taboo

The technique of haiku is apart from how that quite specific method is put to work.

"Don't tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass." ~ Anton Chekhov

Someone asked if telling (rather than the correct SHOWING by allusion and implication) was taboo, vis-à-vis haiku (obviously a weasel word usage by a scoundrel to imply obsessional fundamentalism or something, and therefore, ipso facto, demonising as idiotic or worse anyone who tries to do haiku properly by presenting the stimulus for a little dream using hardly any words at all as the delivery system). They had been told, of course (by an expert, no less), that telling is fine when we ku - why not?

"A taboo is a vehement prohibition of an action based on the belief that such behavior is either too sacred

or too accursed for ordinary individuals to undertake, under threat of supernatural punishment." - Wikipedia

My first response was (naturally) mirth!

The second was dismay.

The third (more sensible) was to assure the querent (a rather wide-eyed tadpole hatchling) that in the beginning with ku (brief poem -- to avoid debate about proper haiku); that yes, it is difficult to allude, rather than explain. It is difficult to provide the succinct textual means by which a reader may gain an inner sensate experience similar to the original insight, rather than a tin off the supermarket shelf; prefabricated, mechanical and theoretically explained to death.

al·lude/əˈlo͞od/

Verb:

Synonyms:

1. Suggest or call attention to indirectly; hint at.
2. Mention without discussing at length.

hint - refer - intimate - suggest - imply - mention

The student said they would think about my interesting words as these were quite a lot different from those which been used at collage by literary professors and other important people since the young scholar was knee-high to a grasshopper.