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"HAIKU SELF-EXPLORATION"
(English-Chinese) ISBN 8190058894,
By MOHAMMED FAKHRUDDIN

BOOK REVIEW: PUBLISHED IN 'POET' ,February, 2005

     Published by Poets International Books, Post Box No. 1181, Jayanagar, Bangalore-560011. India.
E-mail:<poetsintl@hotmail.com>Year of Publication: 2004, ISBN 8190058894, Price Per Copy: $4.50 Pages:218, Paperback, Sole Distributor for USA: Book Clearing House, 46 Purdy Street, Harrison, Ny 10528 U.S.A and <amazon.com>.

REVIEW By Dr Shujaat Hussain (Aligarh, India)

Dr Mohammed Fakhruddin's astonishing reputation is found both on his theory of poetry and on his practice of it. While the theory excites poets to new ventures, the practice is an encouragement to them, and in any consideration of Dr Fakhruddin the two must be taken together. The theory is not difficult, and must of its tenets can be found in Haiku Self-Exploration.

Dr Fakhruddin is one of the most original, energetic and sincere poets in English. He has appeared on the scene at the right time to represent,
rejuvenate and enrich English poetry. His poetry has the vigour, freshness and jest of an imaginative man keenly alive to the possessed with a penetrating
insight into a wide variety of experience. His poetry is an embodiment of marvellous themes and shows a mastery over technique.

That's why he is unequivocally universally recognised today as one of the great poets of English poetry in Asia. Dr Mohammed Fakhruddin may be regarded as the true father of Haiku in the subcontinent. If it is spreading its wings, the credit entirely goes to him who is tirelessly working day in and day out. He possesses grace, ease, sincerity, and a genuine character reflecting the admirable spirit. He is a man of many parts. The world knows him as Dr Mohammed Fakhruddin -- a film scriptwriter and director by choice, an editor by compulsion, a poet by conviction, President of Haiku Society of India and also figures on the Who's who in the world by Marquis, US and so many designations and glories are attached to his name. He is a writer and publisher of 21 books on poetry and poetics and recipient of many national and international awards.. all rolled into one.

This, however, is an excellent and enjoyable book. It is not only cheering for any Haiku writer and lover to read -- one to boost himself / herself esteem when he is feeling down -- but it is also, for anyone interested, an invaluable guide to the curious ways and practices of the Haiku genre by a gifted writer and knows what he is talking about.

Haiku is a form of verse comprising three lines containing seventeen syllables in all. The Japanese form of lyrical poetry consists of 17 syllables. Like the Noh play of Japan, this literary form attracted poets all over the world. Haiku poetry attracted the interest of the Anglo-American poets associated with T.E. Hulme and in the imagist movement about 1910.

In England and the United States, experimentations in the Japanese Haiku form of lyrical poetry were carried further. Ezra Pound in particular, devised a form of composition on the use of vivid image in combination with more discursion or less vivid pause. Dr Fakhruddin is fond of exploiting Haiku as a lyric form. It is a perfect flower in the garden in the realm of his poetry. Dr Fakhruddin specializes in the creation of meaningful images.

"As summer steps in,
Leaves wither away to form
A mass of dust-bin."

Published in 2004, "Haiku Self-Exploration"(Englis-Chinese) includes 160 Haiku covering numerous fields of expression from the beginning of

"Self exploration
Leads one to the inner space…
Insight through vision."

Dr Fakhruddin is capable of employing fantastic expression. He follows the rule of employing 5-7-5 syllables. His poetry is impregnated in his entire being. It is the urge for creative expression that impulse Dr Fakhruddin to write Haiku poetry. It is a sort of voyage of self-discovery, a form of self- exploration to him. Like T.E. Hulme, the English poet and critic, was attracted towards the Haiku poetry. Dr Fakhruddin who likes to explore himself through
experimentations and innovations in different and diverse form of poetry, was naturally drawn towards this lyric form of the Far East poetry. The Imagist movement in Anglo-American poetry has drawn its inspiration from the exotic form of lyric poetry about the year 1910. The most notable among the theories of imagist poetry attracted towards Haiku poetry were F.S. Flint, Ezra Pound, Amy Lowell and John Gould Fletcher.

Dr Fakhruddin has to his credit extensive researches in Haiku poetry. The Haiku Poetry Movement in India was launched by Dr Mohammed in 1995 through his poetry monthly "Poets International". It appears to be a trend setter for 21st Century poetry. Dr MF finds the writing of Haiku poetry a superior amusement that sharpens the imagination of the poetry and opens up many avenues for self-exploration and self-realization.

The Haiku poetry of Dr Fakhruddin conception is a sensual mystic

"Your vitality
Is liquid crystal within….
Fuel for longevity."

And the poet can exclaim in ecstasy about the visual sensations.

"Eyes are beautiful,
Windows of the heart and soul;
Feelings are blissful."

Dr Fakhruddin goes on to say:-

"Let eyes speak volumes,
Burning Jungle generate heart;
In silence love fumes."

The volume contains 160 Haiku lyrics. Bernard M. Jackson, the British poet rightly discovers the essence of this anthology in the following verses

"Mind is a diamond
Cosmic rays when made to pass,
Creates a spectrum!"

Dr Fakhruddin is very much fond of Haiku poetry. His Haiku poems mirror the various shades of nuances and feelings in his mind. The poet
writes

"Poetry I write
to forget myself a while
And sing with snow-white."

