The Way Of Haiku: Waking Up Through Writing (6 of 9)

Jane Hirshfield reads a Haiku by Basho about a horse eating roadside rose mallow, highlighting its simplicity, descriptive nature, and the human perception it conveys. She elaborates on the poem’s themes of impermanence, the cycle of life, and the shared experiences of life and death, using it to illustrate how Haiku captures and conveys the essence of human depth and allows for surprising clarity through its concise form. She contrasts Haiku with a longer poem of her own to illustrate the differences in conveying meaning and the potential of Haiku to evoke multiple resonances and associations due to its brevity. Hirshfield also dives into the origins of Haiku, and other forms of Japanese poetry at the time of its creation. To access the resources page for this program, please sign up by clicking here.