How To Write Haiku Poems

For this week’s How To post, we will discuss how to write haiku poetry. Now, in it’s original Japanese form, the rules are a little more strict. When it comes to writing them in English, there really aren’t any set, conventional rules. But here are the basics:

1. Content – you can pretty much write them about whatever you want. Traditional haiku tend to be more nature-centered, but modern haiku (especially English) is full of political references, romance and every-day life centered issues, as well as the more traditional nature-based poems.

2. Structure – very simple….3 lines, alternating 5, 7, and 5 syllables.

There are more variations on this than I can count. Many modern English haiku writers have anywhere between 10 and 17 syllables in their haiku, alternating them in as many ways as you can imagine (6,6,4 – 5,5,7 – 3,6,3 – etc)….but IN GENERAL, 3 lines of 5, then 7, then 5 syllables.

3. The Cut – many (but of course, not all) haiku include a cut, or pause that divides the haiku and compares two images or expounds on the first image. In modern English haiku, this cut generally occurs at the end of the first or second line and is often indicated by a punctuation mark.

Example:

the morning paper
harbinger of good and ill
-- I step over it.
(Dave McCroskey)

Now, in this example, the punctuation comes at the beginning of the third line (