Haiku & Image
The poetic form Haiku makes “art from words.” In our textbook, “An Exaltation of Forms” it describes it as “the compressed form together with haiku’s injunction for plain language weeds out abstraction to unearth images that are fresh and clear” (Finch & Varnes, 217). A haiku according to our textbook “uses the commonplace to escape the commonplace” (Finch & Varnes, 217). To me that statement really sums it up. There can be beauty in simplicity. Poems don’t need to be long or wordy to inspire. Haiku’s are essentially a form of poetry that has three lines with 5, 7, 5 syllable structure. Many times their focus is on nature. They do not necessarily rhyme, but the goal is to show some sort of expression in very few words. This helps the reader to capture the feeling from this poetic form. This haiku is a great example.
“The petal fall
and the river takes them
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plum tree on a bank.”
In this Haiku there is a concise image about the cycle of life. The leaf falls and the river takes it away. This is like the cycle of life. There is nothing one can do to change it. The reader can see that plum tree near the flowing river. They can see the petal gently fall, almost floating through the air. Finally it lands into the water, where nature takes it away. The symbolism of life, our lives are like the petal, gently floating through the air over all of our years. When our petal lands into the water, we are moving onto the next part of our lives.
Buson, Yosa “Yosa Buson’s Haiku.” An Exaltation of Forms: Contemporary Poets Celebrate the Diversity of Their Art. Edited by Annie Finch and Kathrine Varnes, U of Michigan P, 2002, p. 218.
