Middle

Haiku in prose

(Pic: Unsplash.com)

There is a beauty in brevity. Can you use, without altering the intended communication, lesser words? There is an inordinate amount of emphasis placed on shortening the communication in a corporate setting and likely so. The central assumption in corporate communication is that the audience suffers from. Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). An assumption that is not far from reality. How many of us have been handed a 112 page dossier only to confess having remembered 3 pages.

On the other hand, consider Einstein’s theory of relativity and imagine yourself in Maui with Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu’s Carmilla in hand. Without the elegant tapestry of verbose word play, it is hard to imagine yourself lonely in a castle. By the way, Carmilla happened to be one of the first gothic novella on vampirism. Written in 1871–72, it preceded Bram Stoker’s Dracula by 26 years. It is not an unfair thing to say that multimedia was an alien technology. My point is words were video and prose provided the environment.

While my thoughts were caught between these seemingly different approaches, I struck upon Oku No Hosomichi (Narrow Road to the Interior) written by Matsuo Basho around the 17th century. It is an important piece of classical Japanese literature. What is unique and is exemplified by this work by Basho is that it is a ‘haibun’ – a literary art form that combines prose and haiku (a very short form of Japanese poetry)

In keeping with the spirit of the Haibun, this is a very short article encouraging you to seek the middle ground, at times, as a more effective way of communication. Here’s my attempt at a Haibun:

On a journey to translate my experiences to verse, I was enveloped by a fog of disjointed words. Desperately seeking a window to my visions, my mind conjured a darkness that seemed to consume the light. Oh, I see a ray of light that aims to dispel the confusion.

A play of words

On a different note

Like a melody not yet composed.

If you liked this story, please press the ❤️ below, recommend it and share it.