I asked a few folks who actually know what they’re doing with writing, and one of them told me my writing looks a bit like haibun (a Japanese form that mixes short prose with haiku, made famous by Bashō’s travel journals). I was so excited about that diagnosis (a diagnosis??? Like it’s a condition), especially since I had never even heard of it before.
Haiku I knew, sort of (they’re the short poem parts in a haibun). I tried reading some in the past and never really understood much.
Theeeen I found the one below, and it made me smile and finally get a bit of the idea. Haiku are nature poems in which the writer aims to achieve maximum effect by minimum means, like Chinese drawings that evoke huge landscapes with a few strokes of the pen. (Also, a poem about birds and horses, for the guy behind diego.horse and a bird alarm app? It felt a little personal.)
When cherry-blossoms are blooming,
Onitsura
Birds have two legs,
Horses four.