Friday, September 16th, 2011

Writing Prompt – Haiku

Haiku Written in Japanese Script Haiku is a form of Japanese poetry consisting of (usually) one stanza of verse.

Traditionally, the first and last lines contain 5 syllables and the second line contains 7.

More strictly:

The soul of a haiku poem is a “cutting” word – which separates two ideas – but also shows how the two ideas are related.

Most pre-19th century Haiku also contain a “kiro” – a seasonal reference in the poem. These kiro come from a strict, delineated list of words, mostly references to nature (which made some folks mistakenly conclude that all Haiku are written about nature.)

Finally, traditional Haiku are written vertically, instead of horizontally. (I love the visual appeal of words tumbling down the page.)

Here’s Your Prompt:

We’re not going to be strict today. Simply write a haiku of three lines, containing 5, 7, and 5 syllables (in that order). Write it about some recent event or something you feel strongly about.

Bonus points if you post in the comments!

Here’s mine:

Displaced, dispossessed
No office to call my own.
It rained in the house.

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The image used above comes from the website Alice nel paese delle gozzoviglie.. It also contains the translation in English.

Tom L

September 16, 2011 at 12:45 pm · Reply

Sweet amber nectar
Peat, iodine, seaweed, salt
Complex Islay malts

Kharmin

September 16, 2011 at 1:13 pm · Reply

I’m not creative
writing haiku is quite hard
maybe with sake?

Kelly

September 16, 2011 at 1:29 pm · Reply

Hi Kharmin: You are creative! But with a tad more effort, you could have handily worded the last line in order to be able to substitute “scotch” for “sake,” confirming that you are, in fact, a scotch maven. 😉