Haiku Reflections

Some criterion usually emerges in choosing between two Seashell Game comparison poems. As a reminder, the name alludes to Bashō’s first published work—an anthology in which he paired verses for comparison to determine which one made the better haiku. In Bashō’s iteration of the game, the poems were by different poets. In ours, we choose two poems by the same poet to see which one is the more successful verse.
Both poems are good in this case, but when we read them together, we realize that the first is more personal. The “aged wrinkled hand“ can only be that of the poet—an observation that feels both strangely detached and intimately reflective. The poet hasn’t made a direct comparison between her aging hands and the supple white youth of the leeks, but we can easily imagine her comparing her own fingers to the plants as she prepares them for her dinner.
The second poem has the requisite haiku humor for a good verse. Not only that, but the poet also finds a way to “greet“ the leek by paying tribute to its relative mildness. And so the poem works as a classical haiku. It’s just not as memorable as the first haiku. The poem about the poet’s aging hands is one we can return to again and again.
—Clark Strand