Haikumbha

Many births I had
Revelling in many forms
To know formlessness
(After Kabir)

Haiku Poetry

Haiku is a Japanese form of poetry traditionally using three lines of 5, 7, 5 syllables. This structure is often relaxed by haiku poets writing in languages other than Japanese. The Japanese language is much more syllabic in nature than English, and some have argued that there is no point in keeping to the traditional syllable counting with English, because it can never produce the same effect as it does in Japanese.
A haiku can be about anything; however, it should, traditionally, evoke a sense of place, time of day, or season. Often one of the lines is a so-called 'cutting line' which may shatter the logical flow of the poem, rather like a Zen koan (irrational statement designed to startle the mind out of its slumber of conventional thought).

According to the masters of Japanese Poetry, good haiku may only be composed in a state of egolessness. The poet and the subject of the poem must become one, in a state of thoughtless awareness (meditation). This is the same principle by which the art of yoga (union with the authentic self) is practised.
The style of the haiku is not one of commentary or didacticism. There should not be an attitude of sermonizing or expounding one's own opinions on things. The subject of the poem (or the poetic moment) should be allowed to speak for itself (for the Universal Self).

The poet Doho was a disciple of Basho (perhaps the most famous exponent of the art form). Doho, recalling what he has learned from Basho, relates:

"The master said, 'learn about a pine tree from a pine tree, and about a bamboo stalk from a bamboo stalk'. What he meant was that the poet should detach his mind from self [ego]… and enter into the object, sharing its delicate life and its feelings. Whereupon a poem forms itself. Description of the object is not enough: unless a poem contains feelings which have come from the object, the object and the poet's self will be separate things."

In the philosophy of Zen (from Chinese 'dzan', a word itself derived from Sanskrit Dhyana = 'meditation') the aim is to free the mind from opinions and thoughts, not to clutter it up with more - hence Zen-influenced Haiku poetry can sometimes appear banal or pointless to the uninitiated. The way to appreciate the beauty of Haiku is to try to enter into the meditative-ness of the poetry and so participate in the mood of transforming everyday natural things into the inexpressible... or allowing them to transform you.

Haikumbha

Tuesday, July 3, 2007

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