Haiku 1

From time to time 
The clouds give rest 
To the moon beholders.

-Basho

Moonlight slants through 
The vast bamboo grove: 
A cuckoo cries

-Basho

I love haiku.  I think if Shakespeare is right, that brevity has anything to do with the soul of wit, then haiku stands as the pinnacle of intelligent writing.  The vastness that the stricture of the style creates is not only counterintuitive, but acknowledges that the apparent contradiction in brevity of writing and vastness of meaning enhances this effect.  Listening to Philip Glass’s minimalist piano works lately has made me think of haiku, and how the fewer elements I use in a piece, the more I can focus on them, and draw as much meaning out of those parts as possible.