Judith J. Katz
My second goal is to give my students the opportunity to experience the way in which writing within a predetermined, recognizable set of limitations and disciplines affects their own creative process. I think practicing discipline within limitations for a specific goal can help sharpen our ability to deliver a clear message as writers.
The Haiku form is quite restrictive. A modern English Haiku generally contains only 17 syllables. That is not a lot of room even to observe something small. The restraint implicit in this form changes the way in which my students will have to think and will limit the way in which they can write. That kind of restraint can be an enormous challenge and a frustration. As one of my students put it last year, "Ms. Katz, why are you always taking my words away?" To which I replied, "I'm not taking them away. I am saving them like ingredients to be used in a later recipe." She was not appeased.
I think the idea of a container that can only hold so much content can depersonalize the frustration of working with the form. If you have a thimble you can't pour a quart of milk into it. It's just that simple. It is not a failing on the part of me as a teacher or you as a student. It just can't be done and it is not our combined task at this moment to change that. It is our task at this moment to fill the Haiku thimble.
I believe there is an important lesson we can learn together about the beauty of restraint in spoken and written communication. Perhaps we can begin to understand together the way in which limits can help us make our communication clearer. It is not my intention to remove the personal or emotional from the communication, it is my goal to change the nature of how the communication is delivered and received.
I would like my writing students to understand writing, like every other art form has its own version of scales and comes with a rich tradition of forms that once learned, become the tools of the writer's trade.
I want my students to have a large number of forms at their disposal so that when they are moved to write something they can find a form that suits their message. This practice is not easy and may not always be fun. But it is a worthy pursuit and can deliver a long-term benefit.
