Essay Introduction: Haiku As A Form Of Poetry

			  Leapt into the pond,
			  one frog after another,
			  now wet, followed suit.

Introduction

	In this volume (minus the Supplement) there are 365 haiku plus the one above to celebrate that extra day each leap year, which, in the process at the start of this volume, is also an oblique allusion to Basho (1644-94) and an invocation to the tradition he represented so well.
	In the following essay I shall redefine my concept of what phenomenologically constitutes a poem, and, by extension, what also generally defines, in my perception, the form of a haiku. In this task I intend to link the phenomenological and hermeneutical research developed in two recent papers, namely, The Hermeneutics Of Poetry: A Phenomenological Approach, and "On An Interpretation Of Interpretation: Phenomenological Hermeneutics? From the former paper the phenomenological characteristics of a poetic text, as I perceive them to be, are discussed with a particular reference to the form of a haiku. From the latter paper a hermeneutical schema is re-proposed with particular reference to the interpretation of a haiku. Throughout the exposition of this essay I will illustrate particular points made by quoting, and `interpreting for the reader,' various haiku to be found in this volume.
	In the essay The Hermeneutics Of Poetry: A Phenomenological Approach I used a series of arguments to indicate that the phenomenon of the poetic experience, and by implication, the poetic text in its hermeneutical reception (in its relatively essential constitution as a relatively distinctive phenomenon) could not be adequately defined in terms of meter, rhythm, rhyme and other less essential formal and/or material features. A prime exemplar of this position was the haiku which possessed none of these traditional Western features yet was still regarded non-controversially as a poetic form. Moreover, the use of the argument from translation also suggested that the more essential aspects of the poetic phenomenon could not be so reduced to aspects of structure and function in this manner! E.g., a non-Chinese speaking person could enjoy the translation of a Chinese poem in a `good' translation that adequately conveyed the poetic heart of that original text. Even through the auspices of a translation of a translation this central region of the text could be approached through a textual paraphrasing minus all prominent traditional forms of aesthetic-textual constraint. Essentially, if we are to phenomenologically and hermeneutically approach a certain poetic text it must be done so on these ground imputed to be central to the deepest sense of that text and not along more traditional avenues of approach. Of course in our admiration of the original text our poetic enjoyment will doubtlessly take these formal and/or material aspects, in their manner of presentation, into some form of appreciation, etc.
	Another approach to this imputed central region was discussed under the concepts of aesthetic compression, poetic compression and various forms of redundancy. In the same vein the question was proposed, as a puzzle-question, what difference if any is there between essential compression in the form of phenomenological descriptions and the poem in its use of essential descriptions, etc? 
	The answer proposed was effectively this reply that the difference was essentially that between evocation and provocation. An aesthetic text, whether it be a piece of philosophic writing or a painting, etc., introduces an element of dissonance, discord, conflict, etc., and also suggests possible avenues probably intended by the artist as open to their audience of that work of art as to how they might go about resolving this experience of a sense of anomaly; entertaining some form of resolution through some form of accommodation between dissonance in the text and a consonant textual-background or con-text. This dissonance-resolution axis was considered by myself as central to the text with pretensions of style, aesthetic merit, etc. That in essence a text with real style has real aesthetic substance or merit and v.v. The manner and success of that style being dependent on the provocative success of that form of accommodation. (19)

			Real style discharging
			its signature ev'erywhere.
			What substance has frost?!

	 Provocation was considered to take place in two forms, namely, through the introduction of relatively different material in the psychic form of dissonance, and, the specific pathways suggested by the artwork itself that would allow the reader to resolve this dissonant tension and in the process intersubjectively interpret that textual work of art in an intersubjective manner with a certain degree of cognitive and transcendental consistency. Cognitive consistency concerning itself with a conceptual translation of the parts of that text and/or any cognitive message that might be alluded to by the text of that work of art associated with and empowered by its aesthetic force of resolution or merit. Basically a form of appreciation that tries to understand intellectually whether we are dealing with a provisional work of art, what type of artwork it might be and any message apparently intended by a cognitive reading of that text. Transcendental consistency concerning itself with the artwork from a trans-cognitive, i.e., transcendental point of view; which less technically means the aesthetic merit of the work of art purely from the relative artificial point of view of `art for art's sake alone.' The latter form of appreciation considering the transcendental-aesthetic success of that artwork to function in an aesthetic mode of experiential entertainment.
	These concepts of evocation and provocation were examined in miscellaneous papers on the subject of a phenomenological and hermeneutical appreciation of value. I will treat this subject at some length further on in this paper under a hermeneutical schema for the critical appreciation of an aesthetic text with particular reference to our interpretational approach, or methodology, in our appreciation of haiku.
	In this first paper previously noted it was proposed that this central region of the phenomenon of a poetic text could be examined under four major and four minor aspects. However, in the form of a necessary qualification it was also noted that, as an aesthetic text is never uni-referential in its intended cognitive transmission, our appreciation of an aesthetic text must always recognize a certain je ne sais quoi, i.e., that this relatively central region of this phenomenon of the poetic text can never be absolutely reduced to a collection of formulae, reductive insights, phenomenological essences, absolutistic forms of truth expression, etc. However, this `failure' is itself the very grounds for our potential phenomenological-hermeneutical investigative successfulness, i.e., in our being able to (existentially) engage in an aesthetic appreciation of an aesthetical poetic-text. A successfulness that must be worked for and continually re-constituted in its ongoing thematization. (310)

			All action is signed,
			our thoughts immaterial
			imprinted as text?

	The reading of provocative structure and function can never, therefore, be read as perfectly transparent. On the other hand it also cannot be considered as opaque. Our recognition of a text as non-natural, regardless of whether a particular object or state is naturally constituted or involves human re-constitution, is itself the guarantee that the intentional expression of another person could not be perfectly opaque. Hence the non-absolutist, non-relativist middle ground in this philosophical debate that I believe can be provisionally presented as a tenable position to adopt in this regard. Hence the allusion to translucency in the following haiku. (311)

			Translucent but not
			opaque, thinking thoughts, watching
			people on the street.

