Haikus
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Painting by the artist
"Prayer"
breathe and the world turns,
melting into the sizzle of logs on fire:
the joining of two passings in space
to get to the Holy Silence
Lake Superior, Mn
7/4/73
Jack Kerouac offered his own definition of the American Haiku which always made linguistic sense; thus this page of my "Western Haikus":
The American Haiku is not exactly the Japanese Haiku. The Japanese Haiku is strictly disciplined to seventeen syllables but since the language structure is different I don’t think American Haikus (short three-line poems intended to be completely packed with Void of Whole) should worry about syllables because American speech is something again…bursting to pop…. I propose that the ‘Western Haiku’ simply say a lot in [three] short lines in any Western language. Above all, a Haiku must be very simple and free of all poetic trickery and make a little picture and yet be as airy and graceful as a Vivaldi Pastorella."
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