A BOOK OF HAIKUS VOLUME II

PREFACE The haiku is originally from Japan and started life as the opening section of a longer poem called a renga. They seem to have evolved over time to become a short stand-alone poem of three lines. Haikus themselves can vary and the haikus I have written mostly follow the traditional form known as teikei with a syllabic format of 5-7-5 syllables although there may be the occasional exception to this. This book continues the variety of themes in Book I and covers a range of topics from Celtic Christianity through landscape and nature poems focusing more on butterflies and also contemporary themes such as terrorism, war and the impacts of Coronavirus and natural and environmental disasters. Again the focus is on the objective and descriptive rather than the author’s state of feelings. The book ends with a collection of social commentary haikus which highlight a trend towards the modern-day “death of values” evident in so many countries.