Posted To a Flickr Discussion

[madshutterbug]

Think of a haiku
As a photograph: movement
in time realised.

Five sylables
Or four, six or seven...
Aha! moment.


The Flickr Group's name is 'Haiku Me! (Post 1 and Haiku the Previous 1); a discussion question posted about the formality of haiku. In Japanese, the poem form is 5/7/5 sylables. Keep in mind, though, that the Japanese language is based on sylables rather than letters. They are descended from a form call Renga, which alternated two stanzas, 7/7 sylables and 5/7/5 sylables. Usually strongly associated with a reference to Nature, and equally strongly associated with Zen Buddhism, the latter provides one of the particularly unique aspects of the poem form: a point in time spinning around realisation/enlightenment.

Comments

[tassie-gal.livejournal.com]

Nifty nursie! (am going to bed now....)

[singingnettle.livejournal.com]

I can't quite wrap my intellect around the poem, but it makes me smile anyway and leaves me with the sense of a lovely image.

[madshutterbug.livejournal.com]

Glad it makes you smile. As a poem, it really makes most sense in context of the discussion, which is here: http://flickr.com/groups/haikume/discuss/72157594160182592/ if you're interested. Part of it went into whether or not haiku in English could be 4/6/4 instead of 5/7/5.