Inviting Connection Through the Gap in Haiku

My M.Ed. research focused on using haiku poetry as a way of connection with persons with dementia within an established spiritual care setting. As foundation for this research, I explored the connection-building capacity of the gap created by the juxtaposition in haiku. Seventeen experienced haiku poets (including myself as both researcher and poet) responded to survey questions about the intuitive process of writing and reading haiku. The responses illuminate how the simplicity of haiku can paradoxically hold profound meaning through the connections with self, other, and environment. Haiku may have potential in curriculum beyond language arts into environmental studies.

established setting, we read the haiku out loud and asked prompting questions to invite stories from the participants. We were moved by the humour and poignancy of what they shared, and recorded their words and phrases on a flipchart. Together as a group we then created collaborative haiku from these gleanings. Their poems were published in a small chapbook (Soul Session Poets, 2007), and have touched the hearts of many. My experiences with the persons with dementia inspired me, and I began graduate studies to explore further how haiku invited connection.

The Study
Although I had been writing haiku for many years, I still wondered about the alchemy of turning experience into a poem. I knew that this distillation was a key to discovering the connection-building capacity of haiku that I had witnessed in Soul Sessions. I conducted a survey of established haiku poets to gain an understanding of how they experienced haiku. Ethics The juxtaposition of images in haiku is its most signature characteristic. There is a tension or "gap" created by the association or contrast of two things, and this "gap" invites participation by the reader or listener.
As a haiku poet, what is your understanding of the way that this "gap" is created and experienced? What do you experience when you write haiku? What do you experience when you read haiku?
Poets were invited to share a one-or two-paragraph response, and their replies ranged from a few sentences to several pages. The quotes selected for this article reflect at least one contribution from each poet, and are meant to highlight the themes that emerged from the material.
A few poets challenged my use of the word gap: one believed the gap was really between self-serving human beings and nature, and another perceived only the continuous flow of a Although juxtaposition has been explored in haiku journals (Spiess, 2001;Sterba, 2007), and an individual poet may talk about her or his own experience of the intuitive moment, the following discussion is distinctive in presenting together the opinions of 17 contemporary haiku poets. I begin with a description of haiku characteristics. I then weave elements from the poets' responses into an exploration of what happens in writing and reading haiku. I conclude by describing the educational potential of haiku.

The Characteristics of Haiku
The form of contemporary English-language haiku is based on the Japanese tradition of haiku, and retains many of its characteristics: a short poem usually written in 3 lines with a seasonal reference. Bare-bones sensory images are used to capture the essence of what is called an aha moment or a haiku moment. The syllable count of 5-7-5 is less of a criterion in contemporary haiku than is capturing a moment of awareness. There is usually a juxtaposition or association in a haiku which provides the ambiguity in the poem. This ambiguity creates what I am calling the gap between the words of a haiku and its larger story: the story of the connection between the images in a two-image poem; between the image(s) and the whole of the experience; or between the poet's inner experience and outer experience. In this way, the gap provides both an absence (it does not appear in words) and presence (it is suggested) of connection. The revelation or epiphany experienced by someone when they jump the gap is well described by Natalie Goldberg (1993).
The real essence of a haiku is the poet's awakening, and the haiku gives you a small taste of that, like a ripe red berry on the tip of your tongue. Your mind actually experiences a marvelous leap when you hear a haiku, and in the space of that leap you feel awe. This metaphorical understanding is also connection-building. Poet John Fox (1995) describes the metaphorical voice as containing "the threads that join mind and soul, self and other, self and the natural world, self and God. What once seemed separate is revealed to be made of one fabric" (p. 119). Indeed, other researchers propose that metaphorical language functions as a process that shapes how reality is perceived by an individual or a society-i.e., in that "the way we think, what we experience, and what we do every day is very much a matter of metaphor" (Lakoff & Johnson, 2003, p. 3). This interconnectedness of the perceiver and the perceived within the context of environment and culture has particular relevance for haiku poets who look to nature, including human nature, for their inspiration.

