Guest guest Posted May 31, 2007 Report Share Posted May 31, 2007 Written in the Cyber-Sands Driving across Nebraska, one has plenty of time to meditate about all sorts of things, including the nature of enlightenment (no, the concept of enlightenment is much broader than the length of Interstate 80 will allow...). At any rate, I thought of something fun we might try together. During feudal Japan, a popular pastime among friends or fellow travelers at tea houses was a competition of linked verse. A theme was picked and contestants would have to use that word in their entry (sometimes one had to make a reference to a classic work also, but we won't do that). My idea is have a friendly round of linked verse among MySpace friends and fellow travelers. When I told my friend RaK about the idea, she started laughing and said she had just had the same idea of a collaborative MySpace project in the form of a continuing story to be called: "Written in the Cyber-Sands". We decided to do this project together. We will feature the haiku we like best in an upcoming video and list your name as the author along with your URL. **The rules are these**: 1) The form must be a haiku. Haiku is a poetic form and a type of poetry from the Japanese culture. Haiku combines form, content, and language in a meaningful, yet compact form. Haiku poets, which you will soon be, write about everyday things. Many themes include nature, feelings, or experiences. Usually they use simple words and grammar. The most common form for Haiku is three short lines. The first line usually contains five syllables, the second line seven syllables, and the third line contains five syllables. Haiku doesn't rhyme. A Haiku must "paint" a mental image in the reader's mind. This is the challenge of Haiku - to put the poem's meaning and imagery in the reader's mind in only seventeen syllables over just three lines of poetry. Basho expressed it best when he said that: (paraphrasing) Haiku contains the "essence" of something within a single breath. 2) The concept/word Enlightenment must appear. 3) After your haiku, you must add your name and MySpace link. 4) Go to the Blog section of my site under this header and post your entry as a Comments. I will start... Sunlight on water Enlightenment comes to me I live the moment". **Metta** & **Namaste** Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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