	This last haiku also illustrates a trans-literal or multi-modal interpretation. Who is thinking, who is watching? Is there not meant to be an indefinite, or non-definite, reading of that text? We might like to re-write this text in full translation as: (The poet/reader is) thinking thoughts, watching people on the street who are watching people one of whom might be the author/reader of this haiku; these people in the street in turn might be thinking thoughts; thoughts that are neither transparent nor opaque but rather translucent (in varying degrees) in the midst of our relational involvement with these other `people.'

The Phenomenological Appreciation Of A Poetic Text

	This will be done under the following four major and four minor characteristics.

Four Major Aspects

1.	Description (evocative phenomenological description).
2.	Compression (essential distillation of 1.).
3.	Tension (in the form of dissonance, conflict, etc.).
4.	Resolution (through accommodation of all the parties).

Four Minor Aspects

1.	Insightfulness	(evocative and provocative in origin)
2.	Trans-literalness (aspect, strata, psychic, textual).
3.	Provocation (evocational - provocational interaction).
4.	Encapsulation of textual background, presence, etc.)

	A work of art to a certain extent creates a text, an intentional expression that uses a particular language that is itself already based upon our reception of phenomenally distinctive pre-textual material. In this text there must be a clear presentation of evocational material. Let me digress for a few moments to illustrate this set of definitions just sketched.
	Could the creation and manufacture of a particular perfume be considered a work of art? Would it make sense to review that perfume's olfactory presentation as a text? 
	In my opinion aspects of the experience of smell are already pre-textually defined. With this palate of relatively distinctive phenomenal-essences a master perfumer would create through the relationship between these natural elements a new scent that is experienced in a harmonious fashion. In an intuitive appreciation of an eventual consensus in favour of this creation the perfumer goes about their craft with this desire for recognition. With such an integrated package of distinctive evocations the perfumer hopes to see the emergence of a scent that is novel and enjoyed by the general public at large. 
	This olfactory harmony I see being created in the following fashion. First a number of compounds are mixed together that appear to cooperate together. This is the psychic background of that final scent. Into this flat horizon the perfumer introduces a sharper, more dissonant, component that stands out as different from this static context. However, if the right attack is introduced in the right proportion a chord of resonance is found that, in some mysterious fashion, also links or accommodates these two levels of interaction. Under these circumstances the perfumer has created an overall scent whose components seem to merge harmoniously in an integrated fashion whose positive synergy produces a new, and hopefully novel, perfume that will earn for them recognition as a master perfumer. Testers of this new scent will try to describe the pattern of evocation provoked by this new product. I am not suggesting for one moment that this process of harmonization is in reality as simple as it has been presented. No doubt a number of complications enter into this case study through the fact, e.g., that there are different classes of smells to start with along with the possibility of there being more than one level of dissonant-consonant interaction, the need for the correct proportion of materials, the different manner in which different compounds naturally interact in the experience of smell, etc.
	A text is the manipulation, directly or indirectly, of distinctive phenomenal pre-textual material. These elements are naturally evocative and their assembly creates an evocative assemblage or package. The sheer presentation of an evocational element, e.g., a single tone or colour, could not be considered either a textual or aesthetic presentation (being devoid of intentional tension-resolution).
	The point of this digression was two-fold.
 First, I would like to suggest that the sheer presentation of one simple phenomenal evocation is neither textual nor aesthetical in effect. Second, that for the harmonious presentation of an evocational package the relationship between the evocational elements has to be manipulated in such a fashion that the text is generally coherent through a process of resolution that accommodates consonant and dissonant components. As an illustration I thought the use of this case study would simplify matters and allow me another way to introduce this musical concept of consonance-dissonance-resolution. Now let me apply this latest material to hand to our phenomenological and hermeneutical study of the poetic presentation of the haiku.

Description

	Under this heading is the concept of an evocational package. I.e., a number of distinctive phenomenal elements are either introduced in a direct fashion, e.g., compounds of smell, miscellaneous shades of colour, etc., or indirectly through the use of language which metaphorically or denominatively focuses on the experience, or type of experience, introduced, analogue or named, described, etc. In a good work of art this process is usually spelt out in a clear and distinct fashion although the net result to emerge from this juxtaposition of evocational elements in a good work of art is quite the opposite. The dialectical richness of the good work of art is relatively open ended. To a certain extent good art can not be logically appropriated in its entirety and in our hermeneutical investigations we should always recognize this elusive territory of the je ne sais quoi central to (our experience of) the work of art itself.
	Evocation can take two interacting forms, subjective and intersubjective. The former aspect is the meaning or sense placed upon a poem, e.g., by the artist, or, some member of the audience of that work of art purely as a personal response by that person or persons in their reflection upon that work of art. On the other hand through a general commonality of pre-textual evocational material and the skill of the artist the appreciation of that work of art takes on a more intersubjective form. This intersubjectivity is also promoted through provocative mechanisms; the dissonance introduced and the pathways suggested or induced by that artwork for the resolution of the former.
	The following haiku is relatively evocative in its nature. (64)

			Heavy with grass seed,
			the stalks bends even lower
			after fine drizzle.

