The following haiku verses, written in an American style, are departures from the exacting nature of this Japanese poem. By relaxing the restraints upon subject and style, the American poet gains the opportunity to experiment with and to possibly enhance the classic European examples. Although Japanese savants differ about the precise poetics of haiku, they agree that these short poems, highly successful since the thirteenth century, should be composed of three lines, the first and last bearing five syllables and the second bearing seven syllables. Kyoto Buddha He of stone, I of flesh, yet It is he who smiles

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