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Haiku Quotes
WHAT IS (OR ISN'T) HAIKU?
A haiku is the expression of a temporary enlightenment, in which we see into the life of things. * Now, an aesthetic anarchy seems to prevail, for in many of the poems, important values of content, form, style, and spirit differ wildly. (Standards of form are virtually nonexistent, varying from 8 to 18 syllables.) I believe the inchoate state of haiku today is very detrimental, not only to haiku's status and image, but to its spirit. The term 'haiku' has become a 'catch all' category for any brief word play produced by human (or electronic) means." - James W. Hackett "Reflections" (James W. Hackett, World Haiku Review) * The current tendency in the West is to modify Japanese haiku "rules" to suit Western requirements, or to move on to vers libre. However, compared with progressive haiku currently seen in Japan, the Western version is still tentative and lags behind. -Susumu Takiguchi "A Haiku Moment of Truth" (World Haiku Review) * I propose that the "Western Haiku" simply say a lot in three short lines in any Western language. Above all, a Haiku must be very simple and free of all poetic trickery and make a little picture and yet be as airy and graceful as a Vivaldi Pastorella. * 1. a short poem Cricket (mailing list) - thanks to Charlie Trumbull, Lee Gurga, Bob Spiess, et. al. (from Paul David Mena's "Haiku Definitions" (Haiku in Low Places) * Haiku are short, unrhymed poems that describe a special moment in nature as it has been perceived by the poet and which pertain in some way to the human experience. -Jeanne Emrich (Haiga Online) (from Paul David Mena's "Haiku Definitions" (Haiku in Low Places) * Primarily it [haiku] is a poem; and being a poem it is intended to express and evoke emotion... haiku is a very short poem... more concerned with human emotions than with human acts, and natural phenomena are used to reflect human emotion. * When composing a verse let there not be a hair's breadth separating your mind from what you write; composition of a poem must be done in an instant, like a woodcutter felling a huge tree or a swordsman leaping at a dangerous enemy. * ...But at least in Japan, many people write haiku without reading. They read only other members' haiku of their circle, and produce too many. As a result, it is, in many, if not all, cases, a list of 'what I did, saw, and felt today'. Reading good classical poems is much more important. It is remembering of why things are here as such. To remember is to re-member or to belong again to Being. I think we have to go forward to the past. -Professor Hiroo Saga (Yosa Buson and His Followers: Haiku & Painting) * Real haiku is the soul of poetry. Anything that is not actually present in one's heart is not haiku. The moon glows, flowers bloom, insects cry, water flows. There is no place we cannot find flowers or think of the moon. This is the essence of haiku. Go beyond the restrictions of your era, forget about purpose or meaning, separate yourself from historical limitations -- there you'll find the essence of true art, religion, and science. * It isn't microwave poetry. ...Haiku doesn't tell a story - it takes a still photograph of a flash of lightning, in all its beauty, terror and suddenness. It takes the time to notice a dead bird but doesn't speculate on cause and effect. It celebrates a kiss, a smile or a fragrance, by simply allowing it to have its moment, usually when it is least expected... * Haiku objective images written down outside mind the result is inevitable mind sensation of relations. Never try to write of relations themselves just the images which are all that can be written down on the subject. * Haiku is a poetic form which takes nature in each season as its theme and expresses inspiration derived from nature. -Kimiyo Tanaka (Kim Komurasaki) (Shiki Salon; "The Pleasure of Haiku")
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