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.