Why haikus?
The night lies ahead.
Cup of tea full to the brim.
The poem doesn’t come.
Toda la noche por delante.
Una taza de té llena hasta el borde.
El poema no llega.
Every artist that I know that has stopped to theorise about Art in the abstract, about What Art Ought to Be, reaches a simple and easy conclusion. Art ought to be what I do. I am, of course, no exception. What I like and dislike is dictated by what I do or can’t do.
But Carboanion asks me why I write haikus, so let’s see if I can answer. Haikus offer the perfect balance of form and freedom, first of all, because they don’t rhyme. Rhyme is an unnecessary constraint that forces the poet to look for a word that fits form instead of meaning. Rhyme for its own sake, especially when it is difficult as in Spanish rap (hola, Tote), is an interesting device. In poetry, is often superfluous, and what’s worse, distracting. And the most important thing: para rimar tiempos verbales, mejor no escribas. That is, you’d better not write at all if you intend to rhyme grammatical suffixes or particles.
Good. We have one principle: use excellent, original rhyme for its own sake, or don’t rhyme at all. Now, the distinction between poetry and poetic prose is in rhythm. Of all the non-rhyming traditional poetic forms, haikus are interesting because they must be concise: you cannot waste a syllable. Forms that don’t have a line count run the risk of heading straight into explanation. “This is what happened” slipping into “and this is the way it made me feel”. A haiku is the photograph of a feeling, not its description.
The last question is why not free verse. Free verse is the hardest of all because there are no rules and that makes mistakes so much easier. The balance is no longer between form and meaning but between freedom and self-indulgence. The old saying “master the rules before breaking them” applies. A good poem is one that is fresh and original even if it sticks to the rules. But, what makes a good free verse poem? Nobody knows. Yet.
Cup of tea full to the brim.
The poem doesn’t come.
Toda la noche por delante.
Una taza de té llena hasta el borde.
El poema no llega.
Every artist that I know that has stopped to theorise about Art in the abstract, about What Art Ought to Be, reaches a simple and easy conclusion. Art ought to be what I do. I am, of course, no exception. What I like and dislike is dictated by what I do or can’t do.
But Carboanion asks me why I write haikus, so let’s see if I can answer. Haikus offer the perfect balance of form and freedom, first of all, because they don’t rhyme. Rhyme is an unnecessary constraint that forces the poet to look for a word that fits form instead of meaning. Rhyme for its own sake, especially when it is difficult as in Spanish rap (hola, Tote), is an interesting device. In poetry, is often superfluous, and what’s worse, distracting. And the most important thing: para rimar tiempos verbales, mejor no escribas. That is, you’d better not write at all if you intend to rhyme grammatical suffixes or particles.
Good. We have one principle: use excellent, original rhyme for its own sake, or don’t rhyme at all. Now, the distinction between poetry and poetic prose is in rhythm. Of all the non-rhyming traditional poetic forms, haikus are interesting because they must be concise: you cannot waste a syllable. Forms that don’t have a line count run the risk of heading straight into explanation. “This is what happened” slipping into “and this is the way it made me feel”. A haiku is the photograph of a feeling, not its description.
The last question is why not free verse. Free verse is the hardest of all because there are no rules and that makes mistakes so much easier. The balance is no longer between form and meaning but between freedom and self-indulgence. The old saying “master the rules before breaking them” applies. A good poem is one that is fresh and original even if it sticks to the rules. But, what makes a good free verse poem? Nobody knows. Yet.
Comentario:
¡Domo arigato! Gracias por contestar esa pregunta: aunque tengo que investigar un poco más el enlace "El arte debe ser lo que yo hago", me ha hecho mucha gracia; también ha sido interesarte ver tu postura ante los versos libres y la prosa poética, porque a pesar de que la explicación está muy bien razonada y yo te la agradezco, mi asociación con el ritmo es distinta de la tuya y por tanto veo pausas donde tú distingues versos. Así, mi lectura se entorpece en tanto la tuya se enriquece. Como bien dices, cada cual entiende el arte a su manera... Del mismo modo, creo que las rimas ayudan a crear una cadencia muy atractiva en la lectura. Debe ser que, en la poesía, me ciño más a la forma que al fondo.
Gracias, de veras, me ha resultado muy interesante leer tu punto de vista al respecto :)
Gracias, de veras, me ha resultado muy interesante leer tu punto de vista al respecto :)