of a nature element to the haiku. stone to stone back across the creek to do it again Tundra 1 (July 1999) This haiku is another great example of Russell’s use of alliteration in a nature haiku. The use of alliteration seems to add more to a haiku, in helping the reader to better visualize the image and sounds of the haiku and keep it in the reader’s memory. In the first line, “stone to stone”, there is a strong use of ‘S’ and ‘T’ sounds. I can visualize the stepping stone lined up across the water, but they are uneven so it will be tricky to step from one stone to another. The next line has good alliteration of the ‘k’ sound, as well as ‘cr’, in “back”, “across”, and “creek”. When I read the haiku, I can picture a young boy carefully stepping from stone to stone going across the creek, just so he can come back and cross it again. outside all this time rubbing the smudge inside shiki-workshop 4938 I really enjoy this final haiku. I think just about everyone has tried to wipe a smudge off the windshield of their car or a window in their house, and with the smudge not coming off, they realize that the smudge is on the other side of the glass. This is a good example of one of Timothy Russell’s more humorous haiku. This haiku shows a little bit of humor and irony that is in everyday life. The thing that is most interesting about this haiku, and what I like the most about it, is that it can be flipped around, and read two different ways. It can either be read that the person is standing outside the window rubbing the smudge but the smudge is on the inside, or it can be read that the person is on the inside of the window wiping the smudge but the smudge is on the outside of the window. The first and last lines could be switched around in this haiku, and it wouldn’t really change the haiku in any way. —Jared Stahl