The Daily Haiku

Whilst reading my university text book; Creative Writing by Linda Anderson, I came across a very interesting activity and it ties in with my poetry month theme, so I decided to blog to you guys about it.

First off, let's talk about the haiku!



What is it?

It's a Japanese poetry form concerned with sound and syllables. As the picture tells, the first line consists of 5 syllables, the middle line, 7, and the last line, 5, to create a total of 17 syllables and none of them rhyme.

Traditional Japanese haiku poems are about nature, but now we have contemporary English haiku poems which do not adhere to the typical syllable count, some falling to 15 or 10 syllables in a poem or exceeding the 3 line structure.




However, for the purposes of this little exercise, let's say that a haiku is 3 lines, 5-7-5 syllables respectively and do not rhyme.






EXERCISE! If you're stuck in a writer's rut and can't find the right words to say, why not play around with some poetry! Because after all, poetry is all about placing your words carefully and choosing the right ones--it's also very gratifying when you know after reading your own poem back that you chose wisely. You might want to look at posters to inspire these little pockets of joy or just find inspiration from your everyday lives--it can be done.




You might even want to write a haiku each day, it's something I'd be willing to try, but I wouldn't be able to post a haiku on here as it would take up too much blogging space--so I'll try and post a new haiku on my Facebook: Joseph Eastwood everyday, I'm not sure when in the day, but I will do it (or fail trying).




What do you think? Are you up to the challenge of writing one 3 lined poem everyday?



I've wrote a few haiku but none of them are like the ones which I've already read--but I'm not going to change them, I'd like to think it's my style.




The soft melting snow

Slips through warm, embracing hands,

And turns to water.




The cold moonlight sun

Falls deathly on complexion,

Casting us in black.




Swish blades, green grass,

Drowning in murky lake,

Liquid earth at war.

This is my favourite haiku, and it's printed on a t-shirt, which I also want. I just love the humour of it and how simple it is.


Haiku are easy

But sometimes they don't make sense

Refrigerator





Why not post your haiku here!

-Joseph