A question of form - what is form exactly?

[AlanSummers]

Thanks Vida for introducing kata to the equation. 

Here's another one to ponder: li

Inner form is a way of looking at compositions; it is also a process that informs communication from one person to another about the real world {i}t is not geometry...

What is "li"?

Guideline, Coherence, Pattern, Perforations, the Way Things Fit Together, the Sense Made by Things, the How and Why of Things. "Principle" is the most common translation of this term, but that word sometimes has misleading metaphysical connotations in English that are best avoided. In its earliest usages, the term was a verb meaning "to divide something up in a way that made it valuable or useful," for example, carving a raw piece of jade into a ritual pendant or dividing a field for agricultural purposes.

Zhuangzi: The Essential Writings, trans. Brook Ziporyn, (Hackett) 215.


So, what is form?  Is it an injunction?  Surely not.

Gabi Greve had asked:
Do you make a distinction between haiku and free verse or free-style poetry or short-form poetry (or whatever names have come up for poems which are not haiku but short ) ?

It would be great to bring out a book that showed off the genres and forms of all short verses, perhaps one has been done?  Simon Armitage's book 101 Very Short Poems is amusing, especially the one where the title is so long there was no need for a poem. :-)

I feel Gabi's question is worthy of a separate topic, although John McManus neatly responded.

What I'd like to do is crack open the box of form regarding haiku, and go deeper, anyone have a crowbar?

Alan

"For me, kata is the channel I use to go beyond surface appearances to arrive at the core, inner aspects of human nature." YASUDA
http://www.tokyofoundation.org/en/articles/2012/haiku-and-noh

:)
Vida

[AlanSummers]

From Roadrunner:

". . . English haiku must have its own unique path. While Japanese haiku can provide hints in regard to rhythm and nature, this path cannot be an imitation but must be grounded in the particular language that is English. If that is not the case, there is no meaning in making haiku in English."

    Hasegawa Kai / Simply Haiku 6.3 (2008)
http://www.simplyhaiku.com/SHv6n3/features/Kai.html


Any thoughts?

Alan