Finding Poetry in Photographs

The world is coughing
On this late morning in spring.
I need my color.

Outside life seems so
usual that I decided
To breath at my home.

Birds sing in the trees
I am walking in the rain.
Shaping the silence.

| René Algesheimer

Finding Poetry in Photographs

As artists, we use the advantages of a medium to express ourselves. Usually, on my website you find the medium of photography as my preferred medium that I currently work with. However, words and poetry have always been very important to me, as well. As such, I wanted to express my perception of the current situation through a Haiku.

Haikus have always fascinated me with their charmingly simple, but very painterly, effective and direct way of communication.

Haikus are ancient forms of Japanese poetry. Traditionally, they consist of 17 syllables – also know as “morae” or “on” in three phrases of 5, 7, and 5. Each haiku usually integrates a natural element, such as the sky or the stars and present two ideas (“dualism”, such as here and then, near and far) that are separated through verbal punctuation. Haikus often seem to be very simple through painting vivid pictures. However, they leave it to the reader to draw out the meaning and complete it in their mind’s eye. While they have traditionally being printed in a single vertical line, I adapted it into English in here. Famous Haiku masters were Matsuo Basho (1644-1694), Yosa Buson (1716-1783) or Masaoka Shiki (1867-1902) among many others.

References:

Faubion Bowers (ed.). The Classic Tradition of Haiku: An Anthology. Dover Thrift Editions. Mineola, New York: Dover Publications, 1996.
Matsuo Basho et al. The Complete Haiku. Kodansha Inetrnational, 2013.