A Haiku For You

Haiku is, perhaps, the shortest type of poetry that has a set structure. That structure being three lines where the first and last lines having five syllables and the middle line is seven syllables, no rhyming. This poem is a type of Japanese poetry and (due to its shortness) focuses a lot on one single moment that has a sort of "cut" to it, or a surprising ending. Haiku tends to be vague about the meaning, but clear about the imagery. What I find really fun about Haiku is that you can write a ton of small poems about totally different moments, but still have them stand on their own with their strong core. However, the hard thing with Haiku is that you really have to work hard in order to make sure that those three lines have that strong core--they need to have even more weight than a longer poem

My approach to Haiku is that the first time around, the essence is more important than the syllable count. This week I really wanted to master the weight and the imagery and the cut that Haiku is supposed to have. When I go through the poems again to revise them, I'm going to try and get the syllable count right, but if it doesn't work as well or have as much weight, I know I'll revert back to the more weighty essence. Because that's the most important part of the Haiku, that you can capture a solitary moment that cuts the reader. There's the old saying that "you have to know the rules to break the rules" and that applies here in poetry as well. Overall, I think I got a lot of good poetry out of this week, despite the fact that I usually hate writing Haiku.

Thanks for reading and, please, come back next week where I will be reporting on Ekphrasis poetry--poetry that's paired with artwork.

#poetry #haiku