	The elements of grass stems, seed heads, bending, bending lower, heaviness are all present. A slight provocative element is introduced in the suggestion that the grass is weighted down to the maximum only to find an even heavier burden placed on it somehow? In a resolution to the suggestion of this mysterious extra burden we find the drizzle responsible; an addition of the elements of fine rain and its absorption by the grass seed-heads.
	Often I have heard the criticism expressed that artwork x has been done before, or similar words to that effect. But, we may well ask, what real force has such a criticism if all artworks use a pre-prepared palette of cliches; evocational elements generally intersubjectively shared with everyone else (with the exception of those people who are selectively colour blind, smell blind, tone-deaf, etc)?
	Once this intersubjective palette argument is accepted, at least hypothetically, we are in a good position to seek a solution to this apparent puzzle. For a start, although these relatively distinctive essences are pre-textual textual innovation can reside in the manner of how we collect, collate and juxtapose these evocational elements. A provocative arrangement, in both senses of that expression as just outlined, giving a stimulating presentation of the same. Moreover, novelty can enter the arena by the distinctive means adopted by the artist in their presentation and interpretation, etc., of that artwork. I.e., e.g., originality can be brought to bear on the cognitive presentation of that work of art through the choice of perspective adopted under which the overall evocational presentation is to be viewed. Thus in response to such criticism we should reply in the form of a question as to what particular sense, if any, their critique places upon a lack of innovation, etc. Whether such a deficit is in terms of traditional formal poetic conventions, poetic themes, poetic devices, choice of perspective adopted, the stylistic presentation derived from the perspective or perspectives adopted by the artist, etc?
	To a certain extent the presentation of evocational structures in a work of art with at least a minimum standard of crafted expertise is generally non-controversial. Moreover, this apparent transparency of evocational intention would seem to suggest a certain degree of self-identification as the evoked material is re-lived from the point of view of the person in the audience to that work of art. In the following haiku I would suggest that, after our evocational re-constitution of the cognitively received material of this haiku, our identification with the pussy cat automatically follows from the fact that as much as we might like to bath or shower we generally detest getting wet in the rain and certainly for extended periods. (9)

			My poor pussy cat,
			her last bath was not needed
			when it poured all week.

	Thus, I would suggest that, generally, the level of evocational interpretation is a relatively non-controversial affair and although necessary is not sufficient for a work of art to take on the status of an aesthetic text. That the aesthetic merit of the evocational package is derived from the relationship of these evocational elements, the provocational and resolutional nature of this interaction, the perspective or perspectives adopted for the presentation of this evocational package and the provocative and resolutional nature of this presentation itself as it takes on its textual expression in a contextual world of conventions, interpretive forces, aesthetic expectations, and other convocational influences and interactions, etc.

Compression

	An aesthetic text I believe should concentrate some of its attention on a compression of its text. In the process there is a concentration on the essential; that which is relevant to the aesthetic intentions of the artist (if consciously present), and, a textual introduction and focus, by some means or other, on the essential evocational phenomena to be utilized directly or indirectly in that work of art.
	An artist is not interested, e.g., in painting in every leaf of a tree, every blemish in the portrait of a face. Rather their interest is in a representative capturing, in a representational work of art, of the essential pragnatz of that subject for representation. In non-representational art, e.g., so called abstract art, it is my believe that non-perceptual psychic processes are being represented. These representations intuitively analogue these non-perceptual experiences and responses (by putting them into some form of spatio-temporal format, relying on other forms of evocational association, or, denoting and describing the `form' of the evocation concerned by some other means? These techniques, I believe, applying equally to representational media, as well as to sentic and ideational forms of expression. E.g., happiness could be depicted by quick movements upward as in music, e.g., the use of a smiling-like analogical structure in visual presentations, phenomenological-like descriptions of happy states.).
	The haiku has a great need for aesthetic compression through the fact that it is limited to only seventeen syllables. Observe this sense of concentration in the following haiku... (9)

			A fast month slipped by;
			the moon eclipsed by dark cloud
			creating quarters...

	In this haiku we have a concentration on relevant material relating to the moon. E.g., month is a lunar phenomenon, slipping (through sky), eclipsed, dark cloud, quarters. The experience of a fast month (of activity) being provocatively undone through the image of the relatively short duration in the eclipse of the moon by the dark cloud.
	In the use of phenomenal descriptions evocational material is amplified through the use of evocational association hence the presence of the relevant features represented in this haiku. If the haiku was to concentrate on just the dark cloud we would have another haiku altogether and possibly one that was merely a uni-vocal text?! the use of provocational revocation creating an overt multi-modal textuality. In the use of any natural language it would be my contention that no utterance could be uttered or received without some form of multi-hierarchical constitution and re-constitution. That in effect even an ostensively uni-vocal utterance would be in effect multi-modal reflecting the resolved nature of its overall psychic origination. However, the intended significance of the utterance is de-encoded from an appreciation of its reception in that the level of maximum significance is the level on which the maximum information is found to be realized. Thus, e.g., if the maximum level of information from a re-contextualization of that propositional complex is perceptual then one must at least provisionally assume likewise to have been the case for most of that utterance. Of course other types of textual expression in parallel with the same, e.g., a particular sub-text, broadens this narrow spectrum of distilled interest.
	This interest in phenomenal essences must not be seen as absolutely definitive, as a search for essences in an Aristotelian mode, e.g. Moreover, this aspect of our interest is also analytical, reductive and retrospective in orientation. In contrast to such reduction the contextual re-constitution of that relatively simple or complex evocational presentation can be achieved through a deconstruction of that essential aspect, giving us access to the background of such an event. Our putting these various evocational features together in effect simulating a contextual reading of that text which as a consequence reconstitutes the intentional structures upon which a hermeneutic reading of that text will be made possible but not necessarily actualized.

Tension

	Tension is the introduction and induction of a provocational reading of the text that to a certain extent contradicts an initial uni-vocal `textual' reading of the same. Note the following haiku. (101)

			A quick game of golf,
			the enthusiasts struggling
 			with their umbrellas.

	A fist reading tells us the enthusiasts are having a quick game of golf. The season is autumn and the elements are conspiring to slow the game down somewhat as these persons are struggling with their umbrellas. Indeed, it then re-reads as a game more with their umbrellas rather than as a friendly struggle among themselves as to who will have the lowest golfing score.
	Dissonance is relative! The text itself, in the midst of its contextual environment, should be allowed to decide psychically for us what is essentially repetitive background(ing) material and what is relatively dissonant attention re-orientating foreground. Note in the following haiku how the introduction of the line but soon extinguished is effectively provocative, i.e., dissonant. (99)

			Flaming foliage,
			burning desires, trees alight,
			but soon extinguished.

