Reflections

Often you will find yourself stilled after having tasted and swallowed the word-dram.

Be attentive to the pattern of your breathing and to the hairs on the back of your neck as you read the piece - and after.

Generally haiku are short. Visual versions lose something in translation when read aloud.

Writing haiku is a process of distillation applied to facets of our experiential consciousness and to the words that name them.  The production of the volatile distillate is brought about by combining things, be they words, sights, sounds, images, thoughts, memories, feelings, emotions, experiences, imaginings, dreams, visions and all those other things that our psyches assimilate.  Needless to say, my appreciation of haiku has run concurrent with my deepening appreciation of good Islay single malt whisky. 

The more that I have had an active part in increasing the number of haiku being created, the more I have come to know that haiku cannot be defined. Over the years many have tried to define haiku but, as more and more gifted individuals bring their skills to this verse form, that which makes haiku distinct from other verse forms will not be fenced in.  Haiku's distinct identity is recognised not by scansion, layout, vocabulary etc. but by the way it works on us as we read it.