Dr. Nogami:
 
Prof. Saga's Web site has many haiku-related links, and I was reminded of
the following haiku-Pound anecdote:
 
Ezra Pound was walking with Marcella Spann in Italy after his return there
from St. Elizabeth's.
 
Marcella noted one of those small quick lizards that are so common in Italy
on a wall. She saw the long, jointed, splayed toes of the lizard before it
darted away as they approached, and exclaimed to EP "That lizard's feet are
like snowflakes."
 
EP told her that what she had said was a haiku.
 
The gist and pith of EP's comment was that it was the brevity and intensity
of the imagery that makes a haiku a haiku, not the _form_--17 syllables, 3
lines, usually of 5, 7, 5 syllables, respectively, etc.
 
EP adopted the line for Canto CXIV, Drafts & Fragments [p. 813 in my handy
ND paperback edition of the _Cantos_, 10th-13th lines down].
 
Chris Booth
 
> ----------
> From:         Hideo Nogami
> Reply To:     Ezra Pound discussion list of the University of Maine
> Sent:         Friday, January 7, 2000 9:34 AM
> To:   [log in to unmask]
> Subject:      photo of EP's place
>
> I met a beautiful photograph of the place where Pound
> sleeps in Venice. Taken last year by Prof.Saga and posted
> at the site bellow.
>
> http://www.nime.ac.jp/cgi-bin/mu/saga/viewguest.cgi
>
>   Hideo Nogami
>   studying Ezra Pound nonprofessionally in Japan
>   [log in to unmask]
>