ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses preconceived ideas about haiku, including haiku as direct personal experience and haiku as non-metaphorical, seasonal words, and the division between haiku and senryu. Shirane argues for broadening the form’s parameters for English-language writers, reminding readers that traditional Japanese literary markers are complex and non-replicable outside their specific cultural context. Expanding on prevailing notions of haiku as a form of poetry about nature, the chapter demonstrates haiku’s deep roots in human relationships and cultural meaning. In this way, haiku is framed within the notion of transit, suggesting that the strongest haiku works will engage with poetic and spiritual predecessors. The chapter concludes that for the haiku poet interested in serious poetry, it is important to attend to two key axes: the vertical axis that entails awareness of one’s previous literary traditions and cultural memories and the horizontal axis that registers contemporary, everyday life.
