When I first got interested in haiku, almost 20 years ago, I read a lot of books about haiku. I participated in some haiku writing circles and approached the craft in a focused way. Since then, I've continued to write haiku, more or less frequently, but I haven't done much reading about it.
Recently, when I was in Champaign, we went to an excellent book store that had several interesting books on haiku that I hadn't seen before -- or at least that hadn't looked at in a long time. One of them, talked about aware, a "Heian Period expression of measured surprise", which led me to look up mono no aware at Wikipedia. Or, again, to look at the page anew -- I think I'd read it before. It struck me that this is very much the aesthetic I often aim for with my haiku. Like this one:
post ol ŝtorm' pasas,
la suno ne revenas…
kaj nokto venas
----
after the storm,
the sun does not return…
and night comes
Or this one:
mallarĝa lito
en malgranda dormejo…
solecaj sonĝoj
----a narrow cot
in a small bedroom…
lonely dream
Hence, I really appreciated it awhile ago when Stæld Lakorv tweeted
@limako Viaj malgajaj hajkoj ja belegas. Malgraŭ ilia mallongeco, ili ja inspiras fortajn bildojn kaj sentojn.
That really makes me feel like I'm hitting close to what I'm aiming at.
- Steven D. Brewer's blog
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