The Sound of Haiku #1 - The Nature of Light - Poetry and Art in Response to Music

_{Digital Art made Using Base Image Taken in Tulum Mexico in 2017}

This first haiku inspired by music was born from one of the most heart-achingly beautiful pieces of classical music in existence.

On The Nature of Daylight as a title is almost a poem in of itself... but the root of how this piece achieves that transcendence of true art, like so much music, lies in the emotional relationship between melody and mood.

As you listen to On The Nature of Daylight the melodic interplay between the Celo and Violin creates a deep thrum that describes the nature of light. Almost like an audio version of a light wave; fleeting in the singular, yet eternal in the rhythms of breaking day to dusk.

As the earth spins, sunrise becomes eternal as the light dies to darkness on one side of the globe, balanced by dawn on the other side of the planet. It is just a matter of perspective, and although we know that the sun will finally burn out, blown to cosmic winds in a final supernova, from our perspective this ending is unseeable, unknowable, other than as a concept.

On The Nature of Daylight reflects the duality of existence for me; an ever-changing cycle of life and death, light and dark, energy and stillness. This pattern is hard to grasp, born even in chaos. It is the dichotomy in the workings of the universe, infinite, mesmeric, and achingly sublime.

I’m a big fan of Max Richter, as he is a master of capturing a mood or concept perfectly in music. Compositions such as Mercy and The Four Seasons Recomposed - Spring 1 resonate in this way for me for many reasons. Perhaps I shall explain why in an upcoming post, I’m not sure yet as they’re very personal emotional associations that I have with these pieces of music.

But what often makes a piece of music great is its ability to provoke a personal response in millions of people that reflect a mood. The circumstances for that response might be different, but the emotional reaction remains the same. This quality is the sparkle at the heart of a diamond or the warmth that inhabits light. It is that which is unseen, expressed in a pattern that sings to our wandering subconscious.

To me, the emotional reaction inspired by On The Nature of Daylight is one of melancholic catharsis. It is the same gut-wrenching cleansing that happens when trauma gets exorcised. This isn’t surprising given that Max Richter composed this piece as part of his album The Blue Notebooks as a work of protest art in the run-up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

This type of visceral emotional communication that great classical music inspires is the same essence for which the poet strives. It’s for this reason that I turn to songs like On The Nature of Daylight when writing poetry or fiction.

As I write now, this music sits behind the creative process and the rhythmic tapping of keys, informing without intruding, inspiring without influencing, and perfect for finding a place of flow. A powerful conduit for guiding the subconscious, a beam of light that melts the ice wall between dream and waking.

This loosening of the binds of the conscious mind is the essence of creativity. An essential part of the creative process that is only enhanced with music that feeds your soul.

Thanks for reading 🌿

This is the first in a series of posts I will be publishing that creates poetry and art inspired by music, along with my thoughts on the essence of inspiration behind creative writing. I will be posting two or three of these creative posts per week for the next month.

The digital art used for the title image was created from my picture of a sunrise, taken in Tulum Mexico in 2017. All other digital art in this post was made using a few creative commons licence photos, links: 1 & 2

To read more about the aesthetics of true haiku, and the difference between haiku and senryu, please check out my post: Haiku Vs Senryu - The Aesthetics of Form

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