[Lee Gurga]

Originally posted by David Rosenthal:
It didn't occur to me that it was harsh until you asked that question. It still doesn't seem harsh to me, but either you have me all wrong, or (more likely) I have not made myself clear.

I understand everything you said about syllabication, and have read about, thought about, and experimented with ideas about it in haiku for years. I have spent a good deal of time teaching students and other teachers the exact same things about syllabication in haiku that you have repeated here.

I have never thought that using 5-7-5 makes a poem of mine more or less "pure" than it would have been otherwise. Counting syllables that way has been a choice I've made, and an informed choice at that. What I meant to say in my post was that I no longer feel that it has been the best choice, and that the reasons for it are no longer present for me. I was thanking you for helping me arrive at that conclusion, a conclusion I may well have arrived at some other way if not through your critiques in this thread.

In any case I certainly didn't think you were imposing anything (and I am fairly immune to such impositions anyway). I also never intended to abrogate any responsibility for anything I wrote because "form dictates it to me" or for any other reason. As I said I make choices. If I am persuaded to change my mind, that is a choice I make as well.

Also, I am not sure what I have said that might give the impression that I don't think of haiku as poems, but I do, very much so.

David R.

David, you did make yourself clear--i am the one that didn't. from what you said, it was clear that you were going to reexamine form when you revised. my remarks are aimed at the person who is not willing to reexamine commitment to any arbitrary form. i hope i have made my self clearer this time around!

Lee