[Leica] what is haiku

["Emanuel Lowi" <mano@proxyma.net>]

Michael Gerard wrote:

"The definition I've always liked and taught my students is "single breath poetry."
...Haiku are meant to convey a single image without personal commentary by the
author, i.e. the poem should not have an overt message or theme, but merely seek to
paint a picture in the mind. There are many similarities between Haiku and the
Imagist movement founded by Ezra Pound."

As in:

In a station of the Metro

The apparition of these faces in the crowd;
Petals on a wet, black bough.

Definitely photographic, so I like the analogy with macro photography, or any other
photography that extracts a momentary detail from Time's otherwise blurred continuum.
Not so sure about measuring by breaths, though -- that's more Charles Olsen to me.
But, as they say, anything goes.

emanuel
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