So many breezes
wander through my summer room:
but never enough
Issa
hibiscus flowers
munched up in the horse’s mouth
eaten one by one
Basso
Boneless, translucent,
We undulate, undulate,
Gelatinously.
Jack Prelutsky
What do you notice about Haiku? I notice how the poet expresses his feelings about something in nature; how he creates a visual image from a natural scene, usually through personification; I notice the precision of word choice and the succinct language–the Japanese refer to this as “wa” or harmony; I believe that the Japanese poets of long ago frowned on verbosity or wordiness; I see who or what, I see what they are doing, where it is happening, and how or why it is happening.
