memories of a place
I've never been
--William Kenney, USA
Bill's haiku is full of contradiction, and at the same time intrigue. He express in a note, that for him, as a child that was a food eaten during the depression, poor people's food; so that this kukai challenged him to go back into himself, into a time passed, a time he has transitioned. What was his life like? we may question, but there are no answers here for us. No matter how hard we try we cannot probe his existence. It remains a memory locked in the mind of the writer. Our own consciousness allow us the savor of a food haiku. Where there is food there will be appeal to the senses of sight, and smell and taste. What he does is, direct us, to our own experience. 'A place i've never been' becomes shared, it applies to us and to him.
Salted fish to Caribbean people is poor peoples food that has made it into the rich man's plate. It is now the accepted sort after food. Sunday morning buljol, and lenten meat subsitute embraced by all. So Bill's place, is also a real place, as he emphatises with a note about the Caribbean, which was set with the kigo challenge .
Line One is sharp and strong. It commands our attention, with the use of just one word. Three syllables roll off the tongue, creating so much of a sensory effect to the reader. Before we ask, what about it? we are already transported into our very own salted fish moments. People, place colour, taste, the noise of family at the dinner table, or the encounter of an old friend in the market place. Paper wrappings with a purchase, or as the example haiku for the kukai sets - 'the hibiscus hedges' around a house where such a meal is being prepared.
From his note ("I haven't had saltfish since I was a kid; for us, it was Depression food, consistent with what you said about its history in your part of the world – a poor people's food that the rich have caught on to") which expands his haiku thought, it can be seen that the example haiku set him in a renku like direction in his presentation of this haiku; and this is all good.
Well done Bill
gillena cox
Caribbean Kigo Kukai - founder/co ordinator
