Poetry about nature or emotions leaves a good impression most of the time. The Haiku Evening, held at Alliance Française recently, saw nature being celebrated with short poems of a fixed format and Ikebana, a flower arrangement style.

Haiku, a type of poetry from the Japanese culture, written generally about nature, feelings and experiences containing 17 syllables and constricted to three lines of poetry, took centre stage at the event.

The event consisted of recitals across many languages, like English, Urdu, French and some verses in Japanese. The event also saw the launch of a book, ‘The Art of Creating Haiku’ by Mohammed Fakhruddin, the president of Haiku Society of India.
Talking about his book, and the whole experience with Haiku, Mohammed Fakhruddin said, “I’ve tried to put the rules of Haiku together and formulated my book. The book will guide you through different styles of Haiku, how to write one and the rules of the writing style.”

He adds, “There are conventional poets who think that even if they change the strict format of 5-7-5 syllables of Haiku, they can call their works the art form. No one’s restricting them from writing, but this art is constricted to hold its beauty together and that’s how it’s practised.”

Commenting about Haiku, Chiranjeev Singh, president of Alliance Francaise, said, “It’s impossible for me to write such verses in limited words, yet convey beautiful meanings like the ones done here. Haiku, like many other verse styles, has been written in many languages, and the beauty of it is its fixed format.”

Yaseer Anwer, an engineering student, who recited a few of his verses in English, said, “I just started writing Haiku a couple of years back although I’ve been writing poetry for many years. The need to condense thought into a fixed meter needs much concentration, and meditation. That is the charm of Haiku.”

Allen Nazareth of Lotus and Chrysanthemum, which co-organised the event, said, “This event consisted of two beautiful expression styles brought together – Haiku and Ikebana. Japanese culture also has an intellectual side to it, and that is what has been explored here.”

A display of Ohara Ikebana that highlighted ‘landscape arrangement’ style, was also showcased at the venue.