Haiku

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Haiku

• So much more than 5-7-5!
• Miss OKeefe
• English 11

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garden party light rain falling into my mothers
gin --frances angela
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leaves on the river too old to call
myself orphan --Peter Yovu
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A Brief History of Haiku

• Haiku began in Japan in the poetic form of Regna
• These were poems of several verses, each verse
  was 17 syllables long
• The first verse was called hokku, eventually
  these first verses stood alone and became known
  as haiku

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Basho Matsuo the first Haiku Master

• 1644-1694
• Used poetry to present his philosophy
• He began writing haiku as musings while he was
  wandering during travel

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a autumn wind more white than the rocks in the
rocky mountain Basho Matsuo
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short summer night.a dewdropon the back of a
hairy caterpillar --Buson Yosa
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Buson Yosa

• 1716-1783
• His poems are descriptive, but their scenery is
  idealized rather than realistic. This means that
  he wanted to describe the essence of things, not
  their surfaces (Yotsuya ).

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Evolution of English Language Haiku

• Haiku was first brought the United States through
  translation of Basho, Buson and other Japanese
  Haiku Masters
• People began by strictly adhering to the form of
  17 syllables, 5-7-5
• We now know that haiku is more about the essence
  of a moment

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Nightfall, boy smashing dandelions with a
stick. --Jack Kerouac
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A Contemporary Definition of Haiku

• From the Haiku Society of America A haiku is a
  short poem that uses imagistic language to convey
  the essence of an experience of nature or the
  season intuitively linked to the human condition.

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Another Definition

• Robert Spiess calls haiku an up to breath-length
  poem in which two, rarely three, objects in a
  now-moment of awareness are juxtaposed so that
  each enhances ones appreciation for the other
  and together they evoke a felt depth, insight, or
  intuition on the suchness of things (Gurga 2).

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Things to Know About Writing Haiku

• The 5-7-5 Debate (Japanese sound vs. English
  syllables)
• Seasonal Awareness (5 Seasonshuh?)
• Juxtaposition and Images
• The senses
• Suggestion and Reverberation
• Significance and Effect

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lightning dancing on the horizonno
thunder --Miss OKeefe
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crows disturbed and anxious an osprey soars
overhead its white belly exposed --Miss OKeefe
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open window drunk voices on the street after
dark --Miss OKeefe