Do You Haiku?

It's the hundreth post
One of the best topics D
Many more to come

 

The stars shine so bright
Their twinkle journeyed so far
Just to see a glimpse

 

Hip chat can be fun
If the right people are there
Don't be a sleeper

 

You plant any seed
Time will decide if it lives
To provide more life


One blade of green grass
Or a living breathing thing
It is all the same


Don't take for granted
Life that you have created
It's a special gift

 

Three cups of hot tea
With a spoon full of honey
My flu shots daily.

 

Haiku is based on syllables because it comes from the Japanese language, where each letter is a syllable, and less words can express more meaning.

Also it can be 5/7/5, 5/5/7, or 7/5/5. Also in Japanese, it could be all be one sentence, or two sentences, or three. It is easy create this structure in Japanese and end in 5 or 7 syllables. But the most important thing is that it totals 17 syllables so you could even have words that exceed the 5 or 7 syllable limit as long as it is 17 syllables total.

The Japanese will allow for an extra syllable if the meaning is exceptional.

Japanese haiku must always have a seasonal word which indicates the season---it could be anything from an animal, to a weather related word (such as frost, morning rain, fog, snow, spring rain, bitter cold, etc), a holiday or festival, plants or plant related (cherry blossoms, roses, falling leaves, bare trees), human activities and the things we use (rain coat, snow shovel, harvest time, shovelling snow, winter coat, etc), to aspects of nature (harvest moon, etc.)

Senryu is a satirical haiku, and does not always have a seasonal word. Haiku in English tends to be like Senryu.

Japanese haiku is not meant to be simply read---one mulls over it like moving a good wine around in your mouth. You experience it, numerous times, and a good haiku could often illicit several different meanings and nuances. I have always been amazed at how such a short form of verse could create a whole subjective experience, and many include a spiritual sense that hints to a hidden underlying nature to the universe---as if it lifted the veil of physical reality just enough to almost give you a peak at the hidden underbelly of being.

I used to not have much appreciation for haiku in English----but then one day I realized that it is an existential statement---just like senryu----a peak into the existential reality of our human existence----the good and the bad. (It was actually a collection of English Senryu, that showed me this----and they were done quite well.)

 

I compose haiku in Japanese----both haiku and senryu. A number of years ago I put a joke post in the foreign language section of HF for Japanese speakers, then I decided to explain it, and then posted a few haiku. People liked it, and so I posted more haiku with explanations, then people really enjoyed and so I ended up writing a better version as a blog on Wordpress (though whenever I go back and read it I see a few blaring mistakes in my English...)

I have been to busy to keep the blog going for the past several years----but I still get requests to continue it.

Anyway here is the start of the HF thread. I think I explained quite a bit about haiku in that thread and most if not all of the haiku are my own-----its been a number of years since I wrote it...

If you click the arrow in the upper right corner of any of these quotes it should take you to the thread.

 

Birds are amazing
Some can hop up a tree trunk
They defy Newton

 

The only purpose of time
is to prevent everything from happening at once

 

I should have mentioned that, the rules of haiku I mentioned in post 106 could be applied to English as well, even though it is not always done so.

 

That's a bad translation of a Japanese haiku:

furu ike ya
kaeru tobikomu
mizu no oto

It is better translated as

the old pond
frog jumps in
sound of water.

The Japanese follows the 5-7-5 format.

 

There is another form of haiku---the death poems----this is a perfect example of one----except for one thing: In Japan the death poem was one's final haiku to the world, before death.

 

You are right----it was kawazu---a different word for frog.


But kaeru is often used today when Japanese refer to this famous haiku----either one works because they are both 3 syllables. Kaeru is more common today than kawazu.

 

Life ends quietly
A whisper, a trickling tear
The river flows on

 

Gauzy autumn sky
The sun casts its weakened light
On frosty crimson leaves

 

Have positive thoughts
The negatives try to win
Make sure they all lose

 

I have haiku writers block

 

5/2 or 7... wait its not finished yet-----


I have haiku writer's block
5/2 or 7
wait, its not finished!

;-)

 

I can understand
It may come unexpected
Then you may forget

 

It will come back soon
Try to think of simple things
A cloud shape forming

A moth fluttering
A leaf dancing in the wind
Just free your mind D