08.24.2009 2:15 pm
Woodstock reunion in haiku
Post-Dispatch Book Editor
John Dunphy
Not only have folks been celebrating the 40th anniversary of Woodstock, but they remember the 25th anniversary, too. Haiku writer John Dunphy, who owns Second Reading Book Shop in Alton, Ill., sent me an email after reading Joe Williams’ story inspired by the upcoming Ang Lee film. Dunphy was not at Woodstock, but says he shared its ideals:
By John Dunphy
I wrote the following back in 1994 about the two Woodstocks that year: the corporate version and the spontaneous celebration on Max Yasgur’s farm. It appeared in Raw Nervz Haiku; Volume II, Number 2 (Summer 1995 issue). This fine haiku periodical, which was published in Canada, went under a few years back.
WOODSTOCK ’ 94
Saugerties, New York
August 12-14
the traffic lines
rock blaring from
each waiting car
fence-hole entrance
we flash peace signs to
the guy holding wire-cutters
fresh drinking water
tribespeople face the sky
with open mouths
untreated tie-dye
purple and green run down
a woman’s bare legs
muddy footprints
leading away from
abandoned shoes
two figures
beneath their collapsed tent
still coupling
thirty-minute restroom wait
tribespeople pass a joint
up and down the line
Dylan singing It Ain’t Me, Babe
mud-caked tribespeople
try to recognize each other
journey home
our dried mud
starts to flake off
Bethel, New York — the actual site of the legendary 1969 Woodstock — was the scene of yet another festival that weekend. Promoters had initially intended to stage a recreation of the first Woodstock that would have featured many of the original performers. Low ticket sales, however, led to its cancellation.
Thousands of Woodstock veterans returned to Bethel anyway, as did a number of Woodstock ‘ 69 performers such as Melanie, Arlo Guthrie and Richie Havens. The result was a unique event, an affair that was part impromptu concert and part nostalgia trip as stockbrokers, housewives and even a writer or two tried to become the hippies they had been a quarter-century ago.
Why did we return? Perhaps we were simply attempting to recapture the magic, the sheer pagan splendor of the original Woodstock, and so relive one of the most exciting times of our lives. Or perhaps we were seeking something we had lost: An exuberance for life, a sense of identity and community, or that wonderfully intoxicating feeling that this old world really can be changed into an Age of Aquarius Eden of peace, love and rock and roll.
None of us found our lost Eden, of course. But, during a few special moments that weekend, it seemed almost touchingly close.
VW bus
a newly-printed McGovern sticker
on its bumper
Woodstock ‘ 69 veteran
his shoulder-length hair and the sky
gray
”we made love over there…”
couple take their teenage children
on a walking tour
removing her shoes
returned tribewoman presses her feet
into the earth
Janis performing Piece of My Heart
tribespeople listen to
an old tape
renewing their marriage vows
middle-age couple in tie-dyes and beads
exchange flowers
DON’T TRUST ANYONE UNDER 30
emblazoned across
a couple’s t-shirts
a pressed flower
from our ‘ 69 Woodstock
crumbling in my hand
This work is dedicated to both the Saugerties and Bethel tribes from a proud member of the original Woodstock Nation.
Good prose account of the event, very clear and lucid.
I enjoyed the interaction of haiku poems such as:
journey home
our dried mud
starts to flake off
”we made love over there…”
couple take their teenage children
on a walking tour
The last haiku is very poignant, and just shows the useful strength of decently thought out and crafted haiku when mixed with prose. *
*prose and haiku (if done well) is often termed “haibun”. I feel this is a haibun.
all my best,
Alan
http://www.withwords.org.uk
There is much to like here, but this especially
Woodstock ‘69 veteran
his shoulder-length hair and the sky
gray
The haiku contrasts personal with global, then with now, old with young, and permanence with impermanence in just a few words.
With sure touch, John’s haiku are a “fence-hole” into the wider phenomenon of Woodstock, itself a fence-hole into a larger humanity. Bravo!
John Hoad
The haiku in this haibun take the reader out of the ordinary life into the extraordinary world that was Woodstock. “untreated tie-dye/ purple and green run down/ a woman’s bare legs” gives a feel for the wildness, the raw
uncivilized nature of the event. “muddy footprints/ leading away from/ abandoned shoes” Again cicilized “shoes” are not needed and in fact a hindrance in the natural mud and so must be “abandoned”. That the spirit of Woodstock has faded can be seen in the last haiku, “a pressed flower/ from our ‘69 Woodstock/ crumbling in my hand. All in all a wonderful haibun giving the reader a look at Woodstock, yesterday and today.