The poet records his deep sense of joy in his indulgence in the craft of poetry. Dr Fakhruddin is a prolific writer of Haiku verses. It is estimated
that he has to his credit over 3,000 Haiku poems. He is a great exponent of poetry in general and of Haiku in particular. It is not alone, but under his aegis so many poets across the country and the world are budding and getting status of poets. Poets International is a fruitful medium for the popularisation of Haiku poetry. He asserts:-
"Poems always proffer aesthetic and divine pleasure sans the pleasure derived out of the sensual or the material." To Dr. Fakhruddin's poetry is a
means of working out one's salvation. He eats, drinks and sleeps poetry. To him, the craft of poetry, the meter of poetry is sacred and sacrosanct. The
Twentieth century witnessed the extension of Haiku poetry and the enrichment of its levels of response among the common readers of poetry.

Essentially, Haiku is a form of Imagist poetry. Dr Fakhruddin says:

"Love is a white dove
Which leads life to peace sublime.
Night is dark shadow."

Dr Fakhruddin is fond of using rhymed completeness:

"Twinkle in your eye
Gave birth to platonic love
Between you and I."

The third line concludes the poet's rhymes about the Nature of the twinkle in the eye. The third line Dr Fakhruddin' s Haiku poetry is calculated to obtain maximum dramatic effect.

"The main key of life,
On the Earth or in Heaven,
Is nothing but sex."

Dr Fakhruddin has a penchant for word music like T.S. Eliot, "poetry can communicate before it is understood."

One of the most characteristic examples in Dr Fakhruddin's Haiku is of the power of auditory imagination, both for beauty of sound and richness of
connotation. Ralph Waldo Emerson states, "The creation of beauty is Art" as this rightly goes with Dr Mohammed Fakhruddin who has the capacity to
create it. It is astonishing and thrilling. It will be injustice if I stop sans saying, George Herbert, a metaphysical poet whose poetry is very much
suited to Dr Mohammed Fakhruddin "that a man should dedicate all his gifts to God's service that a poet should make the altar blossom with his poetry."

So he has confidence in God:

If God be for us
Like the vast sky to the Earth
Who is against us?

Eliot's feeling for words endows him with unfailing distinction in phrasing. For him a word is no fixed counter, it brings with it varying colours. His stark and firm belief that one test of poet's skill lies in the degree of his awareness of what effects he has caused in his lines, of what forces the flow of his rhythm has made his words release. One of the chief attraction in "HAIKU SELF-EXPLORATION" is its word music, a music that conveys the poet's meaning even before words are understood.
Bees buzz, flowers yawn
Sunnays pierce thro' life line
Dewdrops fly with dawn;

His creation of syntax such as the following are like the mines of beauty and truth: "Divine life is rare";
"Make life piece of art", "True pearls never shine",
"Dewdrops fly with dawn"; "Let heart unleash cosmic rays" etc. Besides, it appears that these have been extracted from scriptures, so melodious so meaningful as for example. "A good Haiku is a good friend who is always there for us." and "Nature did he live and breathed" while Dr Mohammed Fakhruddin's mind and heart is obsessed with Nature. Whatever he thinks or feels comes through Nature. He, too, like Wordsworth says that "Nature is Teacher":

He is not merely fascinated by Nature but he is prophet of Nature who transcends lesson exactly what it teaches.

For Keats "A thing of beauty is a joy for ever''. But Dr Mohammed Fakhruddin lays his hand on the vein of performance, perfection and permanence and creation:

A thing of beauty
Is the nature's miracle….
Creativity.

HAIKU SELF-EXPLORATION is not only for an avid reader but the persons also who are an aspirant to be a poet as well. As he opines "Workshop for Poets" is a must. It hones one's expression of feelings. Who can become a poet? Answer is quite clear. All one needs to possess is the urge to express and a hold of the language. He advises the new poets to use refined "words" as poetry is a "refined language of expression" as are most of our epics. Further, point is noteworthy "No piece can be a masterpiece
unless reworked and polished. Moreover, reading of the poem is as important as writing and insists that each and every word of a poem should be clearly and loudly. Who are poets? For this question, his reply is "Poets are mystics."

Buy one, get two. All Haiku of this book have been translated into Chinese by the most respected and popular poet of Taiwan, Dr. Lee Kuei-shien who has authored as many as eleven poetry books and have translated 9 works of world famous poets. Dr. Lee's poetry has also been translated into several foreign languages.

INTRODUCTION and all HAIKU (160) are complementary to each other. Haiku is a creation. Dr Fakhruddin is the architect of it. But all the elements (material) are found in Introduction such as poetry itself, rhyme, rhythm, meter, melody, music, syllables, vowels, syntax, symbols, imagination and the like. Without having the perfect Knowledge of all these
ingredients of Haiku one cannot imagine to be a poet. Haiku is just like a body but Introduction of his book is "soul". If it thrills, excites for it, soul plays an important role to make them alive, fresh and fascinating.

Dr Fakhruddin has emerged as a new voice of the age, displaying unique creativity and spontaneity. His diction is tender and soft, and he freely uses the natural and familiar element for enhancing the expressive qualities of his language.

Perhaps the most salient feature of his poetry is that he does not parade his erudition like metaphysical poets tend to do eschewing far-fetched
references. His communication with the inner self as well as the outer physical environment has contributed an altogether new aesthetical
dimension to contemporary poetry.

I not only think everybody should read this book, but everybody should own a copy too. It is short, only pages, and even with inflation it will cost of $4.50 only. Copies can be had from <amazon.com>

--- POET
      Monthly, Chennai, India
      February 2005

Self-Exploration in the Form of Haiku
Lee Kuei-shien