I Love Haikus! Forum Writing Haikus

Hi all,

 I really love readingv Haikus... and whatnot. But honestly, I don't know how to write them. Could anyone shed some light on this for me? Thank you so very much.

jkb

Well, I'll venture a reply :-).  It's been a long time since I've visited and participated in the group, but hopefully this will redeem my absence a little bit ....

Writing  haiku can take the form of what I call 'classic' haiku, in the manner of the ancient masters -- Basho is THE master of haiku, imho; Issa and others followed his lead -- or there are the modern versions, which take all kinds of forms.  My expertise and my poems are according to the classic style, so I'll respond from that viewpoint.

No doubt you're familiar with the stylistic form of 5-7-5 syllable count.  That's actually just a guide.  There are supposed to be up to 17 syllables, but they don't have to be in that sequence.  In the Japanese, for instance, it's usually written in one long line; as well, the Japanese uses words for punctuation.  We can't and don't do that, so the English version is what you usually see.  One reference book says that "In Japanese, haiku comprise as few as three or, at most, ten words, but translation into English often requires many more."*

The intent of classic haiku is to, essentially, freeze a moment in time that has an emotional and/or spiritual impact on the poet.  Haiku generally focus on nature/natural events, animals, weather, etc, where senryu focus on human nature.  When writing seasonal poems, the season itself is never to be named.  In other words, one is not supposed to use the word 'winter' when writing about that season.  The season is to be evoked thru the words and images, preferably not with the 'usual' snowflakes, et al (altho I've written my share of both, especially when I was starting out!).

Another major element is that haiku are to be composed in such a way as to let the reader or listener participate with the poet and finish the poem him- or herself.  So the poem should leave room for what I call 'the other' to bring his/her experience/spiritual understanding to the poem.  (In fact this is along the same lines as the development of tanka.  Tanka were/are designed so that another person would/can finish someone else's haiku.)

Haiku are not to be titled, or if they need a title for some reason (listing in a table of contents, for instance), the first line is used.  My experience with punctuation has differed over the years.  According to the translations I've seen of the classic poets, punctuation is used, but again that's also according to some of the Japanese words' translations.  Nowadays the English language preference is for no punctuation at all.  I'm sort of in the middle, so I use minimal punctuation.  Sometimes there are times that need some kind of stressor or indicator, and punctuation is the only way I know how to do that in English.

These are the basics for haiku.  Modern haiku has much more leeway in its scope and development, so it's a good way to start practicing.  Either way writing haiku can be a spiritual practice in itself -- read Basho's poetry from his years-long pilgrimages for an idea, as well as some of the modern haikuists.

I recommend highly the little book I noted above: The Classic Tradition of Haiku, An Anthology edited by Faubion Bowers and published by Dover.  There are several other good ones, too, but I don't have them right to hand.

Hope this helps.  The main thing is to, like the Nike commercial said, "just do it!"  Try it and see what happens.  I fell in love with the form the first time I found it, wa-a-a-ay back in 10th grade, but I only intuited the spiritual component of  it then.  That's developed over the years, and it's become an ingrained habit and way of looking at all of life.

Blessings to you as you explore this beautiful art form!

Genie