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in gratitude to the Mosaic learning community...

 

Thanks to the students & faculty of Mosaic for a great workshop yesterday!

winter recycles

reconsidering haiku-poetics

"There are two ways: one is entirely natural, in which the poem is born from within itself; the other ways is to make it from the mastery of the technique." -- Basho

My understanding of haiku has frozen itself in the superficial elementary school equation of  

5/7/5 + nature = haiku

It is time to thaw a little bit.

I have been caught somewhere on the semi-colon between the two "ways" that Basho describes -- trying to write concisely what I see yet constrained by immature technique. So, moving forward:

• no more titles
• focus on objective imagery
• create a juxtaposition flanking a caesura ("like the gap in a spark plug")
• balance karumi (lightness) with ugachi (insightful observation)
• juggle humor with wabi sabi, which is...

"a bittersweet mix of loneliness and serenity, a sense of dejection buoyed by freedom from material hindrance "

• explore the "invisible constraints" more than counting syllables

Dayswing

twig-fingered lightning