Here’s a haiku by Madeleine Findlay:
across the wall
a spider and his shadow
early winter
The image in the base is superbly alive. It is alive because it is structured by principles discussed at length by Elaine Scarry in her classic study of imagery in prose and poetry, Dreaming by the Book. The wall establishes a solid background; the spidery spider and its even more attenuated shadow stands out with more than the wall’s objectivity, drawing its strength from the wall, as it were – yet, unlike the wall, moving. The temporality of the movement is seen against the precision of the kigo: early winter. The spider seems almost aware of the brevity of life, in the shadow of its shadow.
Note how the use of “across” sets up an unfolding in time that transcends and frames the initial sighting of the spider. The poet contemplates what she sees; she takes care.
This haiku exemplifies the vibrancy of the “sign” as a tripartite asymmetrical system. The first “part” is the signifier: wall, spider, shadow, winter, and so on. The second part is the referent: THIS spider and its shadow moving across the wall. The third part is the signified. The signified is grasped only in terms of the whole haiku, which includes the tension between the base and the superposed kigo (seasonal term).
The signified is not easy to put into words: it is the meaning of the poem. The meaning of the poem is in part the tension between the time element or kigo – “early winter” – and the referent, just this spider, moving across the seemingly indifferent space of the wall. This spider, being a real being, has a shadow; it is not reducible to its shadow; it has substance. The substance stands over against the looming darkness of the coming winter. The signified is just the fullness of this spider’s existence in time and space and also in the poem.
Finally, the signified – and it continues to give to the imagination – IS the haiku moment. The haiku moment is inseparable from the haiku. In this full sense, the haiku is the tripartite sign.
