is haiku poetry?
Whatever haiku is it’s certainly not poetry, meta-poetry perhaps – but, this still begs the question. Even calling haiku a magic spell simply swings to the other side. No. Haiku is something else again, perhaps whatever forms the apex of these two complementary opposites. Maybe we can call it: ‘zazen in motion which pauses to make a note’. What would be the word for that?
The words of a true haiku deliver the haiku vision according to the primary formal injunction: *SHOW not tell* - only this and nothing more.
The words are, in other words, signposts.This is peculiar to true haiku.
Although we find the notion of showing to be a widespread supplement to broader literary technique, when employed in true haiku it is absolute. Not an option amongst many options, as in poetry, for example. That is to say, the evoked image does all the work. Not some of the work. ALL of the work. If this is not the case then, whatever it is, is not a true haiku.
This is why true haiku is NOT poetry, though it might appear to be, at first (or last) glance.
Nor is true haiku, prose.
Prose-poetry?
Not this either!
A magic spell comes closer, though.
Ask yourselves this: "Is a magic spell poetry or prose?" The answer is, of course, neither - though an incantation may use some very basic formal presentational techniques common to both poetry and prose.
How much more so true haiku?
Thus, with a true haiku, do we conjure a living moment, cast in a spell (sic), for all to enter into and to return to and to be charmed by, and this forever. . . .
old pond
a frog jumps in
sound of water
— Bashō
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This polarity betwixt haiku and magic spell belongs somewhere - but where?
The haiku engine uses poetics, but is not poetry (although some spin it that way - Imagistism). The haiku engine uses prosaics, but is not prose (although some spin it that way - Epigramism). Ipso facto, the haiku engine lives in the middle, neither this nor that. Is the haiku engine, then, the same as the magic spell engine and, if so, then both, therefore, are utilising a more fundamental engine? (Only respond to this if your IQ is your own.) HDC FB
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TO CONTINUE. . . .
you see?
SHOW not tell— only this
nothing more.
— jp
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