Monday January 4, 2010

RICHARD WRIGHT
Please take a look as well at January 1

Black Boy responses due today.....we're moving on.

In class we are looking at the Wright's Haikus. See selection below, if you are absent.

The Haiku format is a form of poetic expression based
on Zen Buddhism. This was developed from the ancient
Chinese models from the 15th and 16th centuries. Haiku
are normally restricted to three lines with a maximum of
17 syllables in a 5-7-5 syllabic pattern.

Japanese artists, under the influence of Zen philosophy,
developed a form with no contrived rhymes, no metrical shackles
and no title. They tended to use few words as possible to express
their feelings, and the resultant precise focus (being closer to
the complete silence of the cosmic consciousness) intensifies insight
into the heart of the experience. As a distinguished Zen historian says,
“When a feeling reaches its highest pitch, even seventeen syllables may be too many.”

Assignent due by Friday- by class time- on the blog. You are to write your own haiku, using proper format and feeling. Make sure you include your name for credit. We'll share these. In order to get credit, you must use the blog. There is to be no paper turned in!

Wright's Haikus as per class handout.


Haiku’s by Richard Wright

1
I am nobody:
A red sinking autumn sun
Took my name away.


3
Keep straight down this block,
Then turn right where you will find
A peach tree blooming.


7
Make up you mind, Snail!
You are half inside your house,
And halfway out!


11
You moths must leave now;
I am turning out the light
And going to sleep.


16
All right, You Sparrows;
The sun has set and you can now
Stop your chattering!


18
Sparrow's excrement
Becomes quickly powdery
On sizzling pavements.


20
The dog's violent sneeze
Fails to rouse a single fly
On his mangy back.


21
On winter mornings
The candle shows faint markings
Of the teeth of rats.

22
With a twitching nose
A dog reads a telegram
On a wet tree trunk.


24
The webs of spiders
Sticking to my sweaty face
In the dusty woods.


30
A bloody knife blade
Is being licked by a cat
At hog-killing time.


31
In the falling snow
A laughing boy holds out his palms
Until they are white.


50
One magnolia
Landed upon another
In the dew-wet grass.


51
As the sun goes down,
a green melon splits open
And juice trickles out.


53
A sparrow's feather
On a barb of rusty wire
In the sizzling heat.


57
Sleety rain at night
Seasoning swelling turnips
With a tangy taste.

58
Heaps of black cherries
Glittering with drops of rain
In the evening sun.

67
The day is so long
That even noisy sparrows
Fall strangely silent.


75
Spring begins shyly
With one hairpin of green grass
In a flower pot.


78
An apple blossom
Trembling on a sunlit branch
From the weight of bees.


93
Leaving its nest,
The sparrow sinks a second,
Then opens its wings.


95
Like a fishhook,
The sunflower's long shadow
Hovers in the lake.


97
In the setting sun,
Each tree bud is clinging fast
To drying raindrops.


101
Quickly vanishing,
The first drops of summer rain
On an old wood door.
117
The crow flew so fast
That he left his lonely caw
Behind in the fields.


120
Crying and crying,
Melodious strings of geese
Passing a graveyard.


134
One autumn evening
A stranger enters a village
And passes on through.


142
A wounded sparrow
Sinks in clear cold lake water,
Its eyes still open.


144
Amidst the flowers
A China clock is ticking
In the dead man's room.


171
With indignation
A little girl spanks her doll, –
The sound of spring rain.


172
The scarecrow's old hat
Was flung by the winter wind
Into a graveyard.


175
Coming from the woods,
A bull has a lilac sprig
Dangling from a horn.