show not tell
Yes, an interesting challenge with haiku is the absolutely essential requirement to create a picture with your haiku words. It's the picture that spreads the news - not the words themselves (the latter's task being to simply and clearly transmit an experience, you know, the little haiku movie which appears in the mind's eye and which reveals its meaning).
The mantra being:
'SHOW not tell'
If you read some of the classics (Basho/Buson/Issa/Chiyo-ni, for example) with this in mind, you should easily get the idea. Then you can develop this through your own world view.
This is a useful site:
http://thegreenleaf.co.uk/HP/haigapages.htm
Discriminate: Words are words and a pcture is a picture. Haiku words TRANSMIT an experience in the form of virtual scenario (in the mind's eye) - as it were a little dream. The haiku dream does the telling - NOT the haiku words. The words are simply the haiku's delivery system.
One way of approaching how this works:
http://painting.about.com/od/rightleftbrain/a/Right_Brain.htm
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"I'd say the haiku video can be as long as one holds it in the mind's eye -
there's no technical limit (other than the need to eat and sleep, of course)."
"When we go to a gig do we read the program or enjoy the show?"
*SHOW not tell / SENSE don't think."
jp
03-09-11