I don’t write Haiku anymore, whoever says that my Haiku aren’t Haiku, better read the rules again, Haiku don’t NEED to have so and so many syllabus, they SHOULD have them.

Anyway, address of my new website is http://eastbournewebdesign.net, I offer Web Design Services in Eastbourne.

Maybe in few weeks when I’ll finish designing the website I will start writing Haiku there, who knows

The Harsh Morning Headache,

The Sweet Smell Of Summer Air,

Stop drinking and smoking man, it’ll kill you.

Actually it’s tomorrow but since it’s bloody easter I had to make all my birthday stuff today cos tomorrow everyone’s busy.

So, today is my birthday, and one person at work, who knows about my hobby which are Haiku poems, gave a beautiful card with a Haiku poem on it.

That’s actually first time when I thought of a Haiku as a gift.

Anyone can just download a Haiku from internet and rewrite onto a card and give to someone, sure it’s cool, but not half as cool as writing a haiku YOURSELF or getting someone with experience on it and giving someone a custom, the only of a kind Haiku poem, anyone would appreciate that (Especially females, since they’re very feelings-orientated).

Who knows, maybe one day I’ll be selling Haiku, just have to figure out a system =P

Two of my new Haiku poems on an ending, remember, best way to learn how to write haiku and to get inspiration is reading them!

Green leaf,
Boiling water – a pond
Within a cup.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Kids near the window,
Ecstatic joy -
First snow have fallen.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

For me haiku poems are better than photos, photos lack the soul, anyone can take a photo, not everyone can write Haiku.

I usually just write haiku on a piece of paper and stick it into my pocket, because of that some of them get lost, but some reach the computer on the changed form and have a place on my hard drive. No pressure.

Sunlust

A rainy day indeed,
Can you predict the
Weather in England?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The seagulls sang
They flew in the sky;
Why’s my windscreen white?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The sound of the fan
The buzz of the harddrive -
My computer is still alive!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ice outside and inside,
Red on my mothers top -
Father, stop hitting her.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

By the way, don’t hesitate to ask questions about haiku, either by adding a comment here or contacting me through a form on my website : Sunlust.net

Thanks to their simple structure, short form and to them being young, they’re a great fun to write and to read.

In this last step, I underlined the fact that haiku poems are there to enjoy them, to love writing them and reading them and contemplating reality with them in mind.

At the ending, just so stick to the convention, two examples of funny and joyful haiku poems:

Akutagawa, Ryunosuke 

Green frog,
Is your body also
freshly painted?

Anonymous 

Without flowing wine
How to enjoy lovely
Cherry blossoms?

This is to separate two sections of the poem in two parts, each of which enriches the other.

Cutting can be done with example a colon, long dash or ellipsis.

Let’s have a look at few examples, I colored the cutting in red:

Basho, Matsuo

In all the rains of May
there is one thing not hidden -
the bridge at Seta Bay.

Hashin

No sky
no earth - but still
snowflakes fall

Once again, remember that not all haiku poems have to contain cutting, few more examples:

Kato, Shuson

I kill an ant
and realize my three children
have been watching.

Natsume, Soseki

On New Year’s Day
I long to meet my parents
as they were before my birth.

There’s really not much to write about this one, I just wanted to emphasize the fact that because Haiku Poems originated from Japan, it’s hard to include this rule while writing in English or any other language.

Like every rule, don’t stick to it too much and never, NEVER sacrifice your poem just because it doesn’t have  5 syllabes in first line, 7 in second line and 5 again in last line.

Just to stick to our rule of this blog, I will give two examples of poems that don’t abide by this step.

Thomas Grieg

Pond with ice
tadpoles
summer

Quiet around the point: ducks;
up down birches
helicopter

Today we will focus on seasonal reference. It is another element of haiku poems that makes them special among other kinds of poetry.

There’s not much to explain really, but there are many different ways of achieving it.

Let’s see what Haiku masters have to say in this topic:

Basho, Matsuo

The years first day
thoughts and loneliness;
the autumn dusk is here.

No one travels
Along this way but I,
This autumn evening.

In those two poems by Basho Matsuo the reference is pretty obvious, season was named in the last line.

Issa

In my old home
which I forsook, the cherries
are in bloom.

In this haiku poem, Issa mentions blooming cherries as a reference to early spring.

There are many ways of hiding the reference, just like in the following haikus poem:

Right at my feet -
and when did you get here,
snail?

Snails usually walk out during rains, mostly in summer> autumn, so the season here isn’t accurately defined, but there is a reference to it.

Enjoy!

Another thing I love about them is that you can write pretty much about anything you like, in a simple fashion.

How to describe our boring, simple bits of our lifes in a way that will appeal to a potential reader? Let’s ask Haiku masters once again, gaze upon these few poems while thinking about the simple things from life that you can find in them.

Basho, Matsuo 

No blossoms and no moon,
and he is drinking sake
all alone!

 Temple bells die out.
The fragrant blossoms remain.
A perfect evening!

 Murakami, Kijo

The moment two bubbles
are united, they both vanish.
A lotus blooms.

Something simple becomes something meaningful and timeless, significant, oh the power of Haiku Poems!

It’s very important to remember in this process that if we stick to the rules 100% and only create Haiku according to them, and based on masters instructions and examples, we will never create anything new.

And trust me, even in an art as new as Haiku (a bit over 100 years, which in comparison to lyric poetry, which is over a thousand years old) it is hard to create something original.

Having the opportunity of discussing the originality as an aspect of writing haiku poems, let me quote a haiku by Chris Spruck:

Faceless, just numbered.
Lone pixel in the bitmap-
I, anonymous.

Even though this haiku breaks our fourth rule of how to write haikus, it still is an amazing poem, mainly from my point of view because of its originality.

So remember, rules are there to brake them!