Nick Nakov

Haiku of the Now: Short Messages from the Present Moment Nick Nakov

If a picture is worth a thousand words, a haiku poem should be worth at least two or three hundred. Being able to express profound emotion and clear perception in no more than seventeen syllables, this traditionally Japanese short poetic form has for decades had its own place in the vast world of English literature. Haiku poems bear a great resemblance to photographs. Similarly, they can recreate an impromptu reflection of reality, of the world, seen through the eyes of the poet instead of having been recorded by a camera. In this sense, the poet's own self becomes lost in this observation, in a way transforming him or her into just an instrument being used in the process. And exactly like photographs, haiku poems are totally unique. Just like there are no two identical photographs existing, it's impossible, or, as this poet would prefer to put it, highly improbable, that one exactly same scene be observed by two different poets, and then described with the very same words.