Or haikus
Haiku is not only a literary composition and form an expression, but a subtle meditation leading to deep connection with nature.
"Haiku is just what is happening here, at this time.”
The definition that you can read is that given Haiku Matsuo Basho himself (1644-1694), which is considered the father of the genre.
Formally, It is a short poem, usually seventeen syllables on three lines, five, seven five syllables respectively. But this is not what characterizes Basho Haiku for the same, (in portrait), those rules often skipped.
What characterizes the distance Haiku and other poetic forms is its content. A Haiku is a way to describe one brief scene, view the imagined.
Then, What is the purpose of Haiku?, Does beauty, It was the, asceticism, the mystery of the universe and the supreme importance of the smallest event? There is no pattern to follow.
For Basho Haiku was a way to Zen. Buson what's considered an art whose end was the beauty. For Issa expression of his love for people, animals, Things.
In most of the poems no reference to any of the seasons. While there are numerous poems, Basho and other, where no reference is made to this.
We therefore consider a few things:
1º- The ancient Japanese calendar was delayed a month compared to Western.
2º- Spring began the 1 January.
3º- The months were lunar.
Spring is identified with flowering plums, Cherry, sauces, the birdsong, seven spring flowers, etc.. The summer brought with the singing of insects, rainfall, Thunderstorm, planting. Traditional autumn were the ducks, herons, the long nights or rice harvest. Finally the winter snow was accompanied, Fog, wind and empty fields. Summarizing, despite its brevity Haiku associated with many literary aspects as extraliterary, and it's hard to pin it down as a mere metrical form. That is why the synthetic definition given Basho is probably the most accurate.
