Sunday, October 18, 2009



slipping
beneath the briny sea
jellyfish shadows

17 comments:

  1. Magic below the surface,how wonderful of you. I love this Emma :)

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  2. A little too dazzling for my eyes, Dalloway :)

    nice work,

    wishes,
    devika

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  3. ___Camouflage... Emma, a fine photo and verse... hidden thought!
    ___At our pond, from time to time, we see freshwater 'jellyfish.' _m

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  4. Good stuff Emma, matt

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  5. many thanks... hope youre all bearing up under your respective almost winters...

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  6. I had to look for briny. And this showed me how wodnerful life gets along with these billions of challenges every second. Your haiga is very vivid in its simplicity. I like it a lot.

    Best wishes
    Ralf

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  7. a visit to your blog is for me always a delight

    much love
    gillena

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  8. "jellyfish shadows" brings us into a dream world.

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  9. beautiful pix and ku. I love it.

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  10. Hi Emma! Amazingly original, as always. I think I know the effect you're looking for, but one has to sort of read the words, then think about it "out of focus". Most seas, by definition, are briny, so the word "briny" seems a little "cutesy"? - in a nursery rhyme sort of way? And the shadow isn't really slipping "beneath" the briny sea because then, you know, it would be *under* - like beneath the sea floor (which is part of the sea). But, I think, what you really mean is that the shadow slips along the floor of the sea (not beneath it). Also (and now I'm really going to hate myself), it feels less like a haiku than playful imagery?

    Having said all that, I still admire your efforts and find them more original than my own.

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  11. Hi Patrick

    Its a little unseemly to defend my own work but I think we approach this one from very different angles, and, well, I dont get to talk on the finer points of haiku with any folk around here in Sydney.

    Yes, the sea is briny, but in using the word Im inviting you, the reader, to be in the water with me - feeling its coolness, tasting it - and only then do I add the jellyfish.

    The shadow, being infinitely thin, is the only object I can imagine that can perfectly slip between the sea and the sea bed ... particularly the shadow of the diaphanous jellyfish... I saw this one as a question and answer style ku, rather than just an image (although it can happily be taken that way)

    The cutesy, playful imagery? The words DO sound nice together, I was aware of that. Good haiku steers clear of artiface but theres scope to sound beautiful, particularly when it reflects the subject matter, surely?

    I was listening to a talk by Norman Doige on neuroplasticity the other day. He mentioned peole who had damage to the portion of the frontal lobe that regulates behaviour by self checking or self censoring thoughts. Soon after the damage had occurred they had become what we would normally refer to as 'gifted' artists, painting like Leonardo Da Vinci etc. The point being, that level of talent is in all of us, we just have learn how to turn the self checking mechanism off at just the right moments. The key to originality too, I suspect.

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  12. //Its a little unseemly to defend my own work//

    No it's not. It's a pleasure to hear your thoughts. As to damaging the frontal lobe, I *do* appreciate the offer. Really. You are very generous. ;-)

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  13. (Dalloway falls backwards off her chair laughing)

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Thanks for taking the time to write something.