Moonset, The Newspaper
By Dr. MOHAMMED FAKHRUDDIN Plenty of Zen
Poetry news generated across the world in one stroke! “Moonset, The Newspaper”, biennial tabloid, published from Oregon, USA, edited by
Haiku poet an’ya and published by peter B, USA, is an innovative
Newspaper dedicated to Japanese poetry and poetics. Haiku poetry lovers simply enjoy reading this tabloid which introduces world haiku
poets and their works in the form of Haiku, Zen Poetry, Tanka, Haibun, Renku, Senryu, drawn from various age groups and poets from different walks of life representing various countries. Critically speaking, “MOONSET, THE NEWSPAPER” is “Zen Poetry Newspaper” since it contains verses only in Zen Poetry format. One can find in it a very few Haiku scattered here and there. “Zen Poetry”, coined by Indian Haiku poet Mohammed Fakhruddin, is written in less than 17 syllables. Haiku is a Japanese poem which is written in English in 17
syllables in 3 lines in the order of 5, 7, 5 syllables. The spirit remains the same in both “Haiku” and “Zen Poetry”. Compared to Haiku, the content in “Zen Poetry” is more compressed than “Haiku”, though brevity of expression and imagery plays a major role in both the verses. The
subject is squeezed to the bare minimum syllabic expression in simple words with clarity while portraying a unique image or scene or sequence or an incident that fail to catch by an ordinary eye. Zen is an element that makes one think for a while to understand what is hidden below the surface. Almost all Haiku poets world over including Japanese are writing, at present, ‘Zen Poetry’ (having in each verse less than 17 syllables) which is, of course, an offshoot of Haiku. But, this poetic license is being misused by unscrupulous people who call themselves as poets and write junk! For instance, Haibun, a Japanese form of poetry, is a haiku sequence having 5,7,5 syllabic metre written on a particular subject in first person and in present tense. The subject should open like a flower bud blossoming gradually into a wide open flower spreading its sweet fragrance all over. Similarly, Renga/Reuku , another form of Japanese poetry, is written leisurely on any chosen subject in 10 Tanka format by two poets. In the first 5 Tankas, If A begins with a haiku having 5,7,5 syllables; in reply to A, B writes two 7 syllable lines. Poet A answers B by writing a haiku and asks B to complete it with a couplet in 7 syllable lines. Thus both the poets A and B write 5 Haiku and 5 couplets in the 1st segment portraying their thoughts layer after layer, linking haiku with a couplet creating Tanka after Tanka. In the 2nd segment, both the poets shift their positions : A takes B’s position and B takes A’s position and again write 5 more Tankas on the same subject link one haiku with a couplet in same manner as they did above. Thus both the poets write 10 Tankas to make one Renga or renku.
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