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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!
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?
Hi, that’s my first post just to explain how I write haiku and the general rules you should stick to while creating Haiku poems.
It’s just a start up post, I will try to explain every step more thoroughly in latter posts, with examples of famous artists.
So, without further ado:
1. While writing haiku, always try to show a new point of view on a simple experience. Something that you don’t usually think about regarding this particular task/item/feeling.
2. Don’t worry about any other text you read about writing Haiku, especially if it was referring to traditional Japanese ways, rules on writing Haiku Poems are only a spine of the process, you create the body.
3. Haiku Poems refer to simple elements of life, daily rutine situations, the usual things in life.
4. In Haiku there’s always a reference to a certain season. It may be something on the lines of weather in a particular time of the year or even a kind of animal that you would expect to see.
5. Haiku poems should consist of 5 syllables in first line, 7 in second line and 5 again in last line.
6. Poems should be divided into two parts. Use a dash or colon or ellipsis to achieve it.
7. The last and most important step: Enjoy writing Haiku Poems! Even if you can’t follow all of these steps and your Haiku poems don’t exactly fit in the strict category – the art of Haiku is for everyone to enjoy, not to spend hours polishing a phrase so it’s perfect from every angle!
You might also want to see
A Eulogy to Remember , because not all haiku are cheerful.
