  Poetry
This week: The Fab Four Haijin Edited by: eyestar~*  
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 Hi! I am happy to be a guest editor of this edition. The first news I want to share is:
Hey POETS, The site contest
has a comedy poetry round!! 
Thanks to Jeff  and WDC Support!
Continuing my study of Haiku form, I'd like to share about the fascinating early masters of the form.
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Early haiku was based in Japan and it is a form that has kept its simplicity and basics , yet has evolved over time, and continues to, in terms of the original beginnings and through the changes of translation from the Japanese. It was interesting to see that even in its early days, many haijin discussed how it should be done. I have discovered four main masters who have added to its formation.
 The first, most well known ancient haijin was Basho. He was one of the first haiku writers translated into English.
Matsuo Chuemon Munefusa lived from 1644 to 1694 in the Edo period Japan and was renouned for collaborative haikai no renga --a pro at linking haiku verses. The early form involved poets answering previous verses and he and his first teacher composed a 100 verse renga. Basho was introduced to poetry early as he worked as a servant to a fellow enthusiast Todo Yosada.
He became a teacher in the 1680's as a haikai professor but then renounced the urban life of literary circles to wander the countryside to get inspiration. He was not happy for most of his life. His poetry centered on his first hand account of the world and he had a knack for encapsulating the feeling of a moment in a few elements.
He came to prefer the reclusive life and three times his disciples made him a hut, the first with a banana tree outside. So he took the name Basho. He studied Zen and as time and wonderings continued his poems became more observant and less introspective. His last work The Narrow Road to the Interior was published after his death. This was a work of a new form he is said to have created as well : the Haiburn.
His works became very popular during his life and it was a crime to even criticise his work. He was the first of the four main Haiku poets and those after him, took up his work and tweaked it to fit a time or personal interest. Yet the basics of the form and the deeper aha moment carried on.
His most famous haiku,
the old pond
a frog jumps in
the sound of water.
(Translated by RH Blythe)
and
lightening -
heron's cry
stabs the darkness
autumn moonlight—
a worm digs silently
into the chestnut
(Translated by Robert Hass)
 Buson
Yosa Buson lived from 1716-1783, between Basho and Issa. From a wealthy family, he chose the way of the artist! He studied poetry with Master Hayano Soa and several others as a young man and wandered for 10 years practicing his art Haiga and poetry, writing 2500 poems under his own name Yosa. Married at age 45, he wrote and taught poetry himself at the Sumiya. He was a nature poet who is known for creating deep poems with underlying meanings which are hard to translate effectively. Many were meant to be followed by other verses (haikai no renga}. He really tried to honour Basho's style. He died at 68 and was buried in Kyoto .
enduring the stillness
the crystalline waters
a snail
lighting one candle
with another
a spring evening
 My favourite haijin was Issa! He wrote many haiku about insects.
Kobayashi Yataro lived from 1763-1828 came to call himself “ Issa” (One Tea in Japanese) and wrote from the sadness of being a stepchild and orphan and from having wandered the world and experiencing loss of wife and children. Many Buddhist themes, love of nature and especially animals appear in his legacy of 20, 000 poems. Unpretensious, he wrote from the heart with a mostly positive aura despite his many sufferings. His haiku reflect his Zen beliefs. He journeyed from country to Tokyo and kept many journals. His haiku were partly traditional and partly unique in that he had a warm close relationship to animals and even talked to them. His observations were exact in details and always celebrated the riches of nature even from his poverty. He is known for his great empathy and was loved by the people..
his prowling route
over the flowers…
a Japanese cat
when I die
guard my grave
katydid
 Shiki
Masaoka Norbu (later Shiki) was born in Oct of 1867 and died at 32 in 1902. He was poet, author, literary critic in the Meiji Period of Japan. He bacame a major figure in the development of modern Haiku and wrote on the reform of Tanka.
He was tutored as a teen and attended the Imperial University of Tokyo in 1890 but his haiku writing became more important so he failed his finals. Others say his TB condition may have contributed. He suffered with it most of his life. He was banned from Middle school as he joined a radical group the Freedom of People's rights movements. He became a writer, essayist , poetc and critic of politics.
