Haiku, Japanese Poetry To Release Emotions
The haiku is a short poem inspired by the emotion of the moment, in connection with our astonishment and our connection with nature. It is a Japanese tradition that strips the soul to promote recovery, to regain courage and resistance. In fact, given its cathartic and liberating effect, it is a psychological tool of great use, in addition to its aesthetic aspect.
Some say that the brain is like a museum in which successive rooms with endlessly distorted images. Finding meaning in what is at stake here is not always easy. This is why sometimes artistic techniques can be of great use to capture meanings, to find order in the midst of chaos and calm in the midst of noise.
-Matsuo Basho-
This is what haikus do, short poems made up of three lines of 5, 7 and 5 syllables, which aim to show the universal with a child’s gaze, to transcend the ordinary to make it into something. magic and extinguish the rumor of obsessive and ruminating thought, to stay in the emotion of the moment.
For many, it’s almost like looking at the world through a dewdrop, staying connected to a concrete moment to embrace a different, more intense and much brighter perspective.
The haiku, a psychological weapon
Robert Esptein is a famous writer and psychologist from Harvard University. Thanks to books such as
On the other hand, it is common to associate the practice of haiku with the Zen world. But be aware that this is a much older practice. If it is obvious that this philosophy used haiku to spread at one point, it is an ancient and distant poetry. For Japanese culture, it has always been the means of expression and emotional liberation so that Japanese men or women, while contemplating nature, find a way to give shape as well as an escape from their sadness, to their desires or to their joy.
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-Jorge Luis Borges-
Likewise, it is interesting to know that many experts see haiku as an exceptional mode of practicing mindfulness, which characterizes Mindfulness . The person must open up, he must be receptive to this sensory world to capture the moment and become aware of his inner world. It is a fabulous tool that allows you to learn to decelerate, to relativize concerns and to generate feelings of calm, peace and compassion.
How to write a good haiku?
Matsuo Basho is the most famous poet of Japan’s Edo period, and one of the people who most popularized haiku. According to his words, a good poem is a poem that is able to capture the essence of a moment, of a moment of time among many others, of our soul and of nature.
“Nothing else today
Than to go into the spring
Nothing more.”
-Yosa Buson-
If one wishes to learn about this therapeutic art, the following indications will be of great help. Their usefulness is real over time and with practice, the moment you stop thinking about rules, metrics and structure and simply free the mind.
- The haiku has no rhyme or title.
- The ideal haiku metric is 5 syllables in the first line, 7 in the second, and 5 in the third.
- Verbs are not necessary because there is no movement, but the idea of capturing a still image, an emotion.
- The verb “to be” must not appear, it is implied.
- The rule is simplicity.
- The haiku is not a discursive or finished poem.
- A good haiku captures something that transcends the moment, but at the same time can be expressed “in the moment”.
- In haikus, we often include a “kigo”, that is to say a reference to nature, to the season in which we find ourselves.
- A haiku is a private poem, which belongs only to oneself. Thus, one should not imitate, one should not use simple resources, easy images… A good poem requires intimacy, conscience and emotional freedom.
Finally, and to conclude, remember that a haiku is a pinch in time, arising from the heart of whoever writes it. It is a means, a sigh through which we express ourselves for ourselves. Thus, the best haikus are those who “start” in the third line, where the first two make a simple introduction to leave to the last the care of the best imprint.
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Provided by Don Hong Oai
