Straight Jacket and Mystic Anchorite’s Cell

“a movement that can be moved (in speech or thought) is not an eternal movement.”

~ a paraphrase of Rôshi

“Again, we have in this handwriting [a particular example of calligraphy by Takuan] a perfect example of the ‘law’ of ‘liberty’.  The form of the characters is absolutely fixed; yet the writer is absolutely free.”  ~ R. H. Blyth, Haiku:  Eastern Culture, pp. 92-93 (vol. 1)

The sonnet is not just a tiny room.

The form is also like a garment for

Restraint inside that cube, or like a womb

Containing DNA that holds a roar,

Unique the being being made by laws

Of genes.  No baby is the same, not twin,

Identical or not.  No, freedom gnaws

Its way wherever held.  Jehovah’s sin

Was in not realizing this when man

Woke up from dust.  The haiku, also small,

Presents the poet’s freedom in the span

Of just three lines since liberty is tall.

  Don’t fiddle with the form.  Just use its strength

    In imagery against the poem’s length.

~ Phillip Whidden