Gembun & Cherita

(Leaf 47) – Looking Back

 

A painting by Antonio López Garcia (b.1936)

Throughout its history the tradition of haikai in Japan has changed and adapted its various forms. Despite what seem to be quite strict rules and protocols, new forms developed and evolved out of old and established ones. Even the five-seven-five syllable line haiku, with its distinctive kireji (punctuation words) and kigo (season words), started out as the hokku – the starting verse for a linked sequence or renga, written by two or more poets in turn. Back in the late 1990s, when I was first submitting my poems to small press magazines, ai li, the editor of ‘still: a journal of short verse’, innovated several new forms for poets to experiment and play with. Two in particular caught my eye, and so I gave them a try. These were the Gembun and the Cherita. I’m happy to see that some thirty years later both forms are still going strong. You can find out more about these two forms on The Cherita website; but to furnish a quick description here: Gembun have a one word or one sentence opening which should incorporate an element of suggestion, followed by a three-to-four-line haiku. Cherita (from the Malay word for story or tale, hence the poem must tell a story) take the form of a one-, two-, and three-line sequence (in any order thereof), and can be written solo or with up to three partners. These two forms appealed to me, and I had one of each published in ‘still.’ They were:

 

 

Trying to forget the loneliness.

 

The single toothbrush

standing in the cup

beside the wash basin.

 

 

Gembun, first published in still 4: one (2000).

 

 

***

 

Tim Chamberlain - Duck, Shinobazu Pond (2003)

 

The last time we stood together.

 

My Grandfather gesturing to the ducks

on the canal.

 

In the corner of my eye,

I caught the frown of pain

he tried to conceal.

 

 

Cherita, first published in still 4: two (2000).