Angela D. Williams • Angie's Haiku •

Breaking the Silence While most haiku writers tend to base their writing on moments of personal experience, or upon nature, a few go against the grain and write from a different, more fictional perspective. By fictional I do not mean unrealistic, rather, a few authors write about ideas and moments they have not personally experienced. One of these authors is John Dunphy. Dunphy writes very hard-hitting haiku, ranging in topics from domestic violence to crisis that are happening or have happened in the world. Speaking as someone who writes fiction stories that tend to deal with realistic traumas such as rape and abuse, I think that Dunphy is very aware of the bad things that happen in the world, and is aware of the fact that keeping silent about those things only helps further perpetuate them and the effect they have on our society. I think he uses his writing to speak out against the horrors of a society that tends to try and hide the fact that bad things happen. I think he uses his writing to try and make people more aware of the problems in the world. For instance, in the haiku below, Dunphy illustrates the AIDS epidemic: AIDS support group a red rose lying on the empty chair           Modern Haiku 28.3, 1997 In my mind, I see a small group of individuals, probably nine or ten, at their weekly support group meeting. They are sitting in desks that have been arranged in a circle, and everyone is staring at the empty chair. Obviously one of the members of the group has recently passed away, and in her place there is a red rose. It is a group that is usually hopeful, one whose members know each other well, and the loss is certainly felt by all; not only are they mourning the death of a friend, but mourning each of their own futures, as well. The normally supportive, optimistic group is silent and each member is lost in his or her own thoughts. I think this is a very sad haiku, and that sadness is certainly felt by the words ‘empty chair.’ This haiku makes you realize that AIDS is not just a disease; it is a disease that deeply affects the lives of many. The next haiku I chose to talk about by Dunphy is one about the death of a child: propped against the smallest tombstone a rain-soaked teddy bear           Frogpond 18.3, 1995 This haiku also gives me a very specific set of images in my mind. I see a very tiny headstone in the local cemetery. It is underneath a weeping willow tree, and there’s an engraving of a cherub on it. Propped against the headstone is the child’s old teddy bear, which is drenched by the rain. I see the mother of the deceased child standing a few feet away, staring at the grave. She is also getting soaked from the downpour. It has been several months, possibly even over a year since her son died as an infant, and until now she has been unable to part with the child’s teddy bear. On her part, this is an act of letting go, of saying goodbye to her son. She will always be sad over the loss, but she has decided that it is time to start living her life again. I think that while Dunphy certainly addresses the issues of death and how terrible it is when a child dies, there is almost a sense of hope in this haiku: that life does go on. There are not many haiku that have affected me the way this next one of Dunphy’s does: in the debris a teddy bear its smile torn away           Frogpond 18.2, 1995 This particular haiku is one from John Dunphy’s series of poems on the Oklahoma City bombing. While I think that all of the haiku in this particular series of his were excellent, this is the one that speaks the most to me. I think it is difficult to really capture the emotions and the tragedy of such a horrific event in so few words, but this haiku does it very well. A teddy bear—the very symbol of childhood and security and comfort that is supposed to make everyone smile—has its own smile ripped away. I think that particular line can be read and interpreted in two different ways. First of all, it could be a literal reading; the effects of the bombing ripped the sewn mouth off the bear. However, I think it can also be read as the bear is not smiling anymore because the bear’s owner was one of the victims that was killed in the bombing. I think this particular haiku hits me especially hard because a few years ago—before my freshman year of college—my parents and I were in Oklahoma City, and visited the bombing site. Though it had been over three years since the tragedy, there was still a large crowd gathered around the fence of the memorial. The site was covered with stuffed animals, flowers, letters, poems, jewelry, and pictures of the victims and their families. It was one of the most sobering moments of my life. I had been a freshman in high school when the bombing happened, and I think at that time I was still too young to really understand the impact of the event. But when I stood there reading the poems and looking at the pictures of innocent children and people that had been killed, that is when the true horror of the situation hit me. It is one thing to see an event on the news; it is quite another to go and see where something so awful happened. I think that this is why this particular Dunphy haiku impacts me personally as much as it does. Here’s another haiku from his Oklahoma City series: returning home rescue worker watches his children sleeping           Frogpond 18.2, 1995 I can very vividly see a man who has been out searching for signs of life at Ground Zero for a countless number of hours. He is covered in dirt and soot from the rubble, and is feeling incredibly sad and overwhelmed emotionally by what he has seen and experienced. He goes into the bedroom of his children, who share a room, and he simply sits down on one of the chairs. It is dark in the room, but he listens to the sound of their breathing, and it reminds him of why he is in the profession he is. I think the man just needs some time to reassure himself that there are good things in life, and seeing his children reminds him of that. This one also speaks to me because my brother-in-law is a firefighter in Urbana, Illinois. Even though many of Dunphy’s haiku and senryu that I have read have involved death, he does not hesitate to take on other topics that are just as serious and horrifying. with a pin child pricks both doll’s arms now just like mommy’s           Modern Haiku 24.3, 1993 This is another one of those emotionally laden haiku that John Dunphy is so talented at writing. I see a small girl who loves her mother very much, but whose mother pays little attention to her, as she is too preoccupied scoring and doing drugs to bother with her child. This is one of those chilling reminders that children imitate the people—especially adults, and in particular their parents—around them. It brings with it those frightening possibilities that the girl will grow up to be a drug-addict like her mother, and that one day perhaps she will have a child who will do the same things. While the debate of nurture versus nature is still being fought to this day, I think that a person’s environment has a great deal of influence on her/him, and that children learn what they are taught. If the girl isn’t taught at an early age by someone she looks up to that doing drugs is wrong, how is she supposed to know that it is wrong? After all, her mother does drugs, and she loves her mother and wants her mother to be proud. What better way to make Mommy proud than to grow up just like her? I think out of all the haiku that Dunphy has written, other than the above mentioned Oklahoma bombing-related haiku, these next two haiku affect me most deeply: even the tooth her father knocked out placed under her pillow           Modern Haiku 24.3, 1993 This haiku is very heart wrenching to me because the last line is so unexpected. When I read it the first time, the breath caught in my throat. In my mind I see a young blond girl, probably seven or eight years old lying asleep in bed. Her face is bruised from her father’s fist, and there are tearstains on her pale cheeks as she sleeps. While thankfully I have never experienced any domestic violence situations myself, I know many people who have, and the impact of this haiku is intense. Here’s another that Dunphy haiku that deals with domestic violence and child abuse: emergency room parents tell their child to say he fell down the stairs           Modern Haiku 23.2, 1992 This is another bone-chilling senryu by John Dunphy. In so few words, he is able to capture the horrors and essence of child abuse and domestic violence. It also almost seems to be a freeze-frame of the conspiracy of silence that takes place in our society. The parents are literally telling the child to be silent about the abuse. Even knowing what I know about domestic violence, rape and child abuse, this haiku really brings to light what a horror and what a huge problem these crimes are in society. I did not have the chance to interview Mr. Dunphy personally, so I can only guess at his reasons behind writing the haiku and senryu that he chooses to write. I think the last haiku I discussed is the perfect illustration of his attempt to make people more aware of the crimes and serious issues in the world that most people do not want to talk about. Dunphy is excellent at bringing these issues to the forefront through his haiku, and I am glad I had the opportunity to study his writing more in-depth. —Angela D. Williams