HAIKU

   Haiku is a form of poetry that the Japanese have practiced for centuries. Generally, it consists of 17 Japanese syllables, more or less (5-7-5). A haiku contains at least some reference to the natural world; it also refers to a particular event, presenting that event as happening now --not in the past. Very often, it deals with the seasons:

            Spring rain;

         An umbrella and a straw coat

            Go chatting together.

                             -BUSON

     The stream hides itself

          In the grass

            Of departing Autumn.

                             -SHIRAO

   Indeed, many American poets have taken to this form of verse with succinct irony:

             In my medicine cabinet,

          The winter fly

             Has died of old age.

                             -JACK KEROUAC

              Moving leaf shadows,

                  look projected on the ground,

              Abstract cinema.

                              -RICHARD PATTEN