Poetry Magazines - The best collection of poetry magazines online - Simon Armitage

There has long been an interest in the visual aspects of haiku. Concern with the way the words are laid out; awareness of its spatial form; how it displays rhythm and balance in the placing of the words or characters; the immediate expressive impact of the image the poem makes.

   In the case of traditional haiga, the visual impression preceded and anticipated the meaning of the words. The visual combination of the calligraphic haiku, the brush-worked image and the print of a stone seal presented a visual arrangement on the page that already gave an evocation of what the words of the haiku were suggesting.

   In the 1950s/60s haiku received an increase in attention from the beat generation of poets. Their interest in Japanese culture and increased awareness of Zen Buddhism coincided, in the field of visual arts, with the concern for minimalism and with the concrete poem. The haiku’s brevity, its presentation of a clear and real image, its being grounded in a moment of time, made it a perfect partner for sculptors like Hamilton-Finlay and ceramicists like Bernard Leach, as well as calligraphic artists working in two or three dimensions, to combine words with a visual image. Haiku were carved on rock or wood, etched into glass or metals and even used in combination with sand and water.

   The concrete poem also exploited the possibilities of typography and printing processes, and so graphical haiku, where form follows the sense, have been used periodically to good effect. The impact of the image thus generated can be conceptual, emblematic, harmonious or simply a thing of beauty. But in each case the visual aspect supports the character of the haiku as presenting a real image.

   Now that so many of us have access to a computer, the amount of readily available graphics software can give additional impetus to the visual aspects of haiku and the expressive potentials of creative layouts in achieving a unity of form and content. Andy Shimield and I have been having a go. Here are some examples. I’ve no doubt there are much better ones out there waiting to be sent in. But what do the membership think; a valid tool for the presentation of haiku, or a sullying of the purity of the form?