	But provocation is more than just dissonance for the sake of dissonance. We know most of the text is supposedly dealing with autumnal leaves so we might ask ourselves how can the metaphorical fire of the flaming foliage be extinguished? From experience we know that deciduous trees loose their spectacular foliage over the space of a few weeks, moreover, autumn rains will also help the trees in this process. But is the text really dealing just with the Autumnal habits of deciduous trees? The next haiku gives us a clue...
	Provocation can be both subjective and intersubjective. The desire to resolve a dissonant text may take other pathways than the apparently obvious. Sometimes our own subjective evocational processes might lead us to take a subjective route. However, the artistry of the text is such that, although other paths might be taken, overall, by a majority of reflective people, we should find ourselves taking the same resolutional direction or directions as apparently intended by the provocational re-direction of the author of that text. The following haiku should illustrate this distinction between an inter-subjective and a subjective provocational resolutional pathway if I am allowed to subject it to my own hermeneutic re-interpretation. (89)

			Eternal beauty
			disrobing in public park,
			stone statue bathing.

	Originally this was only a haiku about the eternal beauty of the temporary period of time in which Autumn leaves fall; as revealing a timeless Platonic form concerned with this process of beauty. But I changed a few words here and there and created a completely new text. An intersubjective provocational reading might only take us so far when my intention is a little more subtle than that, almost subjectively evocative?
	"Convocationally" the other immediate haiku around this particular one are primarily concerned with falling leaves in Autumn. There is great associational pressure to read it, at least initially, in the light of this theme. We have more or less, five haiku before it on this subject and five following. So let me attempt a reasonable re-reading of it that re-introduces this theme.
	We have two verbs in this haiku, namely, disrobing and bathing. The eternal beauty is disrobing not in a public place but in a public park. Suggested is that this is happening in full public view. The obvious initial candidate for this disrobing is the Autumn leaves on the trees. But then in our surprise we discover we have a stone statue bathing. Now we change track and assume that the eternal beauty disrobing is the eternal beauty bathing. But there is still some temporal tension between the act of disrobing and bathing, the two processes are not normally simultaneous although for the sake of modesty a semi-naked statue might be shown only partially unclad and bathing. The image of bathing suggesting water? Might not the statue be getting its bath in the rain? With some more associational thinking might not brightly coloured Autumn leaves be sticking to the wet statue and that the rain periodically removes the same, in effect disrobing the statue? By this avenue the theme of falling leaves is re-instated? Then again might the stone statue just be bathing in the falling leaves..? In effect two parallel images are also crossed over each other to create an even greater trans-literalness to this aesthetic text? To a certain extent the reader is invited to choose their own subjective set of images in their interpretation of this haiku or any other aesthetic text for that matter.

Resolution

	How is resolution realized? After many years of reflection upon this question I believe such a function is achieved through a process of accommodation that allows the discontinuity of the two opposing parties to enter some greater form of an over-coming synthesis. In the process the integrity of the artwork is also established counter-balancing and dominating the otherwise disruptive nature of unresolved dissonance. In some fashion some analogical structure is pointed to as being shared by both the consonant and dissonant parties. Often this aspect of the provocational structure is repeated to reinforce this intended resolutional synthesis of the artwork. In the following haiku note the repetition of the being like rain motif. (38)

			When will it next rain,
			clouds simulating a storm.
			falling sweat likewise?

	Clouds simulate a much desired coming storm but without rain. Supplying this missing component we have falling sweat to complete the image of `falling like rain.'
	Now we can attend to the four minor essential characteristics associated with an aesthetic text with a special reference upon the form of the haiku.

Insightfulness

	As noted in our examination of the concept of phenomenal description the mere exhibition of essential aspects in the artwork will not by themselves establish the aesthetic nature of our text. Moreover, originality is correctly not found on this level. Innovation in our text is the unveiling of a new way of seeing the same, a new way of treating this imagery, etc. Evocational structures and functions (or rather structural-functions) are juxtaposed against each other in an original manner, moreover, this process is achieved in a context that is itself a new way of seeing the things themselves whether those things be perceptual states of affairs, emotions, or ideas, etc. The poet is transmitting a new way of seeing things, a way of seeing that is not just uni-vocal or logical but which through the doubly provocative nature of provocational processes is also not just subjectively evocative and subjectively provocative. Mere relativism is bypassed through the intentional construction of provocational forms of dissonance. On the other hand a transparency of interpretation is ruled out through the multi-modal trans-literal interpretational possibilities of the text. A text with just a text is not an aesthetic text, or a text with any form of style.
	"An aesthetical text is always insightful! This is discovered through the trans-literal nature of the text properly located in its appropriately resolved textual context.
	Note the nature of the insight suggested by the following haiku. (36)

			In the midst of spring
			already one parched summer
			with dry leaves of fall.

	Here we have some insight into the nature of the Australian seasons to sometimes not follow more traditional European or Japanese models. With periodic droughts, or floods, we find the seasons reverse or go further forward, change their identity depending on whether we are in a period of conformity or non-conformity to normal cultural expectations (as to be found on the eastern seaboard?).
	The following text suggests an insight from a commentary on the text (or from the text commenting on itself recursively). (30)

			An armful of fl'owers?
			Better a hint of jasmine.
			One seated lady.

	Is the seated lady that Spring day carrying an armful of scented flowers? The text suggests a hint of jasmine would be more appropriate. Jasmine has a strong sweet scent. The haiku continues to tell us that there is one seated lady (only). The suggestion, or the insight to be drawn, is that a little perfume of some quality, is better than reeking with scent especially if seated in one place. We must take into account the effect we have upon others in this regard. Is it socially proper to out-smell those around us?

Trans-Literalness

	An aesthetic text is to be interpreted trans-literally, i.e., in a non uni-logical or non uni-vocal modality; effectively in multi-modal terms of reference. Trans-literalness also implies that an aesthetic text can never be definitively interpreted in absolute terms of reference. That the dialectical richness of a text of high aesthetic merit is not to be treated in a logical modality! Logical means are obviously used in our interpretation but the open-endedness of the text is to be recognized. In such a light all interpretation is to be treated as provisional and that what has been discerned must be considered as that worked for and in need of continuous reconstitution. Could the following text be treated in a uni-logical modality? (61)

			In my bowl of tea
			see reflected coming storm,
			savour first few drops.

