sharp bites
of fried chicken
summer picnic
In this haiku I continued to use the technique of synesthesia. By now you may be wondering….
What is synesthesia?
Synesthesia is a condition in which one sense (for example, hearing) is simultaneously perceived as if by one or more additional senses such as sight. Another form of synesthesia joins objects such as letters, shapes, numbers or people’s names with a sensory perception such as smell, color or flavor. The word synesthesia comes from two Greek words, syn (together) and aisthesis (perception). Therefore, synesthesia literally means “joined perception.”
The famous Haikuist Basho used synesthesia in the following haiku.
the sea darkens…
the wild duck’s call
is faintly white
As you can see here, at least to Basho, in this haiku, the ‘sound’ of the duck’s call is seen as the color white.
During some of my more painful migraines I can experience synesthesia where I experience sound as a a visual and even touch as a sound. I have a friend who ‘sees’ moods that she associates with people as colors in her mind. She can as perfect pitch but she associates each pitch as a color. As a musician she can do things that others just dream about.
I hope that the past two postings have piqued your interest to look at your senses in a different way.
