A friend, who was an haiku poet, admired one of my articles in which I used 3-line poems, and in correspondenc e with him, started reading some of his haiku. It didnot take long before I became obsessed with this form. I spent two very intense years studying haiku and finally managed to take a chance on publication. Well it took another 6 months or so before I finally published in Frogpond, a quality journal of the Haiku Society of America.
Here's a haiku by one of my favorite poets and also this), Ray Masmussen:
campfiretalk
moths flutter in and out
of the shadows
Note the nature reference is just implied by the words campfire and moths.So, probably summer is implied here.
Ray Rasmussen
And here's a senryu by the same poet:
mail delivery—
today, the sound of the dog
not barking
Note the sharp observation here. The dog is not barking in the everyday delivery of mail.
Ok,here's a bad haiku, bad because it is maudlin and uses personification--a real no-no in genuine haiku or senryu because the idea is to state the elements simply and clearly without adjectives or adverbs:
Bright dawn banishes
the countless twinkling stars
kisses the shy moon
Well,this is the barest of an introduction to the simple yet complexelements of haiku and senryu.
Sources:
http://www.graceguts.com (Haiku teacher and poet, Michael Dylan Welch's great site)
http://www.hsa-haiku.org/ (American society)
http://www.thehaikufoundation.org/ (much doings in the haiku world)
4/17/15
For only three lines, so many rules! Usually I do not take poetry rules very strictly. And still do not! But if nothing else you take away fromthis blog, challenge every adjective, adverb and general words, such as eternal or beauty or grandeur, etc.