Judith J. Katz
One of my priorities in teaching this unit is to help my students understand that every person has the ability to be swept up by emotion and to create something artistic and moving in response to that emotion. That is one of the truly remarkable assets of humanity. I also want them to learn that there is a difference between a person who is moved to create something by a situation and a person who defines herself as an artist or writer. While it is true an artist can be moved to create something by a situation, she must also be prepared to move herself to create even when external forces don't make it easy.
I will take the time often during this unit to remind my students that anyone can be moved to write a first draft. A writer, like a sculptor, must edit and refine their work many times, in order for that work to generate the power to move a reader.
As an illustration of this point I like to tell my students the following apocryphal story about the sculptor August Rodin The story goes that Rodin was asked how he made such beautiful, life-like sculptures out of the enormous masses of stone he started with. He is reported to have answered that he looks at the stone, sees the finished piece inside it and then merely takes away everything that is not the finished piece.
The same technique can be used in writing. The Modern English Haiku form is especially conducive to this style of editing and sculpting since it requires a finished product with no excess words. The slenderness or hosimi of the Haiku form and the fact that it contains no extraneous wording (fat) is why we sometimes call it "fat free poetry".
