Dunkirk NY – I’m a little late getting to this post today. Nothing much to report on the knee. In fact, I think at this point I am not sure the knee is worth discussing. It continues to improve, I am doing physical therapy, icing is ongoing. I have PT booked until the end of the first week in December. Yesterday I began doing a little walking and stair work between the parallel bars. There’s little pain, but the soreness still remains after a workout. I’m really well on the way to saying that I am A-OK, but gaining strength back will take a couple of more weeks. So I don’t know how much I will have to say about the knee unless something goes awry, but I don’t expect it will.
I read something yesterday that gave me some pause. I am a very amateur haiku writer. I am drawn to Zen and Eastern philosophy in general, and I find haiku to be a wonderful way to relate Zen to art. I have written a number of haiku, but in truth I have no idea how good they really are. I’ve never submitted them to a journal or anything like that. Few people have ever read them. Naturally I have been cruising the internet to see what’s out there in terms of guides or insight to learn how to write better haiku. Haiku is tricky business, because like most art, it’s so subjective.
In my cruising, I came upon an essay that was very dismissive of the 5-7-5 form. The general public, when they think of haiku, usually thinks of a three-line poem consisting of a line of 5 syllables, a line of 7 syllables, and a final line of 5 syllables. Japanese haiku consist of 17 on, and it was thought early on that an on was the equivalent of an English syllable. This was discovered to be a false comparison, but the image of a haiku as a 5-7-5 poem persists in the general culture.
I don’t think the 5-7-5 form should be dismissed so easily. I have in my head an essay that will come to the defense of the 5-7-5 haiku, but I may post it on Medium and not here. I also found out that there is such a thing as NaHaiWriMo (National Haiku Writing Month), which is February (the shortest month of the year). I am considering writing nothing but 5-7-5 haiku for the month just to be ornery. I believe one can write a very good hailu following the 5-7-5 formula, and while I may not as yet be good enough to prove that, I think simply the attempt might be worth it as a challenge.
I’ll leave you with a 5-7-5 haiku for consideration:
cold aurora dawn;
leaves dance to the rhythm of
the wild wind – why rake?
-twl