My friend Greg over at Brushworkings hooked my on haiku a few months back. Now I’m going to hook you on that form of poetry. I didn’t used to think of myself as a poet, but now I am a poet! I’m so excited about haiku I’m currently writing a book of them and calling it a Haiku-a-Day Challenge. In honour of launching of my challenge, I put together five reasons I write haiku.
(1) Haiku is easy. All you have to write is three lines with five, seven, and five lines, respectively. They don’t have to be about anything in particular. You can make up your own rules. In fact, you can even decide how you want to punctuate your haikus.
Septembrrr, wind chill
leaves still green--kinda. Howling
sun’s gone too soon now
(2) Haiku is magically mathematical. Once you start writing haiku, you start thinking about syllables. You are conscious of the poetry and music of what you say. The art of language is beautiful; the rhythm is amazing. It’s cool how some long words are two syllables long and some short words have only four syllables. Even though the lines are five, seven, five, sometimes they are the same length, sometimes the first or last line is longer than the middle line.
In out in out in
Focus, calm, relax, once more
Breath is essential
(3) Haiku changes the way you think. Once you get past 17 syllables, you learn that poetry isn’t just about the words and rhythms: poetry is a way to view the world. Sometimes a brilliant five-word-phrase you come up with just doesn’t fit as the first line. And you want a conclusion in the last line. Sometimes you think up a phrase that fits perfectly as a third line, but you don’t know the first and second lines yet. That’s like life. Haiku is a framework to think of life.
It was a flurry
Now it’s still, it is distant
Was it so urgent?
(4) Haiku tells you about yourself. Some days I can’t stop haiku from oozing out; some days I can’t write anything. Sometimes what I write makes logical sense, sometimes they flow better. Learning your signature way to write the 17-syllable beasts is amazing. With just 17 syllables, there are only so many combinations, right?
I'm a new person
Yet my world is still broken
Sin wreaks havoc
(5) Haiku are so diverse. For how short haikus are, I am continually amazed how many different word combinations there are, like fingerprints. Haiku can be about nature, love, technology, ideas, dreams, anything. The topics are endless. And my style is completely different from Greg’s style.
Is distilled power
Enables power trading
Money runs our world
For these reasons and more, I enjoy writing haiku. Plus, it makes me seem cool. I challenge you to try your hand writing haiku. If you write something you want to share, post it on Facebook or Twitter with the hashtag #Haiku_a_Day. Bonus: check out WriteAHaiku.com.
"Magically mathematical." :)
ReplyDeleteI don't think I have an aptitude for haikus, but I enjoy reading them. Sometimes, they're confusing because you can only tell so much of the story in seventeen syllables. My favorite haikus are the ones that manage to give you enough of a glimpse of what the author is talking about that you want to know more, but that don't explain everything. They leave you to wonder and question what the else (s)he was going to say.
It's beautiful.