The Science of Poetry

Haiku is amber

That traps a moment of breath

Nothing more or less

It's taken more than a decade of field work for me to begin appreciating the science that underlies and animates poetry. A haiku starts as a frequency that is transmitted from some small corner of the universe. It's a burst of electromagnetic energy that travels through air just like a radio signal. To the poet it may feel like a little work of wonder if that signal can be received and recorded faithfully, without the slightest slip of the lip or wrist.  In any case, the mind of the poet works best in a limited fashion, first as a receiver and then a re-transmitter of the signal, without any need to author or create the truth that resides inside the poem.