Chorus 2 — Shiki, Shasei and Haikai Taiyo Polls

Welcome to Moon and Finger, a feature for addressing and discussing any haiku topic under the sun, in depth, but particularly haiku poetics. The feature is hosted by Orense Nicod and Keith Evetts, and eventually, we hope, by a variety of occasional invited guests. We aim to make it varied and challenging, serious and amusing. Host today is Keith.

Chorus is a running poll of haiku readers and writers, gathering opinion.  These polls are anonymous.

The results are a snapshot of practice, agreement, and disagreement as they actually exist among people who read and write haiku today—a different, and rarer, kind of evidence than any single essay can offer.

A Chorus post also gives us room the regular issues don’t. It’s where we turn reader questions back to the readership itself: when a question raised through the proposals form or in comments  seems larger than one exchange can settle, we can bring it here and ask what the rest of you think.

Most Chorus questions are about practice: how you actually write, read, and judge haiku, whatever your background.

What significance the results have depends on the sample and its size.  The statistical significance of what Chorus could show and what it currently shows is a matter of how many people take a minute to vote. So please take a minute when your vote is sought.   We have no record of who responded, or what they chose.  Chorus is meant to be your space, and it will only become what you make of it.

Shasei and Shiki

The main points:
There were 25 responses to this poll, 17 of whom were haiku poets of five to more than twenty years of practice.  Overall, a substantial majority think shasei is just one good way to compose haiku, and over half have tried to write according to what they believe to be shasei principles.  Only one-third keep a notebook or running file of their sensory impressions.  A significant number have sometimes composed haiku solely from the imagination.

Shasei scores for originality drawn from direct experiences, real and present images, and plain words.  Poets are much less enthusiastic about detachment from personal emotion and the absence of lyrical devices.

Most agree that a haiku needs depth if it is to reach a level of ‘serious poetry’ and think that shasei can have depth and complexity, but all depends on the  poet’s perception and skill in combining images.

Nobody fell for the ’empty mind’ question.

Shiki’s Essentials of Haikai

The main points:
There were just 16 responses for the poll on Shiki’s Haiku Essentials – Haikai Taiyõ. Of those, 12 were in the experienced or very experienced categories.

Simplicity, the need for revision, humour, originality and new material, and the acquired ability to distinguish the novel from the trite are endorsed by two-thirds of respondents.

Nine of the fourteen who responded to the question find many or most haiku published in contemporary journals to be trite, banal, mediocre, clichéd or repetitive, against five who find few fit that description.

The main criticisms of such verses are that they lack a spark of fresh insight or lack originality, they contain common tropes or clichés seen many times before, they are purely two or more images from nature/real and present experience without deeper meaning, or no more than a season word followed by explicit personal emotion of the poet.  However, lack of emotion is also seen as a weakness by a minority, along with lack of rhythm or musicality, and the presence of redundancies (or what Shiki would desribe as “looseness”).  Poor grammar or spelling, or use of specialised words, were unimportant to most.

Shasei — detailed responses

Shasei:  Check any that apply: number of responses

— before the post you had a clear idea of what shasei is in haiku      14
—you had a hazy idea      6
—you had no idea      3
—reading Shiki’s comments altered your view of shasei       9
—reading Shiki’s comments made no difference       3
—you have tried to write haiku to what you believed to be shasei principles       14
—you disregard shasei principles       5
—you prefer to compose haiku solely from imagination      0
—you compose haiku solely from imagination sometimes       11
—you prefer to avoid composing haiku solely from imagination      9
—you keep a running file or notebook with your real and present sensory impressions       8
—you think emphasis on shasei has constrained anglophone haiku      7
—you think shasei is just one good way to compose haiku      17
—you think shasei stinks       1

Which aspects of shasei in English Haiku do you find attractive: check any that apply

—plain words      15
—real and present images of nature       16
—detachment from personal emotion      5
—absence of rhetorical or English poetic devices       8
—originality drawn from direct experiences      21

Do you agree with Shirane: “If haiku is to rise to the level of serious poetry, literature that is widely respected and admired, that is taught and studied, commentated on, that can have impact on other non-haiku poets, then it must have a complexity that gives it depth and that allows it to both focus on and rise above the specific moment or time.”

