Dunkirk NY – After thinking through yesterday’s dilemma, I decided that there really isn’t that much at stake. So what I will do is continue to post some haiku through February, but not worry all that much about any frogpond submissions, nor whether I get a haiku written each day. The larger question is one of publication in general. There seems to be a great deal of insistence on making sure that submissions are original and have never been published elsewhere, especially electronically. Perhaps this is a prompt for another essay in the near future – the presumed value of originality. I think I shall just continue what I have been doing all along, occasionally posting a haiku or two on this site. Perhaps ignoring journals is a better choice for me.
To that end, I have decided to use a Creative Commons License for my blog. The license grants permission for anyone to share or re-post my work, but only for non-commercial purposes. It also does not allow for re-purposing of the work as part of a larger work. This allows me to consider my blog, not as a publishing platform, but as a sharing platform. If you see something you like and want to share it with others, you are free to do so.
I’ve also developed a new graphic for my 5-7-5 campaign:
So when I write a 5-7-5 haiku, this will appear with it. 5-7-5 is OK!
Lastly, since I paid for a year’s membership to HSA, I shall continue to see how that goes. I have no regional group that’s nearby. The closest one seems to be in Cuyahoga Falls, OH, which is about two hours away. Right now I don’t have the luxury to attend their meetings, but if the opportunity arises I shall give one a try and see how it flies. The HSA seems to be full of contests, prizes and whatnot, which is not for me. I have always been opposed to creating art for the purpose of entering contests or winning awards. It doesn’t seem to fit my temperament. And perhaps my greatest fear is getting critiques of my work from a collection of strangers. One of the things that happened to me just before my retirement was the stunning realization that, as a teacher of acting, a good deal of the time I probably was full of bullshit. It was one of the reasons I retired – I was tired of hearing myself talk, and I came to believe that most of what I knew about acting (if I ever knew anything at all) was no longer applicable. So many times I’ve been in situations where people merely want to demonstrate to others how intelligent and knowledgeable they are, and I don’t really want to get involved in these situations any more. It might just be best for me to sit here quietly in my office, content myself with my own writing (such as it is), and leave it be at that. My preference would be for a one-on-one mentor whose work I admire, but that seems rather far-fetched at the moment.
Zen philosophy speaks of non-attachment to things, and so perhaps the best course for me is to write haiku with an unattached mind. They should be free to float where they wish to go, unencumbered by my ego. Let me see where this path takes me. -twl