Kire and kireji

The cut

Kire is a cut or turn within a haiku. It can set two images beside one another, shift scale, change the quality of attention, or create a pause in which the reader makes a connection.

In Japanese, a kireji or cutting word can shape emphasis and closure. English has no exact equivalent, so poets may use line breaks, rhythm, syntax, white space, or punctuation.

Punctuation is only a sign

An em dash, colon, ellipsis, or slash may help a cut register, but punctuation does not create kire by itself. The real work lies in the relationship between what comes before and after it.