Haiku

 

Haiku is a Japanese form of poetry with precise rules that combine form, content and language in a meaningful but compact form.

The most common format consists of 3 short lines which do not rhyme.

The format is as follows:

 

Line 1 consists of 5 syllables

Line 2 consists of 7 syllables

Line 3 consists of 5 syllables

 

The themes tend to be based around nature and physical things as opposed to emotional matters. The resulting poetry is beautifully simple and succinct.

We set our resident poet, Cecilia Brabin, the task of attempting a Haiku poem based on whatever subject she chose. The result is below, and Cecilia assures us she had never tried Haiku poetry before!

 

SKY Wide and watchful space Changed by light and time of day Open, enveloping

 

Cecilia says "Haiku poetry is not difficult to write, and if you have never written poetry before it is great to have a format to follow to assist you in achieving the creation of a poem. "

 

Masaoka Shiki (1867-1902) is one of many Haiku poets,and is credited with bringing the art to the greater world.

Read more about Masaoka Shiki

Learn more about Haiku

 

So, here is our challenge to you! Have a go at creating your own Haiku poem, post it on the site, and let’s see what subjects and results we get.

To create your Haiku follow the instructions below:

1. Go to member home
2. Decide if you want to include a picture and upload this into Pictures
3. Go to Pages choose Poetry, write your Haiku (put Haiku as the title and your own poem title as ‘overview’ ), add your picture
4. tick ‘live’ and save
5. Go to Poetry section to see all the wikis – why not add a comment

Give it a go!