ARTDICK

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First published in “Dick Whyte: Collected Poems 1999-2002″ (Wayfarer Press, handbound, edition of 30). Republished in “Solar” (Issue 1, 2008).

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Video poem of the moon. First screened as part of Scenes From the Aro Valley, curated by Campbell Walker (Paramount Theatre, Wellington, 20-23 April, 2006). Also featuring films by Colin Hodson, Alex Greenhough, Elric Kane, Diane McAllen, Andy Chappell and Campbell Walker. Part of a suite of videos made in 2004.

“Five experimental shorts in about 7 minutes by Richard (Dick) Whyte, among other things a ghost in the margins of almost all the Aro Valley films, and possibly the least known and most active filmmaker involved with the movement.” (Campbell Walker, Scenes from the Aro Valley programme notes)

“[Sergei] Eisenstein, we recall, championed the use of ‘montage’ theory in film. Here film communicated by a succession of juxtaposed images that did not need to have a linear, narrative or consequential relationship between them. Shot ‘A’ followed by shot ‘B’ created a new meaning ‘C’ in the mind of the viewer. Eisenstein likened this to ‘haiku’ – a traditional Japanese poetic form in which a short succession of separate images combines in the mind of the reader to create a total meaning which is greater than the sum of its component parts. In this way, meaning is suggested rather than stated. Eisenstein hoped to communicate specific meanings, but in the haiku… the implication is far more abstract.” (Richard Howells, Visual Culture)

“Maya Deren had attempted to find a filmic equivalent to the haiku shortly before her death. She left the project incomplete. [Stan] Brakhage too used the analogy to the haiku in discussing his 8mm Songs. By including the two haiku series in Lost, Lost, Lost [Jonas] Mekas contextualized them as steps in the development of his poetic incarnation as a film-maker.” (P. Adams Sitney, Eyes Upside Down: Visionary Filmmakers and the Heritage of Emerson)

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“Take the Joanna Margeret Paul film Gravestones, for example. A gravestone dwarfs the mountains. The screen fills with grey and seems to expand. Then I imagine the gravestone is hurled at me, becoming light. On its way to my eye, the gravestone folds down (origami light) and becomes image. Then it goes into my mind, becoming pulses of energy and floats to the back of my head. It gets smaller and smaller and smaller. I forget the image. Then a new gravestone appears on the screen and it happens all over again. Gravestones gather in my mind.

“When the film ends all the gravestones vanish from my thoughts, and I feel clear and very calm, as if I had just meditated. As I sit there I realise that I am very aware of something. It is a poem. I had not written a poem in years. I used to write a little bit, but eventually gave up. Why did I give up? I didn’t feel like my work was “worth” anything. Poetry (back then) made me feel very small. It was a very large thing, very close to me and yet indistinguishable from any ground. When I tried to think of a poem it was like looking into a black hole. Alternatively, if I tried to look out there for one, I found nothing but blinding light. Now I see grey. Then a poem comes to me. I did not “write” it. Rather, it simply appeared, as if from nowhere, said by no-one. It was as if the images had traversed the murky space between my conscious and unconscious mind. They went somewhere and then they returned, with news—” (Dick Whyte, A Place for Shadows, MA Thesis)

“Still grave stones” was first published in Simply Haiku (Summer 2009, Vol. 7, #2). “All those folded clothes” has never been published. Read more.

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Three poems dedicated to my lovely wife Robyn Kenealy. All poems previously unpublished. Read more.

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“Silence is essential for visual concentration; fiction action anecdote or contrivance of any kind are rejected.” (Joanna Margaret Paul, Shibusha)

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“Atoms” and “whales gather” first published in Roadrunner (Issue VIII: 4, 2008). “Atoms” was also awarded runner-up in The Scorpion Prize: “Dick Whyte’s poem ‘atoms/made of/concrete’ does to the brain what a well built bridge does to two very different neighborhoods: connects them and creates value out of each other.” (Matthew Dickman) All other poems unpublished. Read more.

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“When composing a verse let there not be a hair’s breath separating your mind from what you write; composition of a poem must be done in an instant, like a woodcutter felling a huge tree or a swordsman leaping at a dangerous enemy.” (Matsuo Basho)

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“Moths” first published in Simply Haiku (Vol. 7, #2, 2009). “Corners” first published in Modern Haiku (Issue 40.3, 2009). “Summer leaves” first published in Daily Haiku (Cycle 8, 2009). All other poems previously unpublished. Read more.

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“From tanka’s long history – over 1300 years recorded in Japan- the most famous use of the poetry form of tanka was as secret messages between lovers. Arriving home in the morning, after having dallied with a lover all night, it became the custom of well-mannered persons to write an immediate thank-you note for the pleasures of the hospitality. Stylized into a convenient five lines… the little poem expressing one’s feelings were sent in special paper containers, written on a fan, or knotted on a branch or stem of a single blossom.” (Jane Reichhold, Tanka for the Memory)

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“Sky and earth,” “drip! drip! drip!” and “damp sheets” first published in Modern English Tanka (Vol. 3, #2, 2008). All other poems previously unpublished. Read more.

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“Poetry must not be what is usually called poetry. It must be an exact report, an honest diary, of the changes in a person’s emotional life.” (Takuboku Ishikawa)

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“The walls of the room” (in edited form) first published in Modern English Tanka (Vol. 3, #2, 2008). “In the hotel room” first published in Prune Juice (#3, 2010). All other poems previously unpublished. Read more.

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“There is nothing you can see that is not a flower; there is nothing you can think that is not the moon.” (Matsuo Basho)

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Some translations of poems by Japanese poet Matsuo Basho (1644-1694). Although Basho’s poems are known as ‘haiku’ poetry today, in his time they were called ‘hokku’. The term haiku was not actually coined until the late 1800s (and many argue that there are distinct differences between the classical hokku and the modern haiku). I did these translations in 2008 and 2010 using Harold Henderson, Donald Keene, Sam Hamill and Fabion Bowers’ translations as a starting point. I would then use various Japanese dictionaries to translate the words literally. From here I would create a new poem with the intent to bring out qualities which I felt were lacking in other translations, such as the “floating line.” For this reason I see myself less as a translator and more as an “intertranslator.”

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sudden rain the earth breathes

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“Boxing Day” and “foreclosure” first published in Haiku News. All other poems previously unpublished. Read more.

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