A new collection of poems starts today on The Haiku Foundation homepage. Kala Ramesh is the Per Diem: Daily Haiku editor for September 2012. She offers the following by way of an introduction to the collection:

“The Five Elements

The Hindus and the Buddhists believe that all Creation— including human beings— is composed of five essential elements. When death occurs, everything is transposed into these elements of nature, thus balancing the cycle of evolution.

The elements and their associated sense perceptions are:

Ether – Akasha – space / sound

Wind – Vayu – sound & touch

Fire – Agni – sound, touch & form

Water – Jalam – sound, touch, form & flavour

Earth – Prithvi – sound, touch, form, flavour & smell

This classification is woven into the fabric of our day-to-day activities, and widely used in all our art forms, including poetry, literature, dance, music and painting. The haiku poems showcased here might not appear in the order I had originally arranged them, but you could use your ingenuity and guesswork to ‘sense’ how many of these elements are present in the haiku, when you read them.”

I am looking forward to this daily treat for the whole month, and beyond… If you enjoy haiku, you’ll love this.

For a new poem each day on the Foundation homepage (lower right-hand corner) click here

You can also follow THF Per Diem on Twitter, @haikufound, for a daily Per Diem-related tweet, in addition to Foundation news and announcements.