< Sympathy with Nature >

The word "nature" sounds too broad in meaning to comprehend. Beautiful flowers bloom, then fall and decay. Worms and lives are born and die.
Nature lavishes beauty and excitement on one hand, but holds ugliness and terror on the other. When touched by nature, your heart learns to think, feel, please, lament, yearn, and sympathize. That is where poetry and haiku are born. Unknown grasses by the roadside show the strength of life while a deserted shell of cicada Speaks for the wonder of life. Sympathy with the vicissitudes of the four seasons gives birth to haiku.

Even those of you who had no interest in haiku must have had moments of excitement With nature and uttered words of sympathy. That is just what we call haiku. Excitement gives birth to Words Which result in the most familiar 5-7-5 syllabary of haiku poetry, the most comfortable rhythm in the Japanese language.

Excitement instantly fades away, but you can retain and cherish it in a haiku. How wonderful! When you successfully put your feelings of excitement into a haiku, they vividly revive in your heart. How thrilling!