Haïku is written in an instant, upon perceiving a fleeting situation.
It sets an emotion.
To do that, the mind must always be awake, sensitive to the minute details of everyday life.
To write haïku is :
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to be able to look around, to pay attention to minute things - to seize upon situations, to perceive their originality, what strikes us - to extract the essence of perceived things, the structure of their mutual relationships - to be able to illustrate with images without resorting to metaphors - to perceive things without implicating oneself, with objectivity - to consider situations from a distance, with no apriorism about the importance of things. - to observe things well before criticizing them. - to see the world with simplicity, each time with a new look, with the eye of a child; that is no reason to have childish subjects or expressions. Haiku also deals with adult subjects (love, anxiety, ideal, etc...). |
A haiku must be written immediatly. It is recorded in its original feeling, even if it means one has to rework it afterwards in order to comply with technical rules. One must avoid losing the freshness of the perception.
However, writing requires mental concentration. There is no attitudinal difference in the process of poetic composition between Western poetry and haiku .