Princess Haiku is a literary collage of poetry, prose, photography, classical music, dance and book reviews, written in the tradition of a poetic memoir.
Deutsche Grammophon has a spiffy new web log for pianist, Yundi Li. Currently it features an interview between Seiji Ozawa and Yundi, "Poetry and Technique in a Rare State of Harmony." The blog attempts to communicate a sense of the poetic beauty of Yundi's playing and misses. Fortunately, this doesn't matter and the web log does have some graces; visually attractive and with some great music clips on it.
Princess Haiku has heard the music of Chopin as played by the gifted young pianist, in her dreams. In fact said Princess Haiku, I stopped by Pere Lachaise the other day for a tete a tete with Baudelaire and Keats, and who was sitting on the stone angel pointing towards heaven? Why it was Chopin himself, claiming he was still being pursued by the notorious George Sand and that he needed to rest. And then he told me that he was working on a new piece, "The Chrysanthemum Sonata" for Yundi and if he were still alive, he would this and that....
And on and on. Some ghosts don't know when they are done said Princess Haiku, as she disappeared over the edge of the moon, with her pet whippet, Nimble of Thrace, but I do.
Muriel Najean de Bevere's exquisite photographs and particularly those of Pere LachaiseCemetery are in the tradition of Kyudo.
Kyudo is a form of moving meditation in which the focus of practice is on “clearing the mind” rather than on marksmanship. The target becomes a mirror reflecting the quality of one’s mind at the moment of the arrow’s release. With the lens of a camera, Muriel de Bevere captures the sleeping solitude, tranquillity and otherworldly purity of the most famous cemetery in the world. With mirror like precision her photographs reflect what can only be called, drop dead beauty.
During his brief life Jim Morrison was once quoted as saying, "If my poetry aims to achieve anything, it's to deliver people from the limited ways in which they see and feel."
Jim Morrison was a rebel poet subjected to severe censor and punishment for behavior that today is more or less expected of rock stars. Yet, in March of 1969, Morrison was arrested on stage for "indecent exposure" and sentenced to eight months of hard labor. The real crime for which Morrison was found guilty; was expression of music and lyrics both iconoclastic and anarchist in a refusal to accept social repression and restraint.
Artistic freedom as defined by the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment was on trial and freedom lost the day Morrison was sent to prison. The Morrison that appeared after his incarceration was a ghost of the youth who sang, "You can light my fire." Dispirited and in failing health due to heroin addiction, Morrison disappeared from the limelight.
Morrison moved to Paris with his longtime partner and spent his last days writing poetry. He read the poetry of Rimbaud, Verlaine and Baudelaire and strolled through Pere-Lachaise; city of the dead. It is understandable that Morrison was attracted to these French poets as they were interested in the relationship between music and poetic language. Although Morrison's poetry was rich and promising in imagery, he died of a presumed overdose of heroin before his literary voice reached maturity.
Despite his untimely death, Morrison held the line for art and inscribed on his tomb in Pere-Lachaise are the Greek words; "KATA TON DAIMONA EAYTOVA meaning, True to his Spirit."
Morrison infused rock music with a vital, dynamic and rich literary context. If you are interested in a more scholarly discussion of his music follow the links. Morrison's rock group was named, "The Doors" in the tradition of Aldous Huxley; inviting others to walk through and find their light. To this day Morrison remains an icon and a cult figure.
This poem of Baudelaire written long before the birth of Morrison serves as a fine literary requiem.
by: Charles Baudelaire
AM as lovely as a dream in stone, And this my heart where each finds death in turn, Inspires the poet with a love as lone As clay eternal and as taciturn.
Swan-white of heart, a sphinx no mortal knows, My throne is in the heaven's azure deep; I hate all movements that disturb my pose, I smile not ever, neither do I weep.
Before my monumental attitudes, That breathe a soul into the plastic arts, My poets pray in austere studious moods,
For I, to fold enchantment round their hearts, Have pools of light where beauty flames and dies, The placid mirrors of my luminous eyes.
Diane Dehler is a photographer and poet. Her flower photography has been featured on Haiga online and she has several thousand followers on facebook. Her multi-media video poem, "The Lotus" has received 3000+ views on youtube. As a poet she is known for her lyricism and has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and was a finalist for the Anna Davidson Rosenberg Poetry Prizes 2016. She received a degree from the Creative Writing Program at San Francisco State University, receiving the Outstanding Student of the Year Award. She is an English Language poet in the international literary scene and; has been published in numerous poetry journals and three anthologies. Mostly recently she has published in, The Artemis Review, Cultural Weekly, Edgar Allan Poet, The Mas Tequila Review, The Criterion: An International Journal in English, Munyori Literary Review, The Taj Mahal Review, Truck, Deepwater Literary Journal, Moonbathing: A Journal of Women’s Tanka, Lummox Journal and poeticdiversity.
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