21 (87%) yes
3 (13%) no

And the wild-card question:

Shiki’s Haikai Essentials: detailed responses

There were 16 responses.

Check if you agree with Shiki’s statements:

—those who do not understand the associations of the four seasons ultimately do not understand haiku 8
—simplicity is the most common approach and the true path 11
—don’t think that haiku is difficult to learn simply because you can’t understand the old verses 7
—convoluted verses are not valuable 6
—detachment gives rise to a certain refined charm even with mundane things 7
—It is essential to constantly reflect on one’s own work 12
—the true charm of haiku lies in the fact that it cannot ultimately be interpreted and must await each person’s own realization 8
—nothing is as interesting or as easy to compose as realistic haiku… 1
—…it is also at this time that one realizes the banality of fantasy and the freshness of realism 2
—Humor also belongs to literature 12
—Inventing meanings that do not exist to make a haiku seem more profound is a flaw of commentators 8
—It is absolutely essential to distinguish between the trite and the novel in haiku. The more haiku one reads, the more one will likely perceive what is trite. 10
—One must seek new material beyond traditional haiku 12

Of those you find trite, banal or mediocre, is it because of any of these reasons (check all that apply)

—they are purely two or more images from nature/real and present experience without deeper meaning 10
—they are no more than a season word followed by explicit personal emotion of the poet 10
—they lack a spark of fresh insight 14
—they lack humor 2
—they lack depth-they deal only with a fleeting moment 7
—they lack emotion 7
—they lack detachment 5
—they lack rhythm and musicality 5
—they lack originality 12
—they lack conventional form (they don’t look like what you think ‘a haiku’ should look like) 1
—they contain unnecessary or redundant words 6
—they contain poor spelling or grammar 2
—they contain common tropes or clichés you’ve seen many times before 13
—they contain specialised words you have to look up 3
—they are unintelligible 4

There was also a brief space for comment, of which one struck a particular chord relevant to proceedings:

“Bad haiku can obey all the rules. Great haiku can break all the rules. And vice-versa. And both. And neither.”

—–

Meanhwile, do keep the suggestions, questions and proposal coming via the submission form below.  We are delighted to have accepted three guest pieces so far, to be scheduled in due course.

Discussion is welcomed in the Comments thread at the very end of this post. Meanwhile, if you would like to propose a topic you wish to see addressed, or better still, if you have an outline proposal for an article that you would be prepared to write—if accepted—please submit it to us via the submission form immediately below this text:

Why Moon and Finger? Zen, Chan, and Indian Buddhist texts cite the metaphor of a Finger pointing at the Moon with a caution: do not mistake the finger for the moon itself. Clinging to words or doctrines (the finger) obscures the awakened mind or truth (the moon). Thus, the analyses, views, and critiques of haiku in this feature are but the Finger. Haiku is the Moon itself, to be viewed by all. Views expressed here are those of the individual authors alone, except where otherwise attributed. They are very much open to discussion in the comments thread below. We all learn.

Introducing the hosts:

Orense Nicod is a French poet working across forms, with a particular focus on haiku. Born in Paris, she spent ten years of her childhood in South Africa before returning to France and writes in both French and English.

Her work has appeared in journals including Frogpond, Cattails, and The Asahi Haikuist Network. She has twice won first prize in the Haiku Society of America Rengay Awards, in collaboration with Joan Fingon (2021) and Anton R-kelian (2025).

A former teacher, she is raising her two children and her poetic expectations while co-hosting Moon and Finger with Keith Evetts on The Haiku Foundation.

Keith Evetts lives in Thames Ditton, Surrey. Life Fellow of the Cambridge Philosophical Society.  Aside from scientific papers, diplomatic telegrams, and local history articles, he’s written poetry of various kinds for sixty years, much of it sub rosa. Latterly host and managing editor of the Foundation’s re:Virals commentary feature since December 2021, one of the ten editors of the annual Red Moon Anthology, and an administrator of Facebook’s largest haiku group.   Married with five children, cottage garden, grey parrot, and a sense of humour. His short bio is here.

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