Thursday, April 14, 2016

Haiku A to Z: L is for Look

captured moment, bee to flower 2013
"Haiku is a way of looking at the world around you and capturing beautiful moments." --From the Mixed Up Files...of Middle Grade Authors

One thing the writing of haiku accomplishes--it makes you want to look around at what most of the time is commonplace and find the beauty in it. Japanese poet and painter Yosa Buson (1716-1784) expressed it this way: "Use the commonplace to escape the commonplace."

Other inspiring quotes on what it means to really look:

"It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see." --Henry David Thoreau

"Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better." --Albert Einstein

"When you take a flower in your hand and really look at it, it's your world for the moment. I want to give that world to someone else. Most people in the city rush around so, they have no time to look at a flower. I want them to see it whether they want to or not." --artist Georgia O'Keefe

"Do days go by when you are too busy to write haiku until a pressing deadline forces you to look! and there they are, haiku all around you?" --Jane Reichhold

Still learning to look--with the goal of really seeing--and sharing day twelve haiku:

lone thistle in field--
how can this proud beauty be
considered a weed?
--Kenda Turner
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6 comments:

  1. So often it seems as if LOOKING and WRITING are mutually exclusive. I love writing, but I often wish I were capable of sitting in a garden and being productive. Doesn't work for me. Too bad.

    Love your thistle haiku!

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  2. Peggy, like you I often yearn for those quiet times when we can just sit, observe, and let the words come. Too many times we're rushing off to something else. Here's for more time to look--and be inspired! Take care...

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  3. The thistle is a beautiful flower. I don't consider it a weed. Hummingbirds like the thistle too. I love to take walks and see the flowers, most of them wild. Each one has its own beauty. You Haiku is lovely too. Thanks.

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    1. Beverly--yes, hummingbirds. Another reason to appreciate the thistle! Thanks for stopping by :-)

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  4. "Use the commonplace to escape the commonplace." Lovely. And a lovely haiku about thistles. I love thistles. They're color is so brilliant, and their form so evocative.

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    1. Elizabeth, I thought the quote was neat, too--makes one think, doesn't it? And I love your choice of words for the thistle, "evocative." Much is said in one little word...thanks :-)

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