viewing the moon


no one at the party


has such a beautiful face.

For a poem to qualify as a haiku it must consist of "five, seven and five syllables respectively." The essence of haiku is “cutting”, which is often seen by juxtaposition of two images or ideas with the cutting word between them that signals the separation and acknowledges how they are related. The use of juxtaposition, which is honored in both traditional and modern haiku, can also be seen in Tyler Knott Gregson’s poetry.

One haiku in particular by Basho, shown above, speaks of the moon, and the juxtaposed topic is the beautiful face, a face that is more beautiful than anyone at the party. Just as the moon can be thought of by many as a face, Basho chooses to compare the moon to the faces of the people at the party. We don’t know anyone at the party and we are not able to see that very same moon on that particular night, all we know is that its beauty outshines the faces of the people at the party. This can be comparable to Tyler Knott Gregson’s poetry in that the effects are similar, just more difficult to extract. The simplicity of the content used is what makes both of their work come across as found poetry, something that you could see stuck onto the refrigerator door. Short, sweet, and leaving you with something to think about, this something to think about that you supply the context.

Just because there is a lack of words or specificity does not mean that there is a lack of influence or emotion. Just as the influence of a crescent moon is not less than the influence of the full moon. One could think of the gibbous moon as the impact of the found poem growing and increasing in meaning by what thoughts are triggered by the simplicity of the poem. As the crescent moon may seem small and insignificant the broad nature of both Tyler Knott Gregson’s poetry and the haiku style of poetry may make the poem or the moon easily overlooked. Some may not see the potential is in what is to come in the gradual progression of the phases of the moon or the triggered emotions and memories by the silent spaces of a haiku.

*information taken from "Forms in English Haiku" by Keiko Imaoka