Joshua Eric Williams standing firmly on two iambic feet at the MahMight Terminal

 

the deepened

       deep end

   independence

Joshua Eric Williams

 

“The poem responds to moments of sublimity: An awestruck person experiences transcendent and abject thoughts simultaneously, losing the self in knowledge that blurs the lines between object and subject. 

While such moments are freeing, this independence causes many to fear for their selfhoods, leading them to questioning what identity is.”  

A Favorite Haiku

As we got

Closer, the

Rainbow disappeared.

Julius Bernard Lester (January 27, 1939 – January 18, 2018)

 

Lester’s haiku does so much thematically. On the surface, the reader understands that the existence of a rainbow depends on the refraction of the light. Arriving closer to it, delving further into the phenomenon, only causes its disappearance. The author is investigating perception and the acceptance of a moment in this piece. He recreates this experience metrically as well. 

At first, the poem appears to be constructed of two unstressed syllables followed by a stressed one, called an anapest; the second line appears to be the reverse, a dactyl; and the third line could be seen as with a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed one, referred to as a trochee, with an anapest finishing the line. However, if taken as a whole, the poem is iambic pentameter with substituted feet.

For the uninitiated, most people think that iambic pentameter is the repetition of an unstressed syllable and stressed syllable ad nauseum, but modulation or altering the pattern slightly helps poets to create other levels of meaning in the poem. 

In this particular piece, Lester begins the poem with establishing the iambic sound with “As we got / Closer,” two iambic feet that then transition to an anapest, two unstressed syllables followed by a stressed one and follows that with two unstressed syllables before ending on another iambic foot. 

What all this amounts to is that a stress is dropped from the last line, symbolizing the loss of the rainbow. Moreover, if the poem is not regarded as a whole and only scanned from line to line, the pattern itself is lost, which again underscores Lester’s themes regarding perception and experience. Simply put, the poem is intricacy hidden in simplicity—the human condition.    

 

QUOTES

Withnail and I

“All right, this is the plan. We get in there and get wrecked, then we'll eat a pork pie, then we'll drop a couple of Surmontil-50's each. That means we'll miss out Monday but come up smiling Tuesday morning.”

 

Waiting for Godot

“Let us represent worthily for once the foul brood to which a cruel fate consigned us!”

ALAN NOTES:

Julius Bernard Lester

https://haikubum.tumblr.com/post/634701433783091200/as-we-got-closer-the-rainbow-disappeared

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julius_Lester