In my poetry workshop, we are focusing on haiku, and short forms. The simple, evocative nature of the image has stood out to me. How one object, described in a few precise words, may cut to the heart of the thing at hand. How so much can live inside one image. In poetry, I so often have the tendency to create sprawling, out of control work. Of course, long poems have their place, and I love them. But more and more, I am beginning to consider that sometimes, squawking on and on is not the best thing for a poem, not the most effective thing. I'm becoming convinced that the virtue of haiku, and short poems in general, is their ability to capture the moment. Just like a single memory, a single moment of poetry should be enough to turn over and over in your mind forever, so full of potential and overflowing with meaning that it can satisfy your thoughts completely without needing very many words at all. Haiku recognizes that language fails us, so often, and relies instead on gesture to the world itself.
- Iggy Shuler