Haiku Poems.pdf

Japanese pride themselves on four distinct seasons, each with special foods, rituals, and festivals, and haiku poetry is a way to capture the emotions and fleeting moments of these seasons. Haiku is a five-seven-five-syllable form that says little but chooses the right words to give power and life to an image. Funakoshi Waka, an 82-year-old woman, has been writing and collecting haiku poems for 30 years and published her first book, "Bara no Ame," or "Rain of Roses," at the age of 81. Her book contains 400 poems that capture memorable moments of her life, including the death of her husband, and express emotions and thoughts through simple yet nuanced words. Funakoshi-san explains that haiku is about relating one's subjective ideas and impressions by choosing the right words and using Chinese characters cleverly, and that a good haiku poem evokes emotion and understanding in the reader.