Haiku & Senryu: Human Nature

Haiku has been written for centuries since thee Heian period of Japanese culture (700-1100), the poet Matsuo Basho (1644 – 1694) infused a new sensibility and sensitivity to this form in the late seventeenth century. He transformed the poetics and turned the hokku into an independent poem, later to be known as haiku.

Since the time of Basho, the history of haiku mirrors the Zen ideal that it oftentimes relates. While it has gone through many transformations, developments, and revisions, good haiku today is surprisingly similar as to when Basho developed the form in the seventeenth century.

Of all the forms of poetry, haiku perhaps is the most demanding of the reader. It demands the reader's participation because haiku merely suggests something in the hopes that the reader will find "a glimpse of hitherto unrecognized depths in the self." Without a sensitive audience, haiku is nothing.

Share with me my observations of haiku in the 21st century.

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