I write haiku about many subjects – seasonal, inner states, my pet cat friendlies, nature, moon haiku, and abstract haiku, to name a few. The blog doesn’t have a particular “theme” but you will find a lot of haiku about the moon, and birds, clouds, etc. Nature is a favorite subject, as it probably should be with haiku. But I also write a lot of “inner nature” haiku as well. For me, the most important thing is to keep “writing down the road” and so that’s what I do. The haiku process is a spiritual process for me, in many ways.
About Haiku and my Haiku
Do I write genuine haiku? Yes. I could go into various long explanations why they are, since I write in English, not traditional Japanese. I honor the Japanese haiku poets, and totally respect them and their art.
I will just say that I do follow a strict 5-7-5 syllable format with my haiku. I don’t always use seasonal references – often I do. But, my haiku work on me, as a “spiritual process” which I feel very directly and intimately.
R.H. Blyth said it so well:
A haiku is not a poem, it is not literature; it is a hand becoming, a door half-opened, a mirror wiped clean.To a great extent, my “haiku process” reflects these words. I know that it continues to affect me deeply and I will continue to write haiku.
It is a way of returning to nature, to our moon nature, our cherry blossom nature, our falling leaf nature, in short, to our Buddha nature.
It is a way in which the cold winter rain, the swallows of evening, even the very day in its hotness, and the length of the night, become truly alive, share in our humanity, speak their own silent and expressive language.
Haiku: Eastern Culture, 1949, Volume One, R.H. Blyth
That’s it, me bloggies!
- Robert Terrell
