VIII ] SUGGESTIONS TO NEW HAIKU WRITERS ~ Read as many Haiku as possible and as slowly as possible ~ Reading Haiku well and intimately is a pre-requisite to write Haiku naturally. [There are many web sites and books available where Haiku are written and discussed.] Websites http://www.worldhaiku.net/index.html http://www.big.or.jp/~loupe/links/ehisto/ehisinx.shtml http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Island/5022/index.html http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~kohl/basho/index.html http://www.nime.ac.jp/~saga/buson.html http://www.litkicks.com/BeatPages/page.jsp?what=Buson http://webusers.xula.edu/dlanoue/issa/ http://www.dublinwriters.org/haiku/index.html http://haiku.cc.ehime-u.ac.jp/ Books "The Haiku Handbook" ~ William J. Higginson Published by Kodanasha International Ltd., 17-14 Otowa 1-chome, Bunkyo-ku Tokyo 112-8652 ~ Haiku ~. Eastern Culture, Spring, Summer- Autumn, and Winter, 4 volumes by R.H Blyth , Haiku ~ Selected and edited by Peter Washington. ~ Everyman's Library The Essential Haiku ~ Versions of Basho, Buson and Issa Edited by Robert Hass. Published by Harper Collins Publishers Inc.,10 East 53rd Street,
It is a grand fatality a cosmic fatality that has drawn you to Haiku to read it with care and also write it with care too. Effortlessness is the key ~ Let your feelings find a way with a minimum effort to form a haiku. Become free and empty and look at the world around you perceive it with all the senses Be simple again and wonder at it all this vast cosmic projection around you. Forget all your burdens and simply be truthful to the moment around you inside you. Don't be overtly poetic if it is not a necessity in a haiku and could even be distracting from the feel of the Haiku. But still poetry is not an error in haiku surely, because Haiku is also another type of poetry. Your best haiku will surprise you should surprise you. Write the essentials first. Edit later. Some times a Haiku comes well formed. Sometimes, one will have to chisel them into more order and perfection. These deeds become more spontaneous as one practices the genre. Check on the Haiku that impress you and discover carefully what makes them shine. Haiku gently shows there is no need to dazzle, yet things naturally dazzle. Every good Haiku has an element of surprise in its discovery. The surprise causes the delight in many cases. Be bold and get the feel of the genre and take your way. Read the classical Japanese Masters Basho Buson Issa Shiki etc. in various translations. Note the differences and various stylistic and aesthetc devices Read about Zen Buddhism and surely re-cognize its subtle presence in almost all classical haiku. "The Way Of Zen" by Alan Wats and "Zen Flesh Zen Bones" by Paul Reps may be useful introductions. The former has a good bibliography too. Read Haiku in English by modern writers and also in other languages if available. [ Haiku Anthology ] Read the haiku again and again and check for various changes of words and different arrangements of lines and permutations. Choose the best Haiku is A Way of Seeing too. The Haiku will come to you and note it down. If you have friends who know something about Zen and Haiku, share your Haiku with them and ask for suggestions if you are not sure. If you have more than one alternative for a haiku share and discuss the possibilities with a friend. This can be really useful in making the best choice. Once you start writing it will become very natural and you will be surprised too. You will naturally choose your niche of Haiku _expression and give Haiku itself a new perspective and dimension. Genre of Haiku and its impossible definition grows with each Haiku. Haiku is getting defined in your attempt of it too friend. There are really no perfect Haiku nor incorrect Haiku. Sometimes I see indifferent Haiku perhaps. Carry a small haiku note-book and of course a pen too. This will make you regret less for missing a possible Haiku moment! [ I still don't do it always ! ] Best Wishes to grow in Haiku!
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