Haiku like yoga or meditation is one of those centering tasks, one that teaches you to really be in the world. This slim book cuts out the unessential and teaches you how to write haiku. First, author Clark Strand recommends that you take a long walk in nature. Then do only three things: let a natural element choose you, include a seasonal reference (a kind of anchor to the world) and finally strictly follow the form, 5/7/5. The best haiku include both nature and the author's mind, meaning the author's response or feeling for the outside world. He quotes a critic of Basho saying that one of the master's famous haiku could only have been written by someone who has written the form for decades or by an absolute beginner. Besides imparting techniques and sharing haiku written by himself and his students, Strand reveals snippets of his own biography: how he lived in a monastery for twelve years, but left after successfully solving his first koan. Most of the other monks had solved many more koans by then. In the book's final section, Strand shows how to really examine natural objects and make them part of yourself. A book about writing and much more--a guide to experiencing life directly and deeply.
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