Haiku is an art form, and as such it manifests the emotional experience of individual writers in response to certain situations or stimuli or ideas.An artist is someone who tries to re-create the experience, in the mind and emotions of the reader/viewer/listener, through an artistic arrangement of words, of sounds, of shapes and movements.In the same time haiku is poetry - a literary art, and so open to literary analysis. It is also, of course, an intrinsically personal encounter, and personal preference is to be embraced, not suppressed.From this, we can see that criteria for judging a haiku, or indeed any art, must be based on whether the poem is successful in meeting any or all of these artistic ends: is it authentic? does it present an immanent encounter? does it re-create or re-present the experience for the reader?
“Haiku values” are traditional foundations, both Japanese and Western, due to which interest in a haiku has become what it is today and which will continue to shape the haiku tradition in the future. There are many ideals that are likened to each of the various forms of haiku. Not a single poem can embody all, or even most of these ideals. Each of us must decide for ourselves what is important in writing and evaluating a haiku
dead leafs
how memory of the past ...
their landing place
dripping eaves
old music composed
of icicles
ice fog
all I do today
learn how to fall
