Again Alan Summers preempts and summarizes my own thoughts!
Here on Tinywords, Polona again demonstrates she is the absolute maestro of the one-line ku.
And as always her verse repays some research and reflection:
Forsythia is a variety of olive. According to Wikipedia:
"Forsythia suspensa is considered one of the 50 fundamental herbs in Chinese herbology"
and my medical interest is piqued to find how it is used as a form of complementary medicine.
From WebMD:
"Forsythia is used for swelling of small air passages in the lung (bronchiolitis), tonsillitis, sore throat, fever, vomiting, heart disease … pain and swelling (inflammation), and a severe skin rash with fever and vomiting caused by a bacterium (erysipelas).
I am enough of a skeptic to suspect that these sorts of therapeutic claims cannot be verified. So could this be an example of the sort of "lies I believe in" that Polona is referring to?
I then wonder about the play on the word "lies", and am encouraged to think the horizontal construction of the work could be a visual representation of the assumed posture of the poet – perhaps unwell, lying in bed, thinking about what may give her relief.
The final image is transformative – the forsythia buds conjure spring and hope. Regardless of the herbal properties of the forsythia bud, there is healing in the haiku properties she has mixed together.
April 29th, 2014 at 9:28 am
ever since I could hear
chickadees in spring
April 29th, 2014 at 9:29 am
The lies we all keep believing in. Beautiful.
April 29th, 2014 at 10:09 am
the lies i believe in forsythia buds
—Polona Oblak
Polona can do no wrong with me. Perhaps one of the best haiku writers around at the moment.
Another amazing haiku, thank you.
warm regards,
Alan
April 29th, 2014 at 3:11 pm
Truth in brevity, wonderful.
April 29th, 2014 at 5:14 pm
Again Alan Summers preempts and summarizes my own thoughts!
Here on Tinywords, Polona again demonstrates she is the absolute maestro of the one-line ku.
And as always her verse repays some research and reflection:
Forsythia is a variety of olive. According to Wikipedia:
"Forsythia suspensa is considered one of the 50 fundamental herbs in Chinese herbology"
and my medical interest is piqued to find how it is used as a form of complementary medicine.
From WebMD:
"Forsythia is used for swelling of small air passages in the lung (bronchiolitis), tonsillitis, sore throat, fever, vomiting, heart disease … pain and swelling (inflammation), and a severe skin rash with fever and vomiting caused by a bacterium (erysipelas).
I am enough of a skeptic to suspect that these sorts of therapeutic claims cannot be verified. So could this be an example of the sort of "lies I believe in" that Polona is referring to?
I then wonder about the play on the word "lies", and am encouraged to think the horizontal construction of the work could be a visual representation of the assumed posture of the poet – perhaps unwell, lying in bed, thinking about what may give her relief.
The final image is transformative – the forsythia buds conjure spring and hope. Regardless of the herbal properties of the forsythia bud, there is healing in the haiku properties she has mixed together.
As always, thank you Polona
Strider
May 2nd, 2014 at 1:35 pm
I thought about how buds open and expand when I read this – just as lies grow more complicated! A brilliant haiku :)
marion
May 10th, 2014 at 3:41 pm
The lies we believe in are probably half-truths with a germ of truth in them. Can we rely on them to come good?