People sometimes ask me about learning hokku simultaneously with practicing haiku. All I can say about it is that from my experience, it is a bad idea. The reason is that in general, hokku and haiku (as it generally exists today) have very different aesthetic approaches. The former has specific standards and principles and aesthetics. [...]
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Posted in Uncategorized, tagged autumn, haikai, harmony, hokku, nature, poetry, seasons, writing, Yang, Yin, zen on September 1, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Yesterday I discussed the importance of season in hokku — how hokku is the poetry of the seasons, and how the subjects we choose for our verses should reflect the character of the season in which we are writing in some way.
This is a very new concept for many people, who are accustomed to writing [...]
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Posted in Uncategorized, tagged autumn, haikai, harmony, hokku, nature, poetry, seasons, writing, Yang, Yin, zen on September 1, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
It is very easy to superficially notice, or to unthinkingly gloss over, the critical importance of season in hokku. It is not going too far to say that hokku is the verse of the seasons — that the REAL subject of every verse is the season in which it is written.
Seen from that perspective, it [...]
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