How Is the Gap Created and Experienced?
I am reminded of the picture used in psychological testing that can be viewed as either a vase or two faces, depending on which part of the picture is focused upon. This appears true for juxtaposition in haiku as well. If I look at the juxtaposition as creating a space, then I am focusing on the gap. If I look at the juxtaposition as creating connections (e.g., between the writer's response to the moment, or between the haiku and the reader's response), then I am focusing on what fills the gap. Both are true at the same time, and this simultaneity resembles that of consciousness itself, where the threads of mind, body, and environment are inextricably woven together. One poet described it this way.
Intuitively we know that as large and varied as forms and the universe are that in some essential way everything is connected seamlessly. As poets we experience differences, similarities and give values and feelings for what we witness. The gap to me is the space or distance between seemingly unrelated objects and experiences. When we close that space by recognizing a relationship between things we are both creating the gap and in Another poet made specific reference to the influence of cultural context, and how this influences the ambiguity and resonance of a haiku.
The "gap" is created by the contextual distance between the two juxtaposed images.
Context may be defined as the defining elements or attributes of an image, including common cultural associations…. Ambiguity can involve questions of the famous "who, what, where, when, and how?" (but not why). "Suggestiveness" in my opinion is the artful creation of ambiguity within a verse. (Jeanne Emrich) Similar to the idea of "suggestiveness," other poets spoke of association between the images and how this association can expand meaning well beyond their particularity.
Now, there is a juxtaposition of images in haiku…and what this encourages is a lateral associative way of mental processing, rather than a "vertical" one which tends to be discriminatory and spontaneously judgmental. (Marshall Hryciuk) For me what is most important is that the disjunction in a haiku brings association into play. The lyric and logic of the poem is interrupted, thus creating two juxtaposed parts….
The reader experiences associations having to do with shape, color, texture, sound, smell, taste, symmetry and the deviations therefrom, and various kinds of "meaning"-both conscious and "unconscious." (Barry George) Art is about perception. The brain is constantly sorting and grouping the billions of images that flood it every day. Of course this process is essential for an individual to function. If we had to constantly re-evaluate each image as it's taken in by our eyes, we'd never make it out of bed every morning. The function of art is to temporarily sabotage this process. The artist's primary role is to cause us to look at the familiar in an entirely different way from the one to which we have grown accustomed…. From my own experiences with haiku, I agree with the views expressed by these poets that it is primarily juxtaposition that creates the gap, and that a haiku paradoxically holds a sense of unity in that space as well. Haiku can move me differently on different days, and there are rare haiku that continue to reveal new levels of truth with repeated readings.

What Do You Experience When You Write Haiku?
Whether haiku are written from memory or from an immediate experience, they are written in the present tense. The prompt to record is often a sensory awareness that draws the poet's attention.   Donald (2001) asserts that "our bodies set the stage not only for conscious experience, but for memory" (p. 67), and describes the theory of neurologist Antonio Damasio that the bodily feeling tone of an experience is crucial for anchoring that experience in the moment and in memory. Damasio (1999) states that "[e]ven in the most typical course of events, the emotional responses target both body proper and brain" (p. 288). Similarly, philosopher Evan Thompson (2001) proposes that "the affective mind isn't in the head, but in the whole body" (p. 4), and reiterates that this embodied awareness occurs in relationship to others and to the environment. Haiku are poems of the senses that allude to feelings and memories, and that can hint at deeper, symbolic truth. It is important to remember that human nature has an integrity, and that the sensory, emotional, and spiritual ways of 14 connecting to an experience are not separate, but occur together. One respondent expressed this experience of unity in the following way.
As the poet contemplates and experiences, becomes submerged in the object, there comes (as Coleridge said) "a coalescence of subject and object into one." Consciousness is completely unified and the poet's nature and environment are one. (Terry Ann Carter) When I answered the question "what do I experience when I write haiku," I realized I was drawn to incongruity, like seeing the delicate tendrils of a morning glory clinging to the sturdy bark of a tree. Or, more correctly, what I perceive as an incongruity since nature has its own inherent wholeness. It is often the sensory awareness that prompts me to write, and only later does the emotional connection occur to me. The dissonance disappears into consonance.
The paradox is that they are both present in the moment of experience.

