Gary writes:  While I enjoy haiku and other short forms, I find the
exploration of poetry is more interesting and enjoyable if I turn these
shorts into stanzas in a longer bit and mix them around some.  This form
seems to be perfect for sets.

Hi Gary - ah well there's a long long long story there, basically the haiku
has only been anything other than a sequence related form since Shiki's
assasination of Renku in general and Basho in particular around 1900. It is
my contention that any form in English which lays claim to be like the
Japanese haiku must be a sequence based stanza that is ABLE to act as a
stand-alone verse (jibokku - if you insist!). Not the other way around. The
sub-minimalist nonsense bandied around by the likes of Lucien Stryk is
frankly ludicrous - and is of course incapable of sustaining anything more
than 11 syllables a year.

In another place a rather irate individual referred me to the work of
Santoka as proof that (even) the Japanese had a tradition of minimalist and
free form haiku. To which I responded that Santoka came off the back of
1300 years of teikei (fixed pattern) linked verse writing, not a weekend
with a hash pipe in 1972!

Not that I've got anything against hash, pipes, or 1972. Just that it
sometimes it looks like Nancy Regan was right.

Yrs, just saying 'no'. John

Best wishes, John