Lori Ade • Lori's Haiku

In researching Nicholas Virgilio and his life and love of haiku, I was eager to write about him and his poetry. The haiku poetry that Nick Virgilio wrote about was his perception of life, and not just his life, but of those around him. He found a feeling, if not a passion, in the words he created. He was passionate in writing about his own life and the life of his family. Many of the haiku written were about the loved ones in his family and they gave the reader a sense of his true family bonds and what his family meant to him. Many other haiku written portrayed his love and passion for life in general, and yet encompassed the hurt and pain he never recovered from after his great love affair ended. In the writings that he wrote about others, you see his compassion and understanding for their hurt, their hatred, their love, and their choices. This passion that is so evident in his words is what gave me the passion to write about him. The one haiku that represented his love of writing to me was this: my spring love affair: the old upright Remington wears a new ribbon Nicholas Anthony Virgilio was born in Camden, New Jersey on June 28,1928. Nick was the first child for Anthony Virgilio and Rose Alemi. Nicholas was named after his grandfather, and he got his middle name from his father. Nick's parents remained married until death in 1979. Nick grew up in Camden, New Jersey, moving a few times due to the depression and other family needs. He died on January 3, 1989 during the taping of a segment interview for the CBS TV program Nightwatch in Washington, D.C. From a very early age, Nick always wanted to speak and be in the spotlight. Even in the second grade, he asked to be the emcee of a schoolyard show. His mother made a cardboard microphone for him just for that special occasion. That was the event that paved his way in the world of communication and words. Nick's first adult role came when he joined the Navy under the GI Bill. Even though Nick hated the Navy he stayed for two years. After the Navy, Nick went to college and graduated from Temple University in 1952, A radio station in Myrtle Beach was his first home on the radio, followed by Pennsylvania and Texas. It was in Texas where Nick's life took a drastic turn. During his employment in Texas, he met a great love. The relationship did not work out and it was at this point that Nicolas Virgilio turned to poetry to heal his heart. He returned to Camden where he was a disc jockey with friend, Jerry Blavat. In I967, Nick's brother Larry died in Vietnam. This tragedy also weighed heavy on Nick's heart and many of his later haiku reflect on this painful time in his life and in the lives of his family. As we look at Nicholas Virgilio's haiku poetry, we will see his pain, but also notice the beauty that he pulled out of those poignant moments of his life. His deep and profound honesty in his writings made him one of the most internationally recognized haiku poets of his time. (http://www.eticom.net/~kelta/virgilio.html, visited June 29, 2004). Nick's very first published haiku was in 1963, and it goes like this: Spring wind frees     the full moon tangled         in leafless trees. In this haiku, Nick uses a rhyming format, which the Japanese do not promote. In actuality, Nick Virgilio was the only American writer to use rhyming with any frequency while writing his haiku. (Page 7, Selected Haiku) This particular haiku is filled with movement and sound. As the reader, one can hear the bare branches of a spring tree blowing against each otheralmost in a clicking noise. The trees are barely budding, if at all, and the moon seems to move behind the trees. However, in reality the reader knows that the wind is blowing the branches that give the illusion of the moon freeing itself from the branches. I love this haiku for its mystery and illusion of what the reader sees. Nick's early haiku writings were created with that same "illusion" style. By using illusions, he could give the reader an image of something that simply could not be possible. For example: bass picking bugs off the moon In this haiku, we can imagine the sight of the bass jumping and catching the bugs on top of the water in the reflection of the moon. The illusion here is that the bugs are actually eating bugs right off of the moon, when in reality we know the bass cannot pick bugs off of the moon. A great vision is created for us by using the illusion of the reality. This haiku is also filled with sight and sound. I see darkness, but yet the light of the full moon reflecting off of the water gives an illumination to the entire pond. The bass jumping and flopping create the sound of the splashing water, along with the buzzing and humming of the bugs. The reader is placed in a secluded place with nature and water and animals all around. There are many other beautiful haiku written by Nicholas Virgilio that give the reader illusions to see. For example his most famous haiku written, which is the epitaph on his gravestone is this: lily: out of the water... out of itself. This beautiful haiku is all about creating an illusion. Many great haiku poets have tried imitating the style of this haiku, but none have actually captured the feeling of this poem. The Lily haiku above gives the reader a peaceful feeling of a lily floating in the water, but yet, the lily is out of the water, and not just out of the water, but out of itself. An illusion, but one that when spoken through Nicholas Virgilio's words can be become reality. In reading about Nicholas Virgilio, I also read more into this haiku than just the illusion. I see it as a self-reflection of Virgilio himself. I see the lily being him and how he sometimes is outside himself looking in. I can perceive this poem to be self-descriptive in that it describes someone not sure of who they are or what their purpose is, but it is outside where they anticipated