What Do You Experience When You Read Haiku?
When I was initially considering the questions to be included as prompts for the survey, I had an inkling that there might be a difference between the experience of writing a haiku and of reading one written by someone else. One poet described the difference of reading a haiku as being more relaxed. Having enough familiarity with the images when I read a haiku is an important first step in its appreciation. Otherwise the gap between the images remains unresolved. One participant commented on making this connection as well.
In reading haiku by various other poets, I am struck by the notion that, "YES! that 'works' for me;" in other words, bridging that "gap" is something within my realm of

possibility. (Terry Ann Carter)
Other poets focused on the novelty in a haiku. Again there is a balancing: this time between familiarity and novelty. The novelty can act as "magic" to shake up one's assumptions and invite new insight to emerge.
Pretty much like a magic trick, the artist shows you an image, lets your brain sort it out, and then transforms the image so that your brain has to reconsider its assumption of what it has seen…. The haiku poet does this primarily in two ways: 1) The first is to present a single familiar image, but to frame it in a certain way so that we are forced to re-evaluate that image.
2) The poet takes two familiar safe images but by placing them together creates tension by forcing the reader's brain to try to make some sense of why these images are side by side. (Marco Fraticelli) Or novelty can act in a similar manner to the punch line of a joke. Again, expectations are challenged, and the reader is invited to see things in a new way. Both haiku and jokes are characterized by incongruity that invites interaction. The structure of humour as described by psychologist Lucille Nahemow (1986) could as easily describe the structure of haiku: "The discrepancy between the expected and that which transpires accounts for the humorous experience. However, incongruity alone appears insufficient. There must also be resolution for the joke to make sense" (p. 6). Nahemow also notes that "[t]he recognition that something is funny contains both emotional and cognitive elements" (p. 8), and this kind of wholehearted response is true for haiku as well.
Along with experiencing the unexpected as a kind of insight, several poets described a physical response to encountering the juxtaposition in a haiku. This relates once again to the mind-body-environment integrity of embodied cognition.
There is something pleasing about the interruption in and of itself-perhaps like the lightness we feel in our stomachs when driving over an abrupt hill or cycling downward on a ferris wheel. (Barry George) What do I experience when I read haiku? I experience haiku as almost a physical jolt.
With a good poem, I feel something is triggered in my mind, sort of like an extra release of electrical energy. I silently think "hmmm" or "yes, isn't that true," either because I've This leads me to believe that haiku are stimulators of memory and the gap that is created is to give the subconscious mind time to shift into sensory mode to join the two images.

(Alice Frampton)
A well-crafted haiku holds enough familiarity that the reader can relate to the images, and enough novelty that the reader is encouraged to jump the gap and make some kind of connection.
One poet described this experience as "co-creation" in which each reader renews the haiku with their own interpretation.
Of course, if a haiku is going to work, it must resonate for the reader as well as the writer. The reader needs to be able to enter the moment and make a connection that works for her. This may not be the exact connection that the writer had in mind, but that Haiku focus on the particular as it happens in the present moment, and can allude to a wider and deeper symbolic meaning. As an accessible form of poetry, haiku could be used widely in teaching to develop such metaphorical understanding. Its advantages are many.
Haiku are brief, and such brevity means that its form can be taught and practiced within a short time frame in a classroom setting. As well, haiku can be taught at many different grade levels, and could be combined with the associated forms of haibun (story and haiku) and haiga (picture and haiku).
Haiku could potentially be used in subjects other than the usual one of language arts.
During my graduate school experience, I facilitated a haiku workshop for a group of teachercandidates in a writing class. When they returned from their time in the classroom, they shared their experiences of applying haiku in novel ways. One teacher-candidate used haiku in her Grade 11 physics class: she invited her students to use the first line for the concept and to use the next two lines to give an example of the concept. Another teacher-candidate shared haiku as an exercise with his Grade 8 history class. Several other teacher-candidates read and talked about haiku with their students in the primary grades.
Writing haiku invites students to stand in the authority of their own experience, and to express their understanding through the potent language of poetry. At the same time that haiku invites students to explore their inner selves, it also invites them to explore their connection with the environment in which they live. Educator and poet Victoria Gaylie (2008) invited her urban, 20 middle-school students to write poetry outdoors as a way of teaching ecoliteracy, and one of the forms of poetry she used was haiku. Her study showed "how nurturing a quiet, alert, poetic awareness toward the earth in our students provides a predisposition that permits ecoliterate knowledge to emerge" (p. 13).
In a world that is becoming increasingly complex through technological advances and ecological challenges, haiku offers an opportunity for connecting to the simplicity and wholeness of nature, including our human nature. This is a valuable lesson at any age.

Acknowledgements
The author's haiku have appeared previously as follows: