Spring Haiku Challenge
Orange cat chuffing
murder at the bumblebees.
Spring, through the window.
Haiku are deceptively simple.
The version that we all remember from English class couldn’t be easier: three lines with a 5-7-5 syllable pattern. And that really is enough to provide plenty of entertainment value, or at least to add the mild spice of a word game to the bland porridge of the everyday.
Where to eat tonight?
How about the Spotted Pig?Yes, please. We love food!
- Jenny Zapata
The traditional forms of haiku developed in Japan 400 years ago are both more refined and more challenging, in some ways, perhaps almost impossible to replicate in English. A traditional haiku would consist of three phrases and three elements:
17 on, or phonetic units (not quite analogous to English syllables).
Kireji, or a cutting word, that usually appears at the end of one of the three phrases. It serves to create a pause or break in the rhythm of the poem, often to contrast or juxtapose two images.
Kigo, a word or phrase that suggests or symbolizes a season.
The highly distilled, strictly structured form tells a story, not with exposition but through the senses:
the first cold shower
even the monkey seems to want
a little coat of straw-Matsuo Basho (17th century)
What are considered haiku in English can stray far from the classical forms and still retain the brevity, precision and seasonal beauty of the original genre:
The apparition of these faces in a crowd;
Petals on a wet, black bough.
-Ezra Pound, “In A Station of the Metro” (1913)
(That one in particular is my personal favorite, not only for its spare, evocative imagery, but for the online reviews still being gamely posted on its Google page: “The poem was great! It was a tad bit long though. Other than that its a great read! I personally read the thing in 3 days.”)
Would you like to try your hand at a haiku? Whether the simple 5-7-5 iteration, something closer to the more challenging traditional form or your own interpretation, we’d love to hear from you! Send us your Spring themed haiku and we will post one or two of our favorites in next month’s newsletter.
neon leaves burst
forth
sun shines on new-old cobwebs
‘spring clean’ symphonic
Meredith Vatcher