Steven Flint has published more than 30 collections of haiku
Just by the sound of the word, we can guess that the poetry form of haiku originated in Japan. Originally, it wasn’t a standalone form but rather the opening (hokku) of a larger poem. Over time, it began to be used as a poem in and of itself. The poetry form uses three lines, usually 17 syllables in all, in a 5-7-5 structure.
One of its best-known practitioners was the Japanese poet Matsuo Basho (1644-1694). He often employed a kireji, a “cutting” word (we might say “centering”), and a seasonal reference, called a kigo.
Traditionalists will argue that haiku poems should be about nature, but once the form reached English and other languages, the range of themes expanded accordingly. Today, a poem on whatever subject is called a haiku if it follows the 5-7-5 syllable structure.
I’d been charmed by the fable The Sun and the Boy by poet Steven Flint, and I decided to take a look at his poetry. I discovered that he had more than 30 collections of haiku. I read three of them, and I find myself equally charmed.
Poems in Syllables
(2018) are mostly poems about love in all its wonder and uncertainty — which, Flint writes, is the only thing he’s sure of. He cites love poems as a “flash of light” in his beloved’s eyes, a single heartbeat, an eclipsed heart, and an autumn leaf that fell from a smile. It’s often amazing how Flint can express so much intensity in so few words.
A consummate love,
where I dissolve in you and
you dissolve in me.
Afterglow (2019) includes some love poems, but it broadens to include nature and the human experience. Flint often entwines love and nature in the same poem, noting that the trees were the first “to warn me that she was the / wind that brings the storm.” He is much taken with the season of autumn, and he often includes images of colorful and falling leaves as metaphors. And “ember” is a favored word, whether he writes of a season or time in general.
Autumn paints the leaves
like sunset, watch the embers
of time burn away.
December invites
winter, the sun is just an
ember of summer
In Autumn Chronicles (2021), the fall season frames almost all of the poems. He still writes on themes of love and human experience, but in these poems, autumn is the operative framework.
A dozen white doves
fly in autumn light, grapevines
redden at sunset.
Summer has gone like a
dear love, autumn is left
with the memories
Steven Flint
Each of these collections have one haiku poem per page; the first two are 194 pages in length, and the third is 190. That said, haiku poems may be easy to read, but these three lines and 17 syllables can pack a powerful punch that leaves you studying poems over and over again.
In addition to The Sun and the Boy and his haiku collections, Flint has published the children’s book Lev Loveheart. He also posts haiku poems on Instagram at @steven_flint.
If you are interested in the traditional form of haiku poetry, get hold of one of the many collections of Basho’s poems. To see how the haiku form has been used in English and in more contemporary times, Flint’s poems offer a good example.
Related:
Poets and Fables: Steven Flint and The Sun and the Boy
Photo by Thangaraj Kumaravel, Creative Commons, via Flickr. Post by Glynn Young.
How to Read a Poem uses images like the mouse, the hive, the switch (from the Billy Collins poem)—to guide readers into new ways of understanding poems. Anthology included.
“I require all our incoming poetry students—in the MFA I direct—to buy and read this book.”
—Jeanetta Calhoun Mish
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