Editor's choice Haiku

August 2013

Editor's choice Haiku

NEO-CLASSICAL HAIKU

FIRST PLACE

rotating fan

the seconds between

hot and cool

Adelaide B. Shaw

Haiku is to express particular and concrete things or emotions not by directly mentioning them as such but by employing those which are other than them but nevertheless in concrete terms. This rather long and clumsy statement is put into practice admirably by this issue’s Editor’s Choice. There is no abstract notion or description here. The intense heat the author is experiencing is vividly shown by the movement of the rotating fan in a new and highly individual way. If there have been similar haiku before this, I certainly have missed them. There will be many copycats, though.

Thus, the poem is telling us that even the most hackneyed subject can be presented in a new and refreshing light. This is at once the beauty and difficulty of writing good haiku as there are so many similar works around and the number of words to present newness, originality and individuality is so extremely limited. However, the three words which must have been uttered countless times and by a countless number of people can vary so much, “I love you”. So, there is no excuse for haiku.