Simply Haiku: An E-Journal of Haiku and Related Forms
September-October 2004, vol. 2, no. 5

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Reprint: Jim Kacian, "Looking and Seeing: How Haiga Works."
Previously Published in Haigaonline

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Page 2: Calligraphic Poetry

Another combination of text and art is calligraphic poetry.

Depending on the work in question, these may feature the text, or the image, or find a balance between them.

This example is Apollinaire's "II pleut" translated by Oliver Bernard and retaining the shape of the original.

What's particularly of interest here is that this is a typeset shaped poem, unlike most, which are hand-calligraphed.

Apollinaire was taking advantage of new advances in typography which made precise positioning of type not within the standard rows and columns simpler to do.

In this instance, the text is supported by the typography, and while it could stand in a more typical stanza-ed format, it is clearly enhanced by the present treatment.

Perhaps we could also allow that the art herein presented might stand on its own, but it is still fairly meagre.