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Wednesday 17 March 2010

Haiku #83

A world of Misery-lit:
child abuse, rape and mourning -
Orange Award judge.

9 comments:

Rachel Green said...

Super! Can't say I like the genre much, though some of my writer friends are very good at it.

JeannetteLS said...

What some of us hope to do along the way, is to find the beauty beyond it and in the midst of it. I hope one day I will be a good enough writer that, while writing some of that genre, I will take ti to the "What happens next" realm, Dave. Your haiku made me cry this morning.

Without the hope, without the joy of moving past it and, yes, finding that there was sweetness and beauty in those who abused us, it is unremitting pain lit. And I don't understand the point of that.

Yet the fear of having my work seen as that... just abuse, keeps me from more than implying the worst... I flirt with it, but have not published, even on my blog, the poems that have the teeth, that speak the worst of the pain.

Funny how 12 (13 if you count the hyphenated as two words) can reach so deeply, perhaps far beyond your own intent. I just came from "She Writes" and "Shattered," to your poem.

It's a relatively new genre--the last ten years have seemed to raise it to some sort of height. Perhaps the NEXT stage will be to put in more of the joy that lies after bitterness, after facing down the demons.

Thank you, as always, Dave. Sorry if I rambled too much> You made me think. AND, by the way, I DO love your digital doodles!

Ronda Laveen said...

A dose of reality of today. I don't understand the Orange Award though.

Tommaso Gervasutti said...

This is terrific, Dave. A marvellous haiku awakening righteous rage with the right irony.

Dave King said...

Leatherdykeuk
Seem to be gathering popularity.

JeanetteLS
I do take your various points, absolutely. The judge in question was the chair of the panel and what I took her to intend was not a criticism of the genre, but a regret that that there was very little else on the short list. I think that the effort of having to read so many books (a hundred and something?) of the same ilk in such a short space of time must have had some sort of effet upon her - as I think t would hav e had upon me, whatever the genre.

My thanks for your kind remarks and my apologies if the haiku distressed you. It was not meant to reflect a view on the subject.

Ronda
An award for women writers.

Tommaso
Many thanks for that.

JeannetteLS said...

Nope. It didn't distress me. It made me think--an entirely different matter! Thinking is good.

Lynda Lehmann said...

Pretty powerful for a short poetic statement.

Dave King said...

Jeannette
Good to hear

Lynda
Hi, Good to have your contribution. Thanks.

Anonymous said...

Funny humans we are! When your worse is worse than my bad, it makes us feel good!