HAIKU

I've written haiku and pre-haiku style poetry (like the style 
of Saigyo) for many years. I've never gotten serious about it, 
but I've done it as a diversion and to share with others from 
time to time.

One of the things that turned me off of the world wide web 
was a haiku community I was invited to join several years ago.
There was an online community called "One Breath Cutting" that 
a monk friend of mine invited me to join. I did, and I enjoyed 
reading haiku and haiku-like poems from others as well as 
contributing a few of my own and getting into asynchronous 
"haiku battles" (always playful) with other members to the 
delight of all.

Over time, however, I noticed members "cheating" more and 
more. I know it might sound curmudgeonly of me, but I am 
enough of a purist to be offended when people submitted 
haiku with accompanying images. It wasn't the end of the 
world, but it got worse and worse. Soon, not only were haiku 
routinely accompanied by images, but the haiku made little 
sense without the image providing context. The challenge of 
using an extremely restrictive number of syllables to 
communicate rich content was being overcome with the crutch 
of these images.

Historically, part of the structure of haiku was the use of 
kireji (JP). This means that an image would be presented, 
usually in the first line, expanded in the second, and then 
another image would be presented in the third that shares 
the value of the second line. Even more fun is when kireji 
is used to lead the reader in one direction with the first 
two lines and then reveals the actual subject in the third 
as a surprise!

Naturally, with an accompanying visual aid, this kind of 
surprise twist or juxtaposition becomes either impossible 
or boringly obvious.

I eventually left the group because I didn't think it was 
actually a haiku group any longer. It had become a sort of 
photobucket with poetic captions.

The entire episode reinforced in my mind the value of plain 
text. The joys and pains of communicating using only the 
written word is something magical, and it is something that
the world wide web and multimedia presentations are killing.

I remember a humorous caricature from my youth: a young 
adult opened a book and flipped through the pages, finding 
block after block of text; the youth complains, "Where 
are the pictures?!" The caricature was meant to highlight
the youth's childish intellectual laziness and insistence 
upon more illustration and fewer words.

I fear our society is becoming that caricature. An 
ignorant society too lazy and unimaginative to engage with 
the written word unless it is accompanied by a multisensory
deluge. Speeches get shorter and vocabulary becomes simpler.
Public speaking is focused more on keeping listeners'
attention than delivering substantive content.

Gopher and the plain text world it serves up is a welcome
refuge.

Here we hide away
in deep caves long forgotten
paintings on the walls