going. Other haiku from Virgilio that drew me in and painted a vivid picture were the ones with his family at the center. Even though he wrote many sad and depressing haiku about his brother's death and his father's death, they were in their own right, beautiful and passionate words. One of my favorites is this: thanksgiving dinner: placing the baby's high chair in the empty space This haiku is very personal to me because my father died right before Thanksgiving and I remember vividly how we had to change our routine of sitting at the dining room table because no one wanted to see the empty chair where my dad always sat. I remember that feeling of complete loss and emptiness all because of an empty chair. This haiku probably does not mean much to anyone who has never lost anyone close, or maybe who does not have that close family bond or traditional practice at the holidays. However, for those of us who do, this haiku brings it all home. In reading Nick's haiku, one can get depressed when reading many of his haiku, or one can take the view of beautiful memories of a sad time in Nick Virgilio's life and how he captured the moment to cherish forever. For instance: on the darkened wall of my dead brother's bedroom: the dates and how tall In the above haiku, even though it is sad to think about his dead brother, the poem gives the reader the light heartedness to remember those days of measuring our siblings and ourselves against the wall of our closet or bedroom wall. With each passing month, we would go back to relish that 1/4 inch change. The anticipation in this haiku is nice to read, but at the same time, we are shown the sad end to his brotherly tradition. The "darkened wall" paints a grim and sad place; along with the words "my dead brother's bedroom" tells us that this is a place of sadness and loneliness.. Again, even though this is a sad haiku, the images are wonderful memories. It is evident that Nick's brother, Larry, was a soldier, even by not knowing the history told to us in his biographies. He writes many haiku and even wrote one with a dedication at the end: deep in rank grass, through a bullet-riddled helmet: an unknown flower —in memory of Lawrence J. Virgilio In reading Nick Virgilio's haiku, I find myself relating to many of his words. I think as a reader, we all want to be able to relate to what we read, whether a poem, a short story, or an entire book. Nick Virgilio knew how to reach his audience. He knew that each person would experience love, loss, passion, and even intolerance in their lives. To write about the things that some people want to ignore was a strong characteristic of Virgilio's writings. For example: between tricks knitting booties This haiku takes an intense look at reality all around us, no matter what era we grew up in. There have always been hookers, and there will always be babies born to these hookers. When I read this haiku, it sickens me to think of the babies being brought into the world in the world of prostitution. At the same time, I am warmed by the thought of the love that the hooker has for her child to knit the booties in order to keep his or her little feet warm. It is this serious passion that Nick is able to grasp and reveal to the reader. Nick Virgilio was devastated as a young man with a loss of a lady as his one great love. The one noticeable missing link in my readings of Virgilio's haiku, at least in the resources that I read, is that I found no haiku relating to the one true heartache in his life. He wrote about the loss of his brother, the loss of his father, his palsied mother, and the agony in other people's lives, but yet he did not write about the loss of his true love- which is why he began writing haiku in the first place. In seeing the photos of Nicholas Virgilio on the web sites, I see a diligent writer who did dedicate himself to his love of writing haiku. As friend Fr. Michael Doyle stated at Nick's funeral: "We entrust him to God with all the little bits of him . . . we gather up his life from the very first day that he gave his first breath in Camden to his last breath in George Washington Hospital. Everything that happened, every smile and laugh . . . every time he got on your nerves and got into our heart and got inside you. Every time he poked with his pen in the pain of things and found some life. Everything. We gather it up and offer it to God." (http://www.nickvirgilio.rutgers.edu/htm/writings/Virgilio_Doyle.htm) It was in these last words spoken at Nick's funeral that summarize his life and how he approached his writing of haiku poetry. The one haiku that seems to be shared as the one that sums up Nicholas Virgilio's life is this: on my last journey alone on the road at dawn: first sight of the sea The above haiku is a peaceful, yet lonely feeling poem. As the reader, I feel the reality is that this is a haiku about Nick's own life and the path he traveled. He has come to terms with his life ending soon, and ending without a companion at his side. It has a very gray and almost fogginess to it. I see the last line as the "light at the end of the tunnel" type significance. It's as if he is lonely and cold, but then he catches a glimpse of the sea- a place bigger and better than where he is. He is overcome with the adrenaline rush that he has from seeing the sea for the first time. For those novice haiku readers and writers such as myself, reading Nick Virgilio's haiku gives me hope that I can write about my own life and the lives of my loved ones and be able to communicate a shared moment with someone somewhere. Works Cited Virgilio, Nicholas. Selected Haiku. Burnt Lake Press & Black Moss Press. 1988. Cor Van Den Heuvel. The Haiku Anthology, 3rd Edition. W. W. Norton & Company Ltd. 1999. http://www.eticom.net/~kelta/virgilio.html visited June 29, 2004. http://www.nickvirgilio.rutgers.edu/htm/writings/Virgilio_Doyle.htm visited June 29, 2004.