Post
by sooZen » February 10th, 2006, 3:54 pm
ST...I guess I have been over that syllable thing enough, (see my haiku 101 post.)
I do not ever count syllables anymore nor do I always use the 'seasonal' word...that is Japanese style haiku. Haiku has been hai-jacked Jack by us Westerners and has become a completely different form. Paul Reps (my master and guru of haiku) was the first (or one of the first) to understand and bring haiku to the West.
Some of the 'ku' rules have not changed in the transition, for instance the essence of haiku, the A Hah! moment. I use analogy which is not in the rules, I sometimes place myself in the ku which is unruly, but all the great haijin broke all the rules...like you said once, you can break the rules if you KNOW what they are.
As for syllables...it is good form in the West to use no more than 17 in total but I don't subscribe to that either for sitting and counting syllables breaks the flow of the moment I am writing the ku. I see an aWful lot of bad haiku but the word hai means 'fun' so bad or good, writing haiku is all good. Most that write haiku know nothing of haiku or just what a high school English teacher taught 'em. They insist on the 5-7-5 format, the seasonal word, etc... And it seems they are conditioned by what they were taught and refuse to change to a more Western ideal or development. This is a hugely fought debate within the genre...and goes on still.
I am a haiku rebel, like my friend Paul...I like doing 5-7-5 as zazen, practice (and when I was learning haiku) but I have done one line haiku, short abrupt haiku and long-assed haiku. As long as it makes me happy it is satisfying. Hah! I like distilled haiku, just the barest to relate the essence, like a good whiff of haiku.
As for the lost February haiku...it is like writing haiku on water, it's okay...for everything in this universe is impermanent. (Was a good lesson for me too.)
SooZ
Freedom's just another word...
http://soozen.livejournal.com/