Comment on Winter 2012 Haiku Set by RedDragonfly
Incredible...the conventions of poetry like haiku...aren't really set in stone, are they?
There's a couple of expected elements—the season image and the "cutting" word. I've heard the reason they don't bother with syllable count in English is because what the Japanese use doesn't translate quite correctly as a 'syllable'.
Season image (kigo) in this case would be the raked leaves, indicating that it is the autumn time. And the cutting word/caesura (kireji) in this case would be the dash after "balance". As in:
"a cat's balance-
....."
Have I got it so far?
"a cat's balance-
....."
Have I got it so far?
I think the kireji would be 'petting' here, but I'm not that brilliant at analysing haiku myself 
Oh, OK. Well, in any case I'm learning useful poetry facts, fo fwee 