	What is savoured? The first few drops of tea or the first few drops of the coming storm? Or both states of affairs? The text depends on an ambivalence and an indetermination at this juncture. The point of the haiku is to suggest a parallel between these two otherwise distinct phenomena and therein establish some form of aesthetic accommodation; provocational structures often repeating themselves.

Provocation

	This aspect has already been essentially dealt with. Provocation depends on the juxtaposition of evocational structures and functions that create not only a dissonant interaction but also the potential direction or directions a resolution might also be undertaken. Provocation can also be undergone through the relationship the text has to its textual context, i.e., to texts associated (convocationally) near it, textual traditions and expectations (as invocational aspects or perspectives), textual vocations in declared and denoted intentions directly associated with that text, etc. Provocation not only forces us to re-read a text but also, in some measure, how we might intersubjectively re-read the same. Need I interpret the provocational force of the following haiku? (268)

			Flowing horse's mane,
			shines jet black in sheen, dancing
			in a pony tail.

Encapsulation

	Resolution also integrates the text and that trans-literal textual integrity is then encapsulated in the entire text from the point of view of that part of the text. Resolution establishes the aesthetic relationship of the part to the whole (before the experiential appreciation of a transcendental ego as a transcendental subject, that `sense' of ego that appreciates acts of judgment, aesthetic or otherwise). Not only is this relationship between textual parts and the textual totality encapsulated holistically throughout the text but also the relationship of the text within its textual context or tradition (along with the integration of pre-textual constraints, existential considerations of the transcendental suspension and interrogation, etc.).
	A good poem in its dialectically enriched greatness reflects throughout its text not only the integrity of that text but also the textual tradition, in its constitution and re-constitution, in which that text is best re-viewed. Note in the following haiku how the motifs associated with the dialectical integrity and core of that text is mirrored among its evocational structural-functions. (220)

			Houses in gardens
			having names that simulate
			the rural landscape.

	My own cottage in the country is called Plum Trees. Now houses in gardens simulate rural settings, and, the `names' of houses in gardens also simulate rural settings. The fact that we are already `in the country' is attested to by the title of this chapter. Through parts of this chapter we have this archetypal relationship between the farm house and the farm mirrored in the text. In more lengthy texts this aspect can be more easily appreciated. In essence the resolutional power of the text is invested throughout the resolutionally integrated text in such a manner as to encapsulate and reflect both the relationship between the parts and the whole and the nature of the relationship of the text to its immediate and less immediate textual context at all levels and sub-levels of interaction.

	The above eight necessary aspects or characteristics essential to the phenomenological existence of an aesthetic text can also be used to treat, and understand, the phenomenon of an aesthetic text and a poetic text in particular. Now let me attend to the following hermeneutic method, or technique, we might adopt in our interpretation of an aesthetic text.

Proposed Hermeneutic Schema For The Interpretation Of A Text

1.	Vocation
2.	Evocation
3.	Invocation
4.	Provocation
5.	Revocation
6.	Convocation

	Using the initial concept of a text `speaking' to the person able to read the same I have proposed the following considerations based upon this core concept.
	
	Vocation: The text is often found named. This vocation is a first clue as to what type of text we are dealing with. We have the sense of work to do, and, a being called or the calling out of that text to our being...
	Evocation: That relatively non-controversial aspect of the text which, directly or indirectly, deals with that part of the text that deals in an articulation of phenomenal essences; their denotation, description, connotation, invocation, etc.
	Invocation: The allusion to other texts of the same genre, the allusion to themes, perspectives, cultural items, etc., found in cultural association with that textual tradition or some other tradition incorporated or noted in the former.
	Provocation: The dissonant juxtaposition of evocational material, perspectives, etc., in such a manner to distinctively promote, to some degree or other, a certain direction, or certain directions, of resolutional integrity.
	Revocation: the utilization of evocational material that is overwritten/underwritten by overt (and covert) provocational forces; a process often involved in, if not essential to, our enjoyment of humorous texts of miscellaneous kinds. Dissonance, on the other hand, in distinction, contrasting but not necessarily revoking the text.
	Convocation: The interpretive force found through the association of textual parts or other texts closely related to the text under investigation.

	Let me now apply aspects of the above schema to the interpretation of various haiku (chosen to illustrate these various hermeneutical aspects). To begin with let me interpret the following haiku. (230)

			Swiftly from red dust,
			after the longed for rain, moss
			reconstituted.

	In terms of vocation we find this haiku in the section titled In The Country. The potential insight to be depicted in this poem is most probably rural in location. 
	In terms of evocational structures we find elements of eventual swiftness, redness, dust-likeness, rain, etc.
	Provocation essentially divides the haiku between a lengthy period of red dust, and, the swift reconstitution of green moss. The contrast between these two opposing forces is resolved through the physical medium of the moss.
	With respect to revocation we note the conversion of red dust into green moss.
	The factor of invocation hardly applies and with respect to convocation we might like to read the next haiku as an amplification of this one?

	How would we best interpret the following controversial text.

			Pigeons in the loft,
			shitting on infant Jesus,
			still smiling beneath.

