Sunday, December 28, 2008

Ed Baker - Three Questions

Ed Baker
Ed Baker, artist and poet, was born in Washington, DC in 1941. Ed is our guest for a round of Haiku - Three Questions this week.



1. Why do you write haiku?

what's a 'haiku', anyway? I do "shorties"...

some are 247 pages long (Neighbor, G oo dnight, Song of Chin)

some are one line/breath long...

"they" just tell me what they want to be... then when lucky...POW! I just be them.


2. What other poetic forms do you enjoy?

well, this interview, for instance, is sort of a form...

can't tell either as a priori OR as a posteriori

I do like Thomas Wyatt's form... and Niedecker's and Eigner's and Shiki's (as translated...forms?) depends on a particular function, eh?


3. Of the many wonderful haiku you've written, what do you consider to be your top three? (Please provide original publication credits.)

let's see what I remember:



far beyond moon frog leaps

Longhouse

(or was that: far beyond frog moon leaps? form/function, again depending)



full moon
in her garden
peeing

Hummingbird



Wild Orchid
playing
with my mind


Wild Orchid, 2002, tel-let


and below is a little drawing (haiga?) a version of which was in Sketchbook




cheers, Ed



If you've been enjoying this weekly series and have not contributed, please consider sharing your response to the three little questions that Ed answered. You must be a published poet in order to participate.

Brett Peruzzi will be our guest next week.

3 comments:

Issa's Untidy Hut said...

Very nice ... great to have Ed bring the wild man spirit to haiku ... which is sometimes missing in these our modern workshopped times.

Thanks,Curtis, for this wonderful series, which I always enjoy.

Don @ Lilliput Review

Curtis Dunlap said...

...and thank you, Don, for introducing me to Huff. I purchased Why I Write in Coffee Houses and Diners. A wonderful book of poems! Also, thank you for all the hard work you do at Issa and Lilliput.

Anonymous said...

Enjoyed Ed's post here - love sitting in the huge imagery that this haiku offers.

This is a marvelous site!