#poem, The Paper Cup (A Euro-Ku)

The world fits in a paper cup discarded by the side of a tree

that forms the supposed lungs of the world,

a paper cup that was made from a tree and photographed by a woman…

C.2023, Francisco Bravo Cabrera, Valencia, España

NOTA BENE

The Euro-Ku is my idea, and I «invented» the form in February of 2022 while thinking about writing a traditional Haiku and realising that I was not spiritually or culturally equipped to do so. Spirituality in art has everything to do with being contemporary and true to your history and culture. Therefore there was no way that I could transform my mind into the mind of a Japanese poet writing Haikus…

I thought about it and, loving the simplicity and straightforwardness of the Haiku, I came up with a version which would be true to my European/Western thought, spirituality and history, the «Euro-Ku.» It has three stanzas, but without syllabic count restrictions and the verses must flow into each other clearly, not flow off into outer space. The addition is that it must be accompanied by an unedited original image created by the poet. The version for the Americas is the Ameri-Ku, which wonderful poets from the United States have already engaged.

Cheers…