 Poetry: February 15, 2006 Issue [#886] |
  Poetry
This week: Edited by: John~Ashen  
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Poetry! It comes in all styles and meanings. Some poems express personal feelings; others demonstrate a particular pattern. Most of us write some combination in between. I'll be offering advice on different styles and pointing out techniques to improve your poems. Enjoy  --John~Ashen |
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Haiku?
Haiku is probably the most popularly misunderstood poetry format available. Most people know they're really short. Most poets know it's a 5-7-5 unrhymed format. Some even remember that nature is supposed to be a theme. Still, most people choose to ignore some or all the rules, writing however little they choose on whatever theme and even with an end rhyme. Whatever. I am not here to preach in defense of haiku's original definition.
What I want to do today is to take you on a walk. Close your eyes... no, Wait! Don't close your eyes - that might make this hard to read!  But daydream, if you will, that you are taking a walk. We're outside of town, amid whatever scenery your homeland features. There's a path barely visible before us, and we walk along it.
On this walk, we do not speak. Sounds abound, not intrude. Scents waft and squirrels scurry. Snow drifts and branches creak. Then something happens, just up ahead. It is an event you can witness only because you are surrounded by the forest or mountains or plains. Is it an animal doing something? Is it the weather acting upon the ground? Whatever it is, it touches something inside you. You understand this event with a depth never before contemplated.
You turn to me and point it out. "Look there," you say. I look and I see, but I do not get it. I shrug. I've seen that before. "No, look closer," you insist. I look again and start to stare. Then finally it hits me...
The event is profound, if viewed in the proper light. There is something about it which resonates with importance or teaches us a lesson. We want to share and explain this lesson, and the poetic method of doing so is called haiku.
Haiku
A haiku is not written about nature. It is written in the language of nature. This does not always mean trunks and trees and birds and bees. Nature is what we observe as humans. We look around and see things. A box of nails sitting in your garage could be the thing in nature you see.
the nail box:
every nail
is bent
~ Ozaki Hôsai
When we write a haiku, we should express what we see along with contextual hints at its importance. We should not write about ourselves or our observations. We are an observer only; the event is what matters.
5-7-5 is the ideal format length based on Oriental language structure. Western languages are different and can thus arguably cheat by one or two syllables.
The river ripples
ice-drifted shores--
coyote glides by.
~ Paul Brown
What's more important than the syllable count is to understand that this snapshot of nature implies a human emotion. Mr. Brown's haiku starts off quite peacefully. Even the emergence of a coyote doesn't cause alarm. Maybe it's dead, making its floating by into a tragedy. Maybe it's alive, and its helplessness is comic to watch.
When you decide to write a haiku, simply follow my exercise. Close your eyes and imagine taking a walk. You can even walk in town this time, if you prefer. Somewhere along the way, you'll see a special moment. Time will slow and everything else will fade out as you focus on this event. Now describe it - there is the meat of your poem. You'll probably have a noun, situation, and action/adjective. Spice it gently, being careful not to hide the nature of what it is, and you will have captured the scene successfully.
Haiku?
Some people today
would call this lazy poem
a haiku I bet
It's not a haiku. It's 5-7-5, non-rhyming, sure enough. If you want to insist it is, though, fine. I invite you to take a walk with me. Then please, if you will, point it out to me as we walk by it...
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