A discussion in the comment thread from Nanami’s recent haiku made me think about points raised by several students who’ve submitted Haiku It Up assignments. Native Japanese speaking students have suggested that when written in English their work doesn’t feel like a haiku. This thinking brought two questions to mind:
- Can only a haiku written in Japanese be considered a “real” haiku? or
- Are the students expressing a lack of confidence in their ability to manipulate the English language?
I realized while writing a long-winded blog post about a fleeting moment yesterday that my multi-paragraph treatment was not very elegant (especially considering my klutzy writing style). So all of the above inspired me to take a whack at writing my very own haiku.
As for the image, I applied a few random filters and tone adjustments in Aviary. Since I was acting randomly, I can’t recall exactly what I did to create the image above. I then enlarged the canvas and filled in the background layer in black. I added layers of text with the haiku at the bottom of the image.
For those unable to view the image, here is a text version:
Stonework etched and cracked
My morning brings despair
Here, take my burden
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