Haiku in the Real World

Isn't it delightfully ironic that it took a Haiku Festival to get me to write a blog entry in proper prose? Well here it is. My time at the World Haiku Festival (WHF) can be likened to a teen chick flick in a way.

First - the players:
Susumu - the Japanese leader living in London and expert on Haiku - both a traditionalist and radical at the same time.
Kala - the organizer - always on her cell phone. Beautiful haiku writer - with many about her family
Norman - the Irish bulldog - headed on the Renku sessions (collaborative haiku comprised of 12-100 verses where you cannot repeat themes - very very difficult)
Stanford - CT freeverse haiku poet with a deep interest in Buddhism and Lebowski.
Kiran - The bird whistler - knowledge and ability to imitate and communicate with over 200 birds.
Johannas - German living in Baroda - a lanky of sorts to both factions - but writes amazing haibun (haiku in prose)
Narayan - The philosopher mathematician magician haiku master - burst out in yelling fits - hes just too smart.
Chorus:
The old people - the guy that looks like an Indian George Burns, and the fifteen doctors
The young people - dude from Bangladesh, the two reporters, the nature educator
and
Me: "How the hell did you get here?"
The Scene:
The Art of Living Ashram - In the middle of nowhere - beautiful spread out campus with many many greenspaces and a giant five story white temple in the shape of a lotus - which ends up looking more like a wedding cake. Everywhere is a ten minute walk away. There are dogs and monkeys.
Storyline:
So these were the main folks. We had numerous lectures on India's role in the world haiku game - I only fell asleep for one - but that was because I stayed up all night dancing. In addition, we had an interactive bird call session, i learned the already mentioned new forms of haiku - and proper Japanese names, watched a dance performance that my peers said they had never seen dance as good as that before - one dance featured temple sculpture inspired dance and forms. For those who have never seen classical Indian dance before, there is something unqualifiable as the way the dancers move their eyes back in forth, while moving just their head in a staggered head waggle, also while shaking shoulder blades aaaaaaannd putting their wrists and fingers into complex mudras (holy hand formations).
Then some drama arose because some wanted to see haiku stay strict and others wanted it to be free - but in the end - those who were upset were too tired to argue anymore because they were suffering from jetlag and boredom. Either way, I got a sweet tote bag, learned about new forms of haiku, acquired a bunch of books on haiku, made some new friends, and 3000 Rupees ($75 US). Whoas. I would include some haikus here - but I'm burnt out for the next two weeks or so.

Tomorrow night I'll be taking a sleeper bus from Bangalore to Pondicherry to join the community at Sadhana Forest for a couple weeks. Ill be WWooFing and figuring out how to be more sustainable. Also I'll be deepening my art of beard cultivation. I'm at exactly two months in and for those of you that know Jeff Walker...or Moses - I'm slowly reaching their greatness. Further - I'm at the point where if I shave it - I'll have a very hilarious beard tan.