	Vocationally we are told it is spring. Here we have pigeons nesting with their own family in the loft of what must be a church (since it is my promise in the title of this volume to explore the Australian landscape). So these pigeons are not shitting on the real Jesus; nobody takes too kindly to being shitted upon.
	Evocationally we have stated or implied, a church, the possible presence of a nest of some pigeons, an image of the infant Jesus, the observation that the latter is still smiling after the indignity of the occurrences just stated.
	Invocationally I must admit that I have adopted a Japanese haiku in which smiling Buddha figures were subjected to the same series of indignities. My aesthetic-religious intentions are also the same, more or less, namely, to note the difference between idols and images, between religious means and ends, promotion of a stoic, religious detachment.
	Provocational force is very acute from an apparent disrespectfulness to the Christian religion and their religious hero Jesus, and, the unpleasant connotations of being shitted upon. In the form of a provocational-direction towards a hermeneutical resolution of this apparent dissonance we must ask ourselves why Jesus is still smiling beneath after these indignities? It becomes obvious that we must be dealing with an image. Perhaps we might like to entertain the possibility of Christ watching this scene and also still smiling beneath on the grounds that he is happy with this distinction between an image, as a religious `means,' not being mistaken for an idolatrous `end.' Indeed, interpreted in this light this haiku is then quite religious in its apparent provocationally intended intentional aspirations and in this respect all apparent initial irreligiousness is over-written, i.e., revoked? Also present is an element of spiritual detachment; the suggestion that what ever happens our `sense' of transcendental self should be able to stoically rise above more material concerns and preoccupations.
	There is very little convocational pressure in the positioning of this particular haiku. We might find a vague connection in the next haiku with regard to grass, nesting material, the hay of the stables in which Jesus was suppose to have been born in?
	Revocation has resulted in the over-writing of the apparent irreligiousness of this haiku and in its place has been engineered, by sheer provocational force, the grounds for the recognition, by those capable of a reflective, non-concrete thinking, that this haiku is of a religious tenor and has not an irreligious message or comment to make.

On The Generation Of The Aesthetic-Poetic Moment

	Now, recognizing that no one feature of either our phenomenological or our hermeneutical investigations can by itself simulate a poem and powerfully induce a poetic state of appreciation it stands to reason that the core of the poetic experience must lie even deeper than these collective indicators. What then, we may well ask ourselves, is it that constitutes this inner dimension, that in effect ensures the origination, and gestation, of the poetic experience in its full aesthetic flowering? 
	In my opinion this dimension is the transcendental experience experienced from the transcendental point of view. Such terminology is not meant to sound mysterious, but, I would add, that our re-orientated experience of this dimension can be perceived as being mysterious, as an intimation of the mystical, revealing this world of life that constitutes our world of intentionality in its full self-presenting spontaneity of freedom (as it emerges from the course of an active reflection fully immersed in this world of life but also at the same time detached from the unfolding of the same). I use the expression re-orientated rather than re-oriented to suggest that this process of re-orientation is one in which we must also shift our psychic center of gravity rather than merely re-facing a new perspective, namely, the transcendental dimension.
	Such re-orientating allows us to existentially enter such a dimension from the point of view of that dimension hence my concept of reorientating. Not that such a dimension is absent from the normal intercourse of our daily lives, indeed, it is omnipresent in the fields of our relationships only our perspective is rarely one that approaches the exaltation of the same.
	The transcendental dimension is entered, exercise and exited through the auspices of the transcendental suspension! A true transcendental philosophy is one that recognizes the centrality of this transcendental suspension and by the very nature of that suspension can neither sanction the phenomenalization of an absolute nor instigate the descent into the mindless realms of a floating relativism. Indeed, the transcendental nature of this suspension guarantees a middle path between such extremes. Moreover, as judgment is exercised from a transcendental perspective it follows that this middle path is a path of translucence rather than absolutist transparency or relativist opacity.
	A transcendental suspension is a bracketing of the world as presented in cognitive terms of reference both (conceptual and perceptual). This psychic bracketing of the phenomenon under review is instigated through a balancing of the judgments involved in cognitive terms of reference, a balance put in place through a set of oppositions to those judgments in such a manner as to neutralize those judgments without their destruction or fixing the world in its presentation. With certain qualifications we might like to note a deconstruction of conceptual categories and preferential biases in cognitive determination and interpretation rather than a destruction of the distinctive structural-functions of that phenomenal presentation. Falling into line with such definitions a transcendental suspension of aesthetic judgment(s) must involve a balance of all conceptually treated material relevant to those transcendental investigations. Under this suspension, or epoche, nothing is lost, on the contrary, there is everything to be gained because in the midst of this suspension of calculation our existential entry into the transcendental dimension allows our spontaneous analytical-transcendental reduction of the phenomenal text along phenomenological lines in parallel with our synthetical-transcendental reconstitution of the phenomenal context in a hermeneutical appreciation of the same. Thus in the midst of such an informatively pre-constructed and pre-conditioned position there is induced a transcendental suspension whose reflection allows a spontaneity of activity to freely occur that is both appropriate to the task in hand, to the best of our natural ability, and timely in its spatio-temporal manifestation.
	In the light of such proposals it follows that the aesthetic judgment of a poetic text must be a transcendental affair. That, indeed, the very life-blood of the poem is its ability to induce a powerful and self-productive transcendental suspension. Moreover, as the transcendental dimension is achieved through an emergent transmutation of cognitive material it follows that transcendental reflection and activity must totally reflect that form of life that constituted our overall sense of being which can be none other that the-world-of-life-itself; that pre-relational space that constitutes the phenomena of relationships as a phenomenon, allows us to experience the same and operate therein as a-person-in-the-world in a world that is a world-of-community-with-others.
	Thus, through a suspension of past judgments (as content) arises an existential spontaneity of judgment (as a process). Thus it follows, that from a suspension of past aesthetic judgments arises an existential spontaneity of aesthetic judgment critically appropriate to the task in hand in keeping with our ability to thematize the essential constitution of that situation to the degree and manner necessary to perform this task, or rather, allow this task to perform itself once all preconditions have been satisfactorily enacted.
	Thus, in answer to my question, as to the deeper nature of our phenomenological and hermeneutical clarification of the poetic experience we should realize, if I am not mistaken, that the poem is born and recreated within the embrace of the transcendental suspension. That if a poem is not fashioned within this embrace it has no transcendental- aesthetic merit and if it is not allowed to return to this site of its birth it can have no transcendental-aesthetic poetic appreciation. That existential, phenomenological and hermeneutical appreciation can only have these transcendental foundations; foundations that are neither absolutist nor relativist in complexion, foundations that are neither idealist nor realist in ideology, etc., by virtue of the transcendental trans-phenomenal nature of that suspension!
	Without a sense or an intimation of the transcendental a poem is flat, perhaps tendentious, a tedious sermon, a emotional monologue, a dreary description of a world, an interpretation of the world no longer our home, a philosophical display or fancy argument and nothing more!	
	The reader should they wish might like to miss the next two section where I define, first, my multi-modal use of the term transcendental, and, second, my attempt to articulate various methods for the induction of an existentially informed and informative transcendental state of suspension?

