POETRY

The art of Haiku Poetry

The art of Haiku poetry

"Old pond...a frog leaps inwater's sound."- Matsuo Basho.



Haiku is small poetry with oriental metric that appeared in the XVI century, mainly in Japan. It's been disseminating in all around the world during this century. It has an old and long history that reminds us of the spiritual philosophy and the Taoist simbolism of the oriental mystics and Zen-Buddhist masters, who express much of their thoughts in form of myths, symbols, paradoxes and poetic images like the Haiku.



It's done to transcend the limitation imposed by the usual language and the linear/scientific thinking that treat the nature and the human being as a machine.



It's a contemplative poetry that values nature, color, season, contrasts and surprises. Usually it has 3 lines and 17 syllabes distributed in 5, 7 and 5. It must register or indicate a moment, sensation, impression or drama of a specific fact of nature. It's almost like a photo of some specific moment of nature.


More than inspiration, it requires meditation, effort, and perception to compose a real Haiku.

posted by Unknown @ 12/23/2004 01:56:00 pm