Karen GoatKeeper's Blog - Posts Tagged "writing-haikus"
Writing My Haikus
Every school English class seems to have a section on poetry. The teacher talks about rhyme and meter. Then students read poems. And hate it.
Even worse are the free verse poems. Students struggle through these.
Then comes the dreaded assignment: Write your own poem.
One year my English teacher introduced a different kind of poem – the haiku. This was challenging and interesting. Even better: it was short.
A traditional haiku has three lines. The first and third have five syllables. The second has seven syllables.
The first two lines are often used to set up a picture, a mood, a happening. The last line is at odds with the first two.
The lines often speak of a season. Nature is a popular subject.
Walking my Ozark hills often evokes a mood or feeling or something happens. Putting this into an haiku becomes a mental challenge. Words must be chosen carefully to not only create the situation, but stay within the required number of syllables. The words must dig deep into the feeling or mood of the time.
“My Ozark Home” has haikus to go with each of the almost one hundred photographs. Do all of them live up to an ideal haiku? Probably not.
What I can say is that I tried.
Sample pages of “My Ozark Home” can be viewed on my website. The book will be available in print or as a pdf July 7.
Even worse are the free verse poems. Students struggle through these.
Then comes the dreaded assignment: Write your own poem.
One year my English teacher introduced a different kind of poem – the haiku. This was challenging and interesting. Even better: it was short.
A traditional haiku has three lines. The first and third have five syllables. The second has seven syllables.
The first two lines are often used to set up a picture, a mood, a happening. The last line is at odds with the first two.
The lines often speak of a season. Nature is a popular subject.
Walking my Ozark hills often evokes a mood or feeling or something happens. Putting this into an haiku becomes a mental challenge. Words must be chosen carefully to not only create the situation, but stay within the required number of syllables. The words must dig deep into the feeling or mood of the time.
“My Ozark Home” has haikus to go with each of the almost one hundred photographs. Do all of them live up to an ideal haiku? Probably not.
What I can say is that I tried.
Sample pages of “My Ozark Home” can be viewed on my website. The book will be available in print or as a pdf July 7.
