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Haiku poems are a snapshot of reality, shown from your perspective.
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?
To divide a Haiku poem in two parts, we use a “cutting word”.
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.
Haiku poems should consist of 5 syllabes in first line, 7 in second line and 5 again in last line.
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
Welcome to our daily Haiku Poems article!
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!
Haiku poems for me are something sophisticated and light.
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!
In next few posts I will focus on particular steps and describe them in detail and using examples.
To be honest, I find it extremely hard to describe and to interpret a Haiku, that’s what I love in this kind of poetry, how “fly” it is…
Busho, Matsuo once wrote:
Clouds appear
and bring to men a chance to rest
from looking at the moon.
I think that’s a perfect example of showing a regular event in a new, amusing, refreshing way. Describing the feelings this poem gives me makes no sense, I’m sure you know what I mean by the first step now.
I’ll probably say that many times through next days, but that’s one of most important aspects of Haiku Poems and of writing them, this element of novelty in our daily rutine.
Just to clarify, another example, this time by Yoshi Mikami Issa:
My grumbling wife -
if only she were here!
This moon tonight…
How often do we miss something that used to bother us?
