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Kate Hall

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Mirroring the Moment

Up early, on the first morning of a visit to St Ives, Cornwall. This is where I come for inspiration and to work, both as an artist and a writer. Watching that place where the cloudless sky meets the sea, in the early half light, waiting, I can hear the Atlantic breaking on the rocks. The gulls are already calling, as the first fishing boats come in. I am still aware of the salt taste in the air though by tomorrow I will be used to it. When the first glimpse of the sun comes I find myself smiling broadly.

Atlantic dawn
the horizon cracks
into a smile

Instant anthropomorphism! As I often think in pictures, it seems easy to me to transform one thing into another, especially when it is mirrored so clearly by one’s own body language or expression. In this case the human smile, which is such a basic instinctual symbol, one to which we are all programmed to respond. (Babies spend far more time looking in the direction of two dots and a smile than at random patterns.) I think that unconsciously as haiku writers we often do this, the inspiration is surely the moment when we feel connected to some creature, thing or event: the bend of a tree in the wind, a breath of song from a bird - then we put it into words. Often the result is not so obviously anthropomorphic as this haiku but it is quite hard to be subtle when you are grinning from ear to ear.

 

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