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Foreword
I first encountered the haiku form back in the 1950s, in my Beatnik days, without really knowing what it was. I encountered Zen in much the same way at much the same time. I've learned a lot since then but I still don't know what either of them are. If I've come to any conclusion it's simply to say that it is much easier to say what a haiku isn't than what it is. I don't intend to move away from that position.
Some Western practitioners make a close study of the Japanese forms, haiku, senryu, tanka and such, and advocate the emulation of the precise form, counting syllables and observing literary rules to the Japanese model. Others simply pay full respect to the original Japanese masters, and have adapted what they've learned of the flavour of the originals to non-Japanese languages and to non-Japanese traditions. I fall into the latter group. I don't count syllables. I often tread the boundary between haiku and senryu with a complete and carefree disregard. But I do pay great honour to the aesthetic, as much as I can understand of it. I liken it to the dusty scales on a butterfly's wings. Admire it, gasp at its beauty, but don't try to grab hold of it or the wings will disintegrate and leave you with nothing more than a greasy smear on the tips of your fingers.
I write haiku when I need a break from English poetic form. In the early morning, mostly, as a warming up exercise. I do not regard the process or the product as poetry. It's too unique for that.
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Who says my poems are poems?
My poems are not poems.
Only when you understand my poems are not poems,
Then can we begin to discuss poems.
Ryokan, [tr. unknown]
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I am sometimes asked how a haiku should be read and appreciated. I duck the question if I can. If pressed, all I will say is that an individual haiku should be read silently, in one mental breath. If a flavour doesn't instantly appear on the edge of the mind's tongue then it will not work for you. Press on and try the next. There are many butterflies.
John Bailey
Somerset
October 2000
Copyright
The poetical and other products in this volume are the work of John Bailey, who reserves all copyright and reproduction rights to himself under the international laws of copyright and intellectual property. Reproduction and/or distribution of the whole or any part in any form, electronic or physical, is forbidden unless prior permission has been granted.
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