the platitudes of willful resemblance

to post or not to post – that is the question. Or rather the question is energy and ideas – an abundance of those and I’d be posting like I use to.

My nephew is going through his own ennui with posting and it reminded me that I haven’t had an original post in some time. So I thought I would post nothing today just so the three of you know that I am breathing.

I’ve had a few conversations on the subject of Haiku poetry and its form lately. Those of us in the know and out of school tend toward avoiding the 5-7-5 American grade school requirement but adhere to the guide of what each line ought to represent.

first line – kigo – the seasonal reference – very important

second line – the moment as it is

third line – the satori or ah ha moment.

This is freeing and simultaneously restricting as one should always avoid the obvious…

mid spring

writing a haiku

and it is bad

– but rather –

cherry blossoms

decayed and floating

whose illusion?

it isn’t much better but you get the idea.

On poetry and Haiku – it isn’t well hidden that I regard the vast majority of poetry to be total crap that should have never graced the page it was written on but maybe less well known is that I hate 99% of Haiku. Yes, I am an opinionated bastard. I should add that I believe that everyone who wants to write poetry ought to but not share it with the world until they’ve been doing it long enough to know that most of it is crap – I call this taste. Haiku is different, a little. You should wait to share it with others until you have written 10,000 of them. I’ve written well over that but have only ever shared about 20 – and those I question.

Art is for the creator when done and kept private – art is done for the creator only in the act of creation, when we wear the laurel wreath. After it is no longer the creators and has been co-opted by the masses. If you know what you have done is good then you know it wasn’t done by you anyway. The mistakes are all ours, everything else belongs to someone else.

I am not religious but an atheist. So this may confuse the three of you reading this. I’m just not egotistical enough to think the good lines are mine alone.