The haiku in this pamphlet were written and illustrated in 2008—2009 by the pupils of Creetown Primary School, in collaboration with myself. The class had recently been on a visit to the woodland and what they saw, heard, smelt, touched and tasted forms the basis of these poems. While retaining certain traditional features of haiku, such as brevity and a reference to nature / the seasons, a modern flexible approach is taken. Rather than strictly counting syllables, the focus is on the essence of haiku: capturing images in words and creating emotions through these images rather than personal expression. The poems were written by the class as a whole, with fragments of writing by all pupils combined and adapted to create the final poems. The illustrations follow sumi-e principles. This form of Japanese art is often used to illustrate haiku in order to turn the words of the poems back into the images from which they originated. Copies of some of these poems have been inscribed on standing stones at the entrance to Balloch Wood, Creetown.
A pdf of the pamphlet is available here: the whinnie face
Click here for more info about the Balloch Wood Community Project.