Various Definitions Of The Transcendental Dimension

	I shall attempt this task negatively, positively and by illustration or analogy.
	Treating transcendence as a form of negation that overcomes or overwrites but does not destroy I would like to supply the following senses to this reference of the self-transcending transcendent.
	That the sense of the transcendental is trans-affective, trans-cognitive (and hence trans-conceptual and trans-perceptual); trans-intentional, trans-phenomenal, trans-constitutional (-possibility); trans-temporal, trans-spatial, trans-causal, trans-egoistical... All of these definitions being taken in the form of their cognitively treated presentation.
	That the sense of the transcendental is existential (in the sense of the spontaneity derived from the transcendental suspension), phenomenological (as an appreciation of the cognitively treated phenomenal presentation), hermeneutical (as a contextual appreciation of intentional horizons), an experience of the relational, an intimation of a mutual loving relationship, through the productive spontaneity of judgment...
	That the sense of the transcendental, as an experience, can be pointed to through various forms of analogy. E.g., the spontaneity experienced when a person automatically rescues one's own, or someone elses, child about to fall into water (after Mencius), when we suddenly find ourselves making a decision that appears most appropriate to the task to hand, when we enjoy the harmony of a painting or piece of music, when we feel we have made the right ethical or pragmatical decision, etc., etc.
	The transcendental orientation forever enters our daily consciousness only it generally suffers from a lack of recognition, a lack of promotion and cultivation.

Techniques For The Induction Of A Transcendental Suspension?

	In this section I would like to list a number of approaches that would appear to promote the self-induction of a transcendental suspension.

1.	Suspension of world-thesis (a global suspension of factuality through disvaluation of natural attitude).
2.	Suspension of all forms of value, e.g., thematical (logical, mathematical, lexical, etc.), aesthetical, ethical, pragmatical, trans-thematical (interpretive, hermeneutical and ecological), ontical (factual value treated in terms of its potential-actual determination).
3.	Suspension of scientific, cultural and ecological forms of value.
4.	Suspension of phenomenological, existential and hermeneutical fields of value.
5.	The erection of an intentional identity between Transcendental Ego (or subjective sense of self) and the Transcendental Object (as the intentional object). 
6.	The same type of identification in 5. extended to a sense of Transcendental World (as the horizon of all horizons) and all permutations therein possible, i.e., Ego-World, Object-World or all three intentional polarities of Ego-Object-World.
7.	The erection of an identity between thinking-being.
8.	The erection of an identity between thinking-feeling.
9.	Structural/functional balance between conceptual-perceptual processes (overcoming space/time/cause and/or ego).
10.	The instigation of interrogation, the enactment of a question, skeptically treating that under (transcendental) investigation, instigation of an existential suspicion.
11.	Balance or identity of analytic-reduction with synthetic-reconstitution (or deconstruction).
12.	Induction of an existential orientation through practice, reflection, entertaining an aesthetic artwork, rapport with natural phenomena, etc.
13.	An increase in gestalt orientation or integration of the psyche (via various means e.g., meditation, concentration, reflection, etc).
14.	Neutralization of cognitive processes by entertaining parallel anti-processes/content.
15.	Balancing intentional content/process (noema-noemata).
16.	The existential conduct of relationships.
17.	Specialized non-literal use of metaphor.

	All of the above can touch on the appreciation of a poem. Moreover, a simulation of the same within the poem might also be so constructed as to induce, through a transcendental suspension, a poetical experience with merit. E.g., the identification of the intentional object(s) with the intentional subject (e.g., as occurs in the haiku that prefixes this essay [0/366]).

A Brief Exposition On The Nature Of Haiku

	Definition can only be around an intentional object to be defined. The central region of any intentional object ultimately escapes definition. This je ne sais quoi has to be experienced directly before we can say we have arrived at a sufficiently informed understanding of that intentional object of our investigation. In part, by going around that object we eventually hope to simulate an understanding of the same. However, the mere going around is not of itself sufficient to ensure that we enter at all into the sanctuary of its inner being which correctly is defined and thematized through its interaction with what that object is not, namely its con-textual environment. Hence in a way our entry into the phenomenal essence of the sense, or meaning and meaningfulness, of our intentional object is a movement in the opposite direction, i.e., a progress towards the reconstitution of what actually establishes that object or text and this is met in its immediate environment. In order to understand this genre of the haiku, not that I would be so rash as to say I have realized this objective, is in the nature of a progress around, and away from, the instances and presence of such an imputed phenomenon. By what means do we have at our disposal that would allow us to engage in this delicate intellectual manoeuvre or, rather, the simulation of retreat?
	First, using those means at our disposal we must metaphorically go around the object of our investigations. Second, in coming to know the object of our enquiry somewhat better we would be allowed to synthesize and simulate a reconstitution of the same. Lastly, by hypothetically neutralizing, balancing, suspending, overwriting, etc., i.e., through the placement of a transcendental suspension, we hope to have the object itself reveal itself to us in such a manner that we find ourselves capable of recognizing the constitution of that phenomenon more clearly. Lastly, all this is thrown aside in our return to the world through a reconstitutional deconstruction of the sense of that apparent intentional object, or state, and this is experienced in and through an appropriate spontaneity of action that is also simultaneous with the depth of insight achieved into these matters to hand (hence the concept active reflection).
	In keeping with such an outline, noted under these four sections, let me briefly outline my vision as to what constitutes the construction of such a poem with aesthetic merit, e.g., etc.
	We can describe the fact that it is generally understood that haiku can be constructed following a number of rules, some of which are more important than others. Let me note some of these features.
	
