Seeding the Cosmos

Poetry. "A student looking at modern haiku for the first time often asks, 'Why does haiku look like it does today? What happened to the rules?' A simple answer, to quote Zen teacher Joko Beck, is: 'A good practice is always undermining itself.' Continent to continent, culture to culture, language to language, haiku has made itself new. During this transformation, practitioners parted ways with rules that worked best for Japanese speakers. New languages, geographies, climates, and cultural environments triggered new approaches. The essential core ideas of Basho's time are with us, though. Keep it brief, let it jump, follow the natural world through its seasons, but do not forget the seasons of the heart"--from the Afterword.