How To-3: "How to Write a Haiku Poem"

How to Write a Haiku Poem

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A haiku is an unrhyming verse form, conveying a complete image or feeling in three lines of syllables, and are usually about nature or natural things. Here's how to create a descriptive, engaging haiku.

Steps

1. Understand the traditional haiku format. Haiku in Japanese (an unstressed language) are written consecutively, with 17 syllables -- the first line contains five syllables, the second has seven, and the last has five. In English (a stressed language), the sentiment can be expressed with a short line, a long line, and another short -- line. However, some recent English haiku writers have written two-line haiku.
   
2. Choose a general topic. Haiku usually focus on imagery from nature. Haiku do not tell linear stories and typically do not directly convey human experiences; they convey a deeply felt moment -- usually a scene from nature -- which is then simply expressed, without embellishment, that reflects a deeper human experience, such as simplicity or loneliness.
   
3. Choose a season. Since virtually all haiku focus on nature, the season is important for coming up with the imagery. With so few words in the poem, simple phrases like "cherry blossoms" or "falling leaves" can create lush scenes, while reflecting the tone of the verse. In Japanese, the "kigo" or season word was generally understood; "autumn breeze" might be known to express loneliness and the coming of the dark winter season.
   
   • Winter usually connotes burden, cold, sadness, hunger, tranquility or peace. Winter can be invoked with words like "snow," "ice," "dead tree," "leafless," etc.
     
   • Summer conjures feelings of warmth, vibrancy, love, anger, temptation and many others. General summer phrases include allusions to the sky, beaches, heat, lust and any form of romance.
     
   • Autumn encompasses a very wide range of ideas: decay, belief in the supernatural, jealousy, saying good-bye, loss, regret and mystery to name a few. Falling leaves, shadows and autumn colors are the most common implementations.
     
   • Spring, like summer, can incorporate love, but it is usually more a sense of infatuation than lust. Also common are themes such as innocence, youth, passion and fickleness. Anything with blossoms, new plants, silk, warm rains can imply spring. For more information on seasons, go to the link listed below.Seasons don't have to be the ones listed. Holidays can be seasons of their own. There's a big difference between winter and Christmas, after all.
     
   
   
4. Add a contrast. Reading most haiku, you'll notice they either present one idea for the first two lines and then switch quite abruptly to something else or do the same with the first line and last two, although this is not as common. Contrasts can be the hardest part. The haiku poet wants a perfect catalyst to spark the right emotional note. It doesn't have to be extremely severe; it can be anything from one color to another. In English, the contrast is often emphasized by punctuation between the two lines, although this is not necessary.
   

Tips

• To get inspiration and begin to understand the subtlety of emotion within images from nature, read the ancient works of famous haiku poets. When reading translations of Issa or Basho, you might find the translator chose to preserve the meaning, but not the meter. Much of Issa's work is in the form abstract//abstract//concrete for the three lines, although in the original Japanese this was not so.
  
• Write what you see, not what you feel. Haiku are ultimately about abstracts and emotions expressed through concrete images. When reading haiku, don't read as other poems. Haiku are written to capture a feeling and image. Keep an open mind when reading haiku and try to feel what the writer was trying to get across. The more you read haiku, the easier they are to understand.
  
• Some are of the opinion that in English, Haiku should be limited to a 3/5/3 format to preserve the broken nature. Japanese words tend to be longer than English words, which is why translated Haiku tends to sound less complete than 5/7/5 poems written originally in English. You might try the shorter format to see how you like it.
  
• Remember written Japanese is a visual language; it uses ideograms to represent ideas visually rather than characters to represent ideas audibly. In different combinations, Japanese characters (mostly based on Chinese characters) are pronounced differently, e.g., the character "sora" (empty of vanity) can be pronounced "kara" if combined with other characters to form a more complex idea. Thus haiku is really a Japanese-specific form of poetry. Simply copying the syllable pattern in a sound-based language like English is an interesting adaptation, but not haiku in the original sense. It may be better to consider such poems "haiku-inspired".
  
• There are some who say that haiku can just be a short fragment (no more than three words) followed by a phrase.
  
• early evening
  
• small flat stones
  
• line the shore.
  
• The haiku doesn't have to be serious, it can be funny, although traditionalists might call it a 'senryu' rather than a 'haiku.' For example: 'I like Cottage Cheese, Cottage Cheese is my favorite, Yummy Cottage Cheese'.
  
• There are haiku with humour [1], and there are also humourous haikulike poems called senyru [2]
  
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Sources and Citations

• History and examples of haiku
  
• Articles on how to write haiku
  
• Wikipedia's take on haiku, with examples and modern artists
  
• adofinde Hundreds of examples categorized by season and theme.
  
• With Words simple overview of haiku
  

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