Please, try to avoid desk haiku. I often write haiku as I walk, work, lie down. Please, speak haiku, give them a voice, whisper them, shout them, spit them chew them. Haiku come from my experience of the world. I compose haiku not because I am a poet, or to make poetry, I don’t give a dam about poetry, I write haiku to be alive and present in this world. Not to live in my head and through my senses. To unfold my being-seing-perceiveng in all this. And meet what comes and goes. Death can take place anytime, haiku is like Hanami, to watch blossoms. I am going to die, and haiku writing haiku doing is a celebration of a fragile and floating existence, it is sheer gratitude. Gratitude. And gratitude again.
Don’t write too many words. Many haiku in English are too wordy. Cut. Keep it simple. You should be able to speak any haiku in a single short breath. Don’t pack poems with fancy words be careful with adjectives, bad writing is often over using adjectives. Don’t use special poetic words and reject words like
plastic,
telephone or
can. Avoid likes and dislikes. In the haiku world, everything is precious, worth looking at and worthy of appreciation. Don’t be afraid of words and things. Call things by their name. Go for what is, what is real around and inside you. Go where you dance, go even where it hurts. Haiku is a tool of discovery and self inquiry. Pick up things unnoticed, left aside, pick up what people don’t even see or pay attention to. Pick up garbage and practice garbage arrangement. Celebrate the ordinary. In the simple activity of seeing, of being you will find love. Jizo or Kannon are not statues in fancy temples and museums but your very attention to the world, your activity in full bloom and the very people and things you meet everyday. This is the real magic. And it is available here and now. And it is now or never. Each second passes and won’t come back. You won’t be given a second go. There is only one. This one. Here and now.
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