Poetic Forms

Haiku

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Haiku began in thirteenth-century Japan as the opening phrase of renga, a hundred stanza oral poem. The much shorter haiku broke away from renga in the sixteenth century. A traditional Japanese haiku is a three-line poem with seventeen syllables, written in a 5/7/5 syllable count. Haiku emphasizes simplicity, intensity, and directness of expression, and often focuses on images from nature, although in recent years any subject is considered acceptable (I included a triptych of haikus in Beautiful Artifacts that centered on love.)

 

Haikus typical have no title (other than its first line), no capitalization, and no punctuation.

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Matsuo Bashō (1644-1694), Yosa Buson (1716-1783), and Kobayashi Issa (1763-1827) are considered to be the three classical masters of haiku.

 

The foundation of the haiku form is keen observation, and the ability to translate that observation into a clearly written,, seventeen syllable poem.

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​Examples:

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haiku [for you] by Sonia Sanchez (1934-)

love between us is

speech and breath. loving you is

a long river running.

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[first autumn morning] by Murakami Kijo (1865-1938)

first autumn morning

the mirror I stare into

shows my father's face

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[the snow of yesterday] by Aida Bunnosuke {Gozan} (1717 — 1787)

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the snow of yesterday

that fell like cherry blossoms

is water once again

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[no flower can stay] by Edith Shiffert (1916-2017)

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no flower can stay
yet humans grieve at dying —
the red peony

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old pond by Matsuo Bashō

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an old silent pond

a frog jumps into the pond —

splash! silence again

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