There is a growing poetry movement on the Island, helped in no small part by View RoyalB次元官网网址檚 own Terry Ann Carter, president of Haiku Canada. Despite only living here since 2011, Carter has thrown herself headfirst into the poetry community and been instrumental in gathering creatives together over the last year.
After leaving a well-connected haiku community in Ottawa, she struggled at first finding a niche on the Island. It was when she taught three highly successful haiku and bookmaking workshops at Royal Roads University that she was introduced to a group of people who shared her passion.
Carter quickly founded Haiku Arbutus, a group for haiku poets to meet and share, and take in the splendour of nature that so frequently features in the short works. The group meets at the Coast Collective, a locale that Carter says is most inspiring.
B次元官网网址淲eB次元官网网址檙e so close to nature. ThereB次元官网网址檚 such a great love of sea, wind and sky,B次元官网网址� she says.
She adds that their approach to haiku is flexible, and includes observations on human nature as well as the natural world. Whether describing the flash of a heronB次元官网网址檚 wing as it lifts, or the deeply personal and moving moments of being human, haiku covers the entire spectrum. And itB次元官网网址檚 important not to get caught up in the five-seven-five syllable rule that everyone seems to learn in grade school. Carter says that strict format was likely a mistake in translation.
B次元官网网址淲hat youB次元官网网址檙e aiming for is the moment and not counting syllables. We aim for less than five, less than seven, less than five,B次元官网网址� she says. B次元官网网址淩emoving the syllable count frees the poet up to feel that moment. You can say B次元官网网址榤oon,B次元官网网址� and not B次元官网网址榤oon up in the sky.B次元官网网址橞次元官网网址�
Carter has been studying haiku since the early B次元官网网址�90s, when she attended a poetry conference at the University of Toronto and heard a Japanese haiku poet speak. Even though she couldnB次元官网网址檛 understand the language, the musicality of his reading and the emotion behind it moved her.
B次元官网网址淢y heart just sort of stopped,B次元官网网址� she says. B次元官网网址淭his understanding, this praise of nature. It was very elemental.B次元官网网址�
She was fortunate to have a mentor in her developing years B次元官网网址� renowned New York poet William Higginson B次元官网网址� and says that sheB次元官网网址檚 moved to give back to her students now. B次元官网网址淲hen youB次元官网网址檝e had that help, you know what itB次元官网网址檚 like to have someone spend some time with your poetry.B次元官网网址�
Carter adds that haiku in particular is a challenging form.
B次元官网网址淚tB次元官网网址檚 hard to be so simple,B次元官网网址� she says. B次元官网网址淗aiku is a very different doorway that you walk through.B次元官网网址�
SheB次元官网网址檚 been asked to return to Royal Roads and will teach four haiku and bookmaking workshops this winter, and she says her spring students are in for a treat. B次元官网网址淔or our Spring workshop weB次元官网网址檙e actually going to use the Japanese garden thatB次元官网网址檚 attached to Royal Roads.B次元官网网址�
Next May, Haiku Canada will host their annual conference in Victoria, bringing poetry enthusiasts from all over the world, including keynote speaker Gabriel Rosenstock, IrelandB次元官网网址檚 premier haiku poet who works in both English and Irish.
Carter is thrilled with the growth and interest in haiku since she moved to View Royal, and adds that itB次元官网网址檚 a wonderful way for poets B次元官网网址� and aspiring poets B次元官网网址� to connect with their surroundings.
B次元官网网址淭here are so many wonderful poets here,B次元官网网址� she says. B次元官网网址淚 think (haiku) is sanity. To write this kind of haiku, you have to slow down. You have to unplug, and look and taste and hear.
Haiku is poetry of the moment.B次元官网网址�
acowan@goldstreamgazette.com
