June is a time for warm weather and ice cream. But yesterday and today, it’s been cool, rainy, and windy.
Nonetheless, summer is almost here! In celebration of all the fun things about summer, here is a sampling of haiku. The Zen Buddhist philosophy of short and simple is the basis for haiku, a form of traditional Japanese poetry.
Haiku creates the “essence of an experience in a short format.” Haiku describes an image or natural theme and have a wistful tone.
Japanese haiku follows a unique pattern that can change when written in different languages.
However, haiku has changed over time. It seems that many samples in this column do not follow a traditional format. I contacted Jim Kacian of The Haiku Foundation about the traditional form of haiku. I asked him if haiku is defined by three sentences, each containing five, seven, and five syllables. Jim explained:
Actually, that myth was put to bed half a century ago, but popular culture is always a bit slower to catch on. The major issue is the difference between Japanese and English. Japanese use sound units called on, which do not correlate to English syllables in any real sense.
For instance, the Japanese word for its own country, Japan, would be Nippon. That’s 2 syllables but 4 on: ni-p-po-n
Add the voiced grammatical stop common to literary Japanese and you might have: Nippon ya. In a Japanese haiku, this would constitute a full first line. But in English this would amount to Japan! and you’d still have 3 syllables left in the line.
The consequence of which is that English syllables in general contain a good deal more information than Japanese on. A corresponding length in English to a 17 on Japanese haiku generally run from around 10 to 12 syllables, though you will find longer and shorter poems in English (and other western languages).
And the three-line format is also exploded as a requirement, though English language haiku has still more or less adopted it as one of its norms.
Japanese haiku are written in a single vertical line, and internally generally have a stop (called a kire) most commonly after the 5th or 12th on , but not strictly so. As a consequence we have one-line haiku as well as three-liners, and quite a few other variations as well.
You’ll notice in the Foundation results we even encourage innovative formats, though this is difficult to write as well to judge. But haiku is now an international genre and the “rules” are more like suggestions, and vary from language to language.
Thanks for that explanation, Jim!
Samples of haiku
Three haiku about birds
Geese rest
in the green field until
tomorrow
The hummingbird -
My doorman reads
Nietzsche
A hawk circles,
silently searching
for motion
Three haiku about nature
Nature’s veil
pond lilies on the water’s
surface.
Plastic flutters
in that tree’s
silent breeze
I chopped wood
all day. I missed seeing
the butterflies
Three haiku about summer
summer visit
an old friend discusses
his speed dating
end comes
sweet summer time
autumn draws twilight
a background
of blues -
clouds improvising
Finally, here are some winners of the HaikuNow! 2010 contest from The Haiku Foundation.
Traditional Haiku category
First Prize
war memorial
the shine on a bronze soldier
from so many hands
by Cherie Hunter Day
Runners Up
the rare kimono
our eyes roll over its hills
flowers and mountains
by John Tiong Chung Hoo
vernal equinox
sharing a branch an orange
and orange blossom
by Victor Ortiz
the leaf blower man
when he turns and walks away
the leaves follow him
by Madeleine Findlay
The morning is here
Orange Juice in a Flintstones glass.
What should I do next?
by Cory Ryant
Contemporary Haiku category
First Prize
distant thunder
the future
in my bones
by Lorin Ford
Runners Up
night swimming
losing ourselves
in the darkness
by Vanessa Proctor
the Big Dipper
rows of corn connect
farm to farm
by Chad Lee Robinson
her pain wakes me
a cockroach escapes
from the light
by Rosie Roumeliotis
milky way
what I don’t know
I don’t know
by Nora Wood
Innovative Haiku category
First Prize
what we say what we do
pear blossom in winter
by Olga Dugan
Runners Up
salt wind ripples on an inner lake
by Cherie Hunter Day
a rake in hand . . . the duck’s mind
by Tom Clausen
flipped boxcars God doesn’t play dice…
by Scott Mason
dawn bumps the Jesus fish
by H. Gene Murtha
Ok, my turn:
Cool sun summer day
dry rain touching my face
heart smiles
Hope you enjoyed a bit of haiku!
Bessie DiDomenica, MBA
Co-founder, Columnist and Editor
Secretary of Innovation
“In imagination & creativity we trust…”
“It is easy to believe we are each waves and forget we are also the ocean”
–Jon J. Muth
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