At the time the traditional haiku/ tanka was waning as it was said nt to fit with the Meiji Period. He was instrumental in renewal of the form and wrote Haiku and serialized works advocating the reform of Haiku. He became an editor of the NIPPON magazine and from 1897 often travelled and taught many disciples in haiku which favoured personal experience of nature. He adopted the name SHIKI which means cuckoo, as he coughed a lot with his TB.
He was influential in salvaging haiku and giving it a niche. His reform was based on making it a legitimate literary genre and he advocated the original 5-7-5 count and kigo of haiku based on realistic observation of nature and life. He was the one who renamed the stand alone verses haiku as opposed to the more traditional haikai renga and hokku chain haiku of earlier times. He rejected the earlier use of haiku as puns, allusions, stories and non literary ideas like satire, vulgarity and word play. When he became interested in the form that is what the form had fallen into. So he refined it. He preferred the more factual, observation style like Buson's type.
He was a critic of the poet Basho who sometimes did not use kigo etc, and was instrumental in making Basho's early work accessible in English. And giving Haiku a place in the Literary genre world. It is said that he wrote 25,000 haiku.
In the coolness
of the empty sixth-month sky...
the cuckoo's cry.
an old pond-
floating upside down
a cicada's shell
a carp leaps up
crinkling
the autumn moonlight
I appreciate reading the early masters and have to remember that English may not do justice to the exact meaning and their cultural
references may not mean as much now as in their times. So it is so awesome that translaters like Blythe brought this form into our part of the world. And that today we continue to emulate more closely the nature of the tradition.
Lovely resources:
http://www.haikupoetshut.com/basho1.html
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poets/detail/basho
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXvzgR3A9_I
http://www.kyotojournal.org/the-journal/fiction-poetry/yosa-buson-haiku-master/
http://www.britannica.com/biography/Buson
www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXR7LDOZ7jw
haikuguty.com/issa4kids/issahaiku18.html
http://www.webexhibits.org/poetry/explore_famous_haiku_examples.html
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kobayashi_Issa
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masaoka_Shiki
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Yay! Check out these Gwawdondyn challengers from my last issue! I am so thrilled! Thanks poets! 
"Invalid Item" by A Guest Visitor
Dan I Am 
I fear the threat of nuclear war.
I ask myself, what is it all for?
Please tell me why so many souls should die.
Is there no sanity anymore?
Tinker 
The Bards
I write to honor poets of old.
The ancients and their stories retold.
Council to Lords, vision bold - Camelot.
Merlin, thought to be one of the fold
~~ Judi Van Gorder
Gwawdondyn written with Toddaid couplet
http://www.poetrymagnumopus.com/forums/topic/968-20-gwawdodyn/
Vaughan Jones - ONE Scribe
"The description of the form is very good. Thank you for including one of mine in your picks."{/c]
Thanks! And you are so welcome!
I want to thank a pro Tinker for this edification about this form with a bit more detail!  I am not so good at the meter yet!  
"Since you linked to my page at PMO for reference I wanted to include a little broader explanation of the meter which is included on other pages at the site.
In my opinion, content always comes first, including the elements of a strict form, second. Having said that, the Gwawdondyn is actually a combination of "meters" which were officially documented in the 12th century. Adhering as closely as possible to the elements of the form honors the history. Welsh "meters" are among the oldest and strictest in the poetic community and are still celebrated in Wales today in festival. All Welsh poetry requires "cynghannedd" (harmony of sound) and uses a lot of alliteration, assonance, consonance and repetition as well as true rhyme, cross rhyme and internal rhyme.
This particular form, the Gwawdondyn, uses a very simple 9 syllable rhymed couplet (cyhydedd naw ban) along with one of two more complicated couplets at the discretion of the poet. Because of its difficulty the meter was allowed to only be used by the Chief Bard in ancient times.
The more simple combination using the (cyhydedd hir) employs internal as well as cross rhyme.
x x x x x x x x a
x x x x x x x x a
x x x x b x x x x b
x x x x b x x x a
The more complicated combination using the (toddaid) requires we understand the main rhyme is not necessarily the end rhyme and mastering the gair cyrch.
x x x x x x x x a
x x x x x x x x a
x x x x x x x b - x c
x x x x c x x x b
So all of you Chief Bards out there embrace the Welsh Meters, the stories of Arthur and Merlin first were recorded in this tradition.
~~Tink"
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Poetry: September 20, 2017 Issue [#8507]
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