Haiku ~ First Attempt

Is a kind of poetry that is restrained from one to three lines with an average length of 13 syllables and not any greater than 17 syllables. For a better measure of brevity, haiku can be read aloud and completed in one breadth. A traditional haiku follows a syllable of 5-7-5. It's not easy to write a perfect haiku. One may need a lot of practice. Here’s a sample and my first attempt:

"Maple leaves falling

In sync with crisp autumn breeze

Dads' head now barren."

You may find the above haiku funny and non-traditional. However, haiku doesn't necessarily have to be serious. It can be funny too.

When writing haiku, there are five key points to keep in mind:

1. Descriptiveness – haiku is meant to describe things through our senses-sight, hearing, smell or touch without actually narrating on the poet’s actual feelings toward things.

2. Brevity – as first mentioned above, haiku should only have about one to three lines with about 17 syllables not more than that.

3. Numbers of phrases – most haiku are composed of two distinct phrases although not all.

4. Juxtaposition - these two phrases should be about different elements as per the authors’ observations. Unlike other forms of poetry, the relationship between the two different elements is what delivers the poetic style in haiku.

5. No poetic character – although haiku stipulates a poetic style, it is best to avoid traditional poetic styles like rhyming, metaphor and the likes.

~ Haiku is not a proper noun and so it shouldn't be capitalized within a sentence.

~ Haiku is both singular and plural. It is wrong to say "haikus".

~ Haiku shouldn't be titled and shouldn't rhyme.

Haiku in its original sense must contain an obvious reference to a season and must be focused on nature. It originated from Japan as a form of meditation and was invented by a monk named Matsuo Basho. However, some of Bashos' haiku wasn't really that of traditional 5-7-5 syllables but a rather intriguing and much harder 3-5-3 syllables format.

Example of Bashos' haiku - poem of farewell (source: Low Density Lifestyle) --

falling sick on a journey

my dream goes wandering

over a field of dried grass

Haiku is a form of our day to day observation of the world around us, followed by the practice of creating lines in the mind and playing with its rhythm mentally before finally jotting it down.

Haiku has since evolved in the most fashionable ways and in the English Language it doesn’t necessarily have to be nature focused. We call this, "urban haiku".

This haiku was mentally created while observing my loving husband through the glass door of our back porch. Wise in his silence, standing at the backyard, one breezy afternoon, beer in his hand, watching the falling leaves off our beautiful and chunky maple tree, I couldn't help but noticed that while the leaves are slowly falling off the tree, his head as well is now balding. You are probably laughing at that. Well, I was but I also realized that with each passing season, although his hair is now thinning, he is beautiful with or without hair just like the maple tree at the backyard that has reached its great age, they become as it is but both filling my energy. He is my natural companion with his own basso profondo and aura. And, just like hugging our maple tree, hugging him is a joyful treat.

I wonder what’s he thinking? I know what I’m thinking…haiku!

Copyright@CrisSp~TM/09-2012. "The heart of my soul speaks to the soul of my heart by writing." ~