Today I am pleased to share a few excerpts from Presents of Mind, by Jim Kacian (Red Moon Press).
Haiku is composed of language.
It cannot be composed of silence.
But unlike most language,
haiku does not attempt to oppose silence.
It attempts to point to silence.
Haiku can set into motion
oscillations in the silence between us.
In this way haiku can be poised
between language and silence.
In this way it can suggest
the centrality of silence.
Where silence is shared,
we are all present.
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Reprinted with kind permission from Jim Kacian.
Presents of Mind (2006)
Red Moon Press
Jim Kacian is Founder and Director of The Haiku Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to archiving of the achievements of our first century of English-language haiku, and creating opportunities for our second; creator and owner of Red Moon Press, the largest and most prestigious publishing house dedicated to English-language haiku in the world; and the author of 15 books of haiku and related works.
The Wikipedia article about Jim Kacian includes additional information.
Post updated on July 8, 2015.
Poems From Oostburg, Wisconsin 