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 12: Model 3--Tangential Haiga

The final model is tangential haiga, where the art and the poem do not share a theme explicitly, but speak to one another in a glancing fashion, the one opening the other.

These are often the most resonant haiga, since the worlds contained in the two elements, not necessarily conjoined in our minds prior to the haiga, are brought together when the two images comment upon one another.

Here is Soken's full moon.

The poem reads,

"full moon / my tears are not enough / to praise it."

Neither moon nor tears are present in the picture.

But as Stephen Addiss writes about this haiga, ". . . the interactions between the painting and the verse are subtle. They both suggest viewing; while people may enjoy the moon, the crow seems more interested in the fruit. As for the tears, might they be visually suggested by the shapes of the persimmons and leaves? And if so, are there enough persimmons for the birds to praise?"

Add to this the fact that the full moon refers to the harvest moon, and that persimmons require a hard frost to attain their full ripeness and sweetness, which has probably not happened yet--it's too early for any but the most northerly of locales where persimmons might grow--but which should be occurring soon.

The objects of the crow's desire is not ready for consuming, and that's reason enough for tears; but once ripe, surely tears will not be praise enough.