Renhai Studio Archives

A Collection of Renhai by members of The Renhai Studio

Leaving it Behind

A Renhai by John Daleiden (Solo)

headpiece of straw,
in blue denim he watches—
no birds in sight

newspapers caught in brambles—
an evening moon lights spilled corn

ancient space junk
collides in low earth orbit—
no phone calls today

Archive Id: 192
John Daleiden: USA
Written:: December 5, 2009

Theme: Cast off
Season: Autumn
Kigo: Evening moon*
Verse Form: Free
Process: Forward

Links 1/2a: Straw / Brambles.
Links 1/2b: Straw - denim / Spilled corn.
Links 2a/3: Newspapers / Space junk.
Links 2b/3: Spilled corn / Space junk.
Links 3/1: No phone calls / No birds.

Notes:
*Kigo: see William J. Higginson with Penny Harter. The Haiku Handbook, p. 277.

Leaving it Behind: A Solo Renhai was composed in the original traditional method articulated by creator Vaughn Seward (i.e. 2-1, 2-2, 1, 3).

Discussion of Theme: "Cast offs" have diverse effects on people and the environment. In Verse 1 the entrepreneurial agriculturist has made a scarecrow out of the "cast off" blue denim. Ironically, although the scarecrow's headpiece is filled with straw, the ultimate effect is that the scarecrow keeps birds away from this field—the scarecrow is an effective communicator.

Verse 2: The ubiquitous "newspaper", randomly loose in the environment becomes ensnared on a bramble. The denim and the newspaper are man made objects; in this case, having become "cast off" objects — the denim has a useful second life, however, in contrast, the "newspaper" has become an unsightly spectacle. The sense of waste and being "cast off" is continued in verse 2, line 2 as we see some quantity of "spilled corn" lying in the field, "cast off" during harvest. Ironically, the corn is a crop grown by man, yet it now lies wasting in a field, and it offers an opposite contrast to the "denim" which is constructively being reused in a new way.

In Verse 3 the theme of "cast offs" is amplified with the example of "space junk" which collides in LEO, presumably with a communications satellite — the consequence is that phone calls on earth are interrupted. In verse 3 the effect of the "cast off" negatively impacts the human environment. Thus, in summary, "cast offs" can have various results for the human world.