poetandknowit13 Nov 2002

I absolutely disagree. A poet should try to tackle and make sense of everything within their scope of experience, no matter what emotion is involved. Read Sharon Old's "The Father" or David Ray's "Sam's Book". How would the Jews have made any sense of the Holocaust had they not sat down with pen and paper? Using the haiku in this sense was a way to simplify the emotion as it was being experienced. Thus, it would limit any form of emotional rambling and still help me to figure things out while experiencing emotion that would steer longer poetry straight into sentiment. Thus, working in the haiku I had to think in a limited format and that thinking stunted much of the sentiment, while keeping any emotion on a bare bones level.