You can also write a Haiku!

Oh yes, you can also write a Haiku in a jiffy! First let us get a clear idea about what is a Haiku ….

A Haiku is a popular form of poem traditional to Japan. It has three lines: first line is five syllable, second line is seven syllable, and the third line is five syllable.

Each line has an image, mostly about nature. Image? You might ask, yes, think of it as a picture that you have to describe in words, (for now). Well, all the three pictures will not have any connection to one another at the surface level. But when you think deeply about the poem, the first two images will be connected by the third image (in a strange way that makes you chuckle. [don’t know what is a chuckle? Read my earlier blog post on “Different types of Laughter” https://drkate.school.blog/2023/04/02/laughter-ha-ha-ha-hee-hee-hee-hoo-hoo-hoo/

So, all you have to do to write a Haiku is:

1. describe three pictures of nature in three lines. (First line – 5 syllables; second line – 7 syllables; third line – 5 syllable)

2. See to that the first picture points out to a season.

3. Use your imagination to create the third picture that connects the first and the second picture. Voila! You got a haiku. (Don’t worry about the readers. It is their headache to find the connection between the images. Remember, seldom will two readers have the same interpretation to a haiku – and there is no right or wrong)

Now let us look at a popular Haiku and analyze it:

Lines on a Skull

life’s little, our heads

sad. Redeemed and wasting clay

this chance. Be of use.

by Ravi Shankar (Not the great sitar player)

Here is my interpretation. You can have yours! 😊

Our head is so little, but we carry it like it is big, and we should understand that it is nothing more than clay that is wasted, so sad, and so, come on, use the one chance in our life and redeem it back.

Vo! Vo! I think, I got carried away in putting my words into the poet’s mouth – well, that is perfectly okay with Haikus.

Now, let us analyze the structure:

First line: life’s+lit+tle+our+heads = 5 syllables

Second line: sad+Re+deemed+and+was+ting+clay = 7 syllables

Third line: this+chance+Be+of+use = 5 syllables

Did you notice: there was no reference to a season, and there were no three images clearly presented. Well, poets need not adhere to all the rules of Haiku. In fact, they can even abandon the 5+7+5 structure, and still call their work as Haiku.

that’s all fine. Now, let us write a Haiku (we will follow as many rules as possible)

here it goes …

first, we need one picture that also has reference to any of the four seasons:

Oh well, here is summer now, and all I get in my mind’s eye is the image of the scorching sun … in the afternoon, (I am in a city), so the roads shining and blazing heat … asphalt melting … let us see … here is the first line of the poem:

Asphalt melting blazing sun [oops! 7 syllables, but I need only 5]

Let’s rephrase it …

Asphalt melting sun [as+phalt+mel+ting+sun – yes! 5 syllables]

First image created … first line of our Haiku done. No! my Haiku 😊

Let us now create a second image. Preferably with no relation to the first one …

Immediately, I think of something cold … perhaps melting? … ice cream? Well, shall we make the second image with ice cream? … why not? Here we go …

Ice cream sliding out the cone like a volcano [oooo! Where did the volcano come? Well, it jumps at you sometimes, and that is all the fun in writing poems.] well, well, look at the syllable count … 12 syllables I think, too many, and let us bring it down … here we go again …

Ice cream volcano sliding [I wanted to add “out the cone” but no place for it] let us count the syllables – ice+cream+val+ca+no+sli+ding = 7 syllables

Well, we need a pause somewhere. It is called ‘Kireji’ but modern Haikus do not have one. But then, we will try to fit in. … I am thinking of changing the word order to achieve it …

Sliding ice cream, Volcano [ yes, now ‘Volcano’ becomes the Kireji]

Second line done. Let us move on to the third line … we have to come up with an image that connects the previous two in a thought-provoking way …

Well, ‘cold and hot’, actually, ‘hot and cold’, … human emotions, … feelings, may be expressing feelings? A look, a hug, a kiss? … well, let me choose ‘kiss’ I feel naughty … then what? Hot kiss, and cold kiss, mm? let us try to put it in words …

Kissing with closed eyes [Vo! Why did I come up with eyes closed? May be that is what people do when they kiss?] let us count the syllables here – kis+sing+with+closed+eyes = 5 syllables – haha! The line fell in perfectly. Now, how does it connect the previous two images? … well, ha, … mm … that’s the reader’s headache as I told you earlier. 😊

Now let us put our Haiku together …

Asphalt melting Sun

Sliding ice cream, Volcano

Kissing with eyes closed

Voila! Here is a new Haiku. Mind you, I wrote it just now, as I am writing this blog post. [did you notice? I did change the order of the phrase ‘closed eyes’ to ‘eyes closed’ well, it also happens without my conscious trying. Because, the English in me pushes me to change the order so that the word ‘closed’ gets more importance. Likewise, the English in you will also urge you to create poems, to express yourself. All you need to do is, … give it a freehand …

Well then, we have come to the end of this post, quite a long one. Thanks for reading, if you have come thus far …

Please leave your comments below. And if you do write a Haiku, which I sincerely wish you should do, please send it to my email – platomckenzie@gmail.com, and I shall reward you rightly for your efforts. REWARD! Nothing much, perhaps a ‘warm pad-on-the-back words from my heart …

Bye for now, you the future Haiku poet!!!

PS – please suggest a title for this Haiku … actually I forgot that part 😊 hee! Hee! Hee!