Darja Kocjančič ranks among the most prominent Slovene writers of haiku poetry. Her poems, imbued with refined sensibility, encompass (almost) all areas of her life: social relations, approaches to nature and the environment, to her immediate surroundings and above all to herself – self-awareness. Although she does not usually follow the classical form of 5/7/5 syllables, her haiku does contain considerable classical elements:
humour, which is at times graduated up to (self-)irony:
evening in a tavern:
you, me
and a mayfly
footsteps in front of the door –
all he has, the refugee gives:
a toothless smile
the sense of lonesomeness (Japanese sabi):
romance on the screen –
the seat beside
remains untaken
wind in the window slats –
ciagrette
with the taste of solitude
the meeting, de-limitation of two worlds: in her haikus she masterfully captures the moments of the meeting(s) of two (ostensibly separate, different) worlds: the inner and outer, or the spiritual and material; the real and the fictitious or artistic; the subjective and objective …:
postcard from the seaside –
on a tottery table
coffee splashes
clockseller’s shop:
each customer shoes
his own time
To see and experience oneself and events in the world simultaneously as ONE occurrence and also as individual occurrences, is at the same time the point of self-realization, it is the point of creating and of creation; it is the birthplace of the haiku and of art as such. At this “point”, the author feels wholly at home and supremely in command, so that authenticity and originality also radiate out from her poetry.
At the international haiku competitions organized by the journal Apokalipsa (Apocalypse), Darja Kocjančič has received two second awards. In 1999 for the haiku:
on the beach / a flock of seagulls / and shrieking girls
and in 2001, for the haiku:
dozing in the car – / behind the windscreen / swarms of stars travelling
In recent years, she has been participating at the competition as a member of the jury.
In addition to writing haikus, she is also practising in drawing haiga, the sketches which “accompany” haikus.
Reserved for Pilots is her first literary publication. On the Internet she has for some time been publishing the (also bilingual) collection Children of Orgasm
Kranj, 5 July 2004