1.	A haiku is generally without rhyme and rhythm and consists of 17 syllables in three lines of 5, 7 and 5 syllables respectively.
2.	There is the indirect, or direct, suggestion of what, where and when (e.g., season). To be noted that early examples of the haiku broke both of these rules 1. and 2. 
3.	In my opinion a moment, or a period of time or a generality, must be transmuted into its transcendental equivalent and this is done through some device, or other, that allows us to entrance, exercise and exit from a transcendental suspension. (See the previous section).
4.	A period of critical polishing in which the thematization and re-thematization of our poetic text is enriched by vocational, evocational, revocational, invocational, convocational and provocational forces and factors.

	To summarize a transcendental suspension must be induced for the haiku to be a real haiku and not one merely in name!

			"The ultimate trip,"
			rather not think about it,
			just too close to home!

	In the above haiku I have dispensed with rule 2. A transcendental suspension is induced through the dialectical clashes between a trip that leaves us too close to home, a trip we do not wish to make or find ourselves unable to plan. This provocative clashing needing some form of resolution in our realization that this ultimate trip is not advertised in some brochure but in fact refers to our own death. That the vocational text of holiday is undermined by this reference to death, etc. Hence the means for a provocative resolution of this apparent paradox! A critical review ensuring that there is not one syllable lost or wasted in the construction of this haiku?

Conclusion

	Provocation essentially causes us to interrogate the text which in turn causes it to interrogate us! This vocational questioning induces a transcendental suspension in which all value-judgments are suspended, bracketed, cognitively neutralized, etc. From the midst of this experiential anomaly an existential fruitfulness is realized in keeping with our abilities to enter and maintain such a state of productive ongoing balance and equilibrium. This `power' of the poem under careful reflection being able to engineer the insightful exercise of a transcendental suspension, in effect establishing its aesthetic, and poetic, merit. This power then being associated with the function of any pragmatical intentions, if present, as found in religious art, architecture, e.g., etc. Successful association then reinforcing this primary sense of power.
	This same region is occupied by metaphor. The fruitfulness of metaphor depending in part on a tension between it is as such and a it is not as such; such territory being the province of the transcendental suspension (epoche).
	In the aesthetic text we are invited to establish ourselves, make ourselves at home in its midst. However, our at-homeness is disturbed by the relatively dissonant force of a provocational power to rewrite the nature of our-being-at-home. But in the aesthetic text of merit our at-homeness is restored with a vigour that leaves us feeling inspired, insightful, more at home in the world, self-integrated in tune with the resolutional encapsulation entertained in that text and above all in touch with an ability to existentially act spontaneously in keeping with the essential nature of our surroundings both textual and non-textual. 
	A poem is generated from the provocative juxtaposition of evocational material and perspectives, etc. On these grounds a poem need not necessarily establish a close contact with the visual, or perceptual world, or an allied world of the emotions. A world of ideas, philosophical or non-philosophical in reflection, might be the primary material for this process of provocational juxtaposition. Be that as it may it is not necessary then for a poem to have to deal directly with the immediate world of our senses and/or emotions. In this volume of poems I have taken the liberty from time to time of taking a philosophical turn but, in doing so, it is not my intention to lecture or sermonize. Indeed the presence of a continuous trans-literal rewriting of the text should persuade the reader that my text is not to be taken literally. However, it should be noted that even in these rarefied reaches of dialectical philosophical ideation the connotation of terms and ideas has a powerful role of reintroducing an emotional element, and, the use of metaphorical devices and imagery has the important role of returning us indirectly to a world of the senses and their perception. It should be noted as a rider to these observations that it is my belief the ultimately aesthetic power is the harnessing of affective resources either  through the direct evocation of emotions or indirectly through the subtle evocation of the same through the use of connotations and their skillful juxtaposition. To achieve this harnessing the cognitive dimension must dialectically ensure the conflict of these affective resources whether utilized in a direct form or in an indirect form. On a transcendental level realized, reflectively entered and actively left through the auspices of a transcendental suspension, aesthetic merit is directly engaged and appreciated (along with other judgments of a thematical, pragmatical, ethical, factual and trans-thematical or hermeneutical interest).
	Above all interpretation is an artform performed by both the writer and the reader, or interpreter, of that textual format. Moreover, not only does it engage our phenomenological clarification of its essential evocational-inputs but also a clarification and thematization of its provocational, vocational, convocational, revocational and invocational-hermeneutical dimensions. 
	Hopefully, in this essay, I have contributed some insight into how poetry operates in general, and, in particular how a haiku might operate given someone truly gifted enough, an honour I stake no claim to, to weld all these formal and material restrictions together to produce out of that synthesis a real haiku that transcends the challenges of all those restrictions. A vehicle filled with life since in essence any good poem must reflect this world of life which constitutes us, and, in which, in turn, is constituted by us for the facilitation of our passage across the face of this planet which we must, at least for the present, recognize as our home. (135)

			Above mist a star
			to show us the path back home,
			our backs to the same.

Some Final Comments

	Most of these haiku were written in a short period of time from the 17/12/91 to 24/12/92 (except for one earlier homeless haiku no. 55). As a consequence I apologize for their overall sense of imperfection having had such a short time in gestation and little occasion to polish them. (212)

			Refining haiku,
			shedding season, loosing place.
			subtle emotion?

	I have tried to indicate my use of dialect-contractions by the use of an apostrophe which shortens the word by one syllable from the point of that apostrophe.
	Last, but not least, it is my hope that some of these haiku bring a refined form of pleasure from within the reader, and, that this discovery, or recovery, may perhaps assist them in their integration into the landscape that they wish to call home and in this process of resonance find some room, if not Australian, for an intuitive appreciation of this immensity and uniqueness that constitutes the Australian landscape.

			 Noël Tointon, in Sydney and Leura, 29/12/91.