The Pocket Haiku (Shambhala Pocket Library)
Lael Johnson and added
Lael Johnson and added
Haiku is precise. It conforms to an exact syllabic count: the first line has five syllables, the second has seven, and the third has five. Within that container the poet’s wings expand in all directions, touching the ordinary and rendering it extraordinary. There is freedom in form.
Mirabai Starr • Wild Mercy: Living the Fierce and Tender Wisdom of the Women Mystics
Basho wrote his haiku in the simplest type of Japanese speech, naturally avoiding literary and “highbrow” language, so creating a style which made it possible for ordinary people to be poets. Bankei, his contemporary, did just the same thing for Zen,
Alan W. Watts • The Way of Zen
Three Simple Lines: A Writer’s Pilgrimage into the Heart and Homeland of Haiku
Natalie Goldberg • 1 highlight
amazon.com
a haiku is a Japanese short poem form. It has seventeen syllables and is written in three lines. It often mentions a season and something from nature.
Natalie Goldberg • Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within
The haiku, as you may know, is usually a nature-related poem of just seventeen syllables, written in three lines (five syllables, then seven, then five). A poet writing a haiku must work with those limitations, must express an entire idea or image in only that number of syllables. It can be a daunting task if you have something important to convey.