Are you serious about haiku?

Blog Posted by Deborah Guenther Beachboard: 4/17/2018 8:21:00 PM

When I first started writing haiku an hundred years ago -- well back in the early 90s-- I would write a verse, arrange it in 3 lines of 5/7/5 syllables and call it haiku. Then I found out that content is THE defining thing in haiku. Haiku is simply a "one breath" moment from nature written as a concrete image in such a way the reader infers "aha!" and relates it to his/ her human life.

Resources:
Haiku poetry: experiencing life in 5/7/5
Haiku Society of America
Modern Haiku

morning sun
against the window shade
shadow of a hummingbird
~DB

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Gregory Richard
Barden

Date: 4/22/2018 8:14:00 AM

(2) I'm not saying forms aren't important - quite the contrary - just that getting caught up in it can be stifling. I will also say the personification in nature to ME is a way of bringing more life and beauty to it, so I find it acceptable with Haiku, though many frown on it. I don't write Haiku to do the form honor, I use the form to do honor to nature and beauty ... it is a tool for poets, we are not tools for the form, and I think that's where the gray area can get sticky. Just one guy's silly opinion, and not the most substantive one by far. :-)
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Gregory Richard Barden
Date: 4/27/2018 8:27:00 PM

Indeed! :-) <3

Debbie Guzzi
Date: 4/27/2018 6:53:00 PM

One reason for the confusion is that originally haiku was meant to be a tribute to god in nature & used as an oral form of meditation. The observation was objective, not subjective & meant to evoke an emotion in the reader as it had in the writer.

Gregory Richard
Barden

Date: 4/22/2018 8:13:00 AM

Most of my poems of 5/7/5 or similar I label as Senryu if they are not about nature, but I am one who tries to not get bogged down in DEFINING poetry, explaining it, categorizing it, or analyzing it, as it is ALL about emotion and expression to me, and the more restrictions you put on it by way of form and structure and content, the more brackets you put on the creativity of the writer. That may be seen as an excuse by some, but I feel very deeply about this - creativity and expression come first, and all else is added unto it. Of course spelling and grammar, if done poorly, ALSO put restrictions on expression, but those are critical parts of language, and that's the foundation for poetry.
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Gregory Richard Barden
Date: 4/27/2018 8:26:00 PM

Oh, I learn forms and enjoy doing so, but I still let creativity speak FIRST, and I don't let form dictate to me where the spirit leads. If artists had stuck to tradition and form, we never would have had the Impressionists ... I can't imagine such a world. ;-)

Debbie Guzzi
Date: 4/27/2018 6:54:00 PM

Learn forms and at that point, your creations will tell you what form they are meant to be written in ;).

Deborah Guenther
Beachboard

Date: 4/18/2018 7:33:00 PM

I do prefer to write "modern" haiku which is written with fewer than 17 syllables, but I very much respect the traditional format.
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Line
Gauthier

Date: 4/18/2018 6:03:00 PM

Now that I know more about haiku, I find it impossible to go back and try to pass off any 5-7-5 3-liner as a Haiku. I now consciously aim to have my haiku stand alone without a title but will continue to title my haiku here at PoetrySoup for filing purposes. We are such creatures of habit... There are so many short forms to choose from other than haiku. That's exactly why it's great to learn about other forms and mix it up...
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FJ
Thomas

Date: 4/18/2018 11:18:00 AM

I did learn a lot regarding Haiku from someone on this site. Something we can never truly recreate in English; but we can at least try to stick to the principles of it. :)
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Eve
Roper

Date: 4/17/2018 11:33:00 PM

Nicely done, I'm still learning thank you for your help..
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