Do You Haiku?

I’ve enjoyed writing and reading poetry for years. When I worked in the library of an elementary school, I shared poems with the fourth and fifth grade, and then challenged them to write one for a contest. The haiku, a short poem first written in Japan, was a popular choice for an entry.

We can thank Japanese poet, Basho, for bringing this poetic form to the public. He wrote many of them that are now considered classics.

old pond…

a frog leaps in

water’s sound

         -Basho

lightning—

a heron’s cry stabs

the darkness

         -Basho

A traditional Japanese haiku consists of three lines divided into a five-seven-five sound unit pattern. When American’s translated these small Japanese poems, they found that the sound units and syllables differed. The result, American haiku does not hold to the five-seven-five pattern unless it is natural to the poem.

A haiku is meant to capture a moment in time. Written in the present tense and usually containing a seasonal word, the tiny poem is like a snapshot catching that one instance that may have been missed. Most haiku contain a short phrase of description and a fragment or aha moment. This form of poetry is fun to write and collect. I like to sit outside for a while and just observe. I almost always find something interesting to write about, along with that aha flash.

Here are some of my seasonal haiku…Enjoy!

wobbly goats

born before midnight—
spring renewed

 

queen anne’s lace crowns

country roads—

blue chicory salutes

crimson moon floats

across chilly skies—

pumpkins grin

ice covered trees—

crystal glistens, sun

shine through jeweled glass

Do you read or write poetry?