Poetry Forms

Wanting to become a little more familiar with the Haiku style of poetry prior to the Snow County Prison exhibit, I did a little research. Haiku (pronounced Hi Coo) is a form of Japanese poetry containing three lines of which there are 5 syllables in the first and third line and 7 in the middle line. An example taken from the exhibit is the following poem taken from the North Dakota Museum of Art website on Snow Country Prison: Interned in North Dakota:

I'm leaving–
but the suntanned child
doesn't know

–Itaru Ina

Ina was a former Japanese internee at the prison. He wrote countless poems while he was there, these are displayed throughout the exhibit. I hope to encourage people to count the syllables within some of the poems and examine the beauty of them. They fit so well with the exhibit. We can be grateful to his daughter who so willingly shared them with curator Laurel Reuter and the design staff.

This lead me to study poetry once again; I haven't done that for about 40 years, although I have loved poetry since my youth. It brought back some memories of reading poetry to my children when they were young. Favorite poems were any by A.A. Milne about Christopher Robin, especially Christopher Robin is saying his prayers... Other favorite poems include The Ragged Man, The Three Little Kittens, The Highway Man and of course,

Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night

by Dylan Thomas

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night,

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night,

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night,

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Do Not Go Gently always causes me to ponder. Will I go gently into the night or will I howl at the moon for what I still want to do, still want to see, still want to be able to appreciate, for this is a wonderful time to live. Let me go gently but let me live long enough and enjoy what there is in this life. Prepare me for the next life, but let me go gently toward the light.