We celebrate Heritage Day in South Africa on 24 September. The World Poetry Organisation declared the same day World Poetry Day. I chose this day to post my first response in this collaboration with artist-jewellers Chris and Marlene de Beer. Thank you Chris and Marlene for inviting me to interact with your work which I love.
The artist-jewellers invited me to write short, haiku-type poems. (A haiku consists of seventeen syllables). In researching haiku, I discovered haiga. Traditionally the haiga unites a (haiku) poem, written in calligraphy, with a simple painting. We intend to create 21st century haiga, by uniting jewellery artworks with short poems, tweeted out on Twitter.
{Traditional haiga = artwork+poem+calligraphy}
{21st century haiga = artwork+poem+twitter}
In line with the haiga tradition, mine is an independent poetic response, rather than a description of the artwork. A description would imply that the artwork is incomplete. In this project some of my poetic responses will be actual haiku, others merely short poems.
More about haiga on poets.org: http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5940
You are invited to bring your own meaning to the haiga.
["Fynbos": fine bush; "Suikerbos": sugar bush (Afrikaans) -- indigenous shrubland in the Western Cape of South Africa]
To end, treat yourself to this sultry version of the Afrikaans folk song, Suikerbos (performed by the Radio Kalahari Orkes): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfvSVWt3mLE It is essentially a song of love and longing for someone called Suikerbos.
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Mari Pete
Twitter: mari_pete
Poetry: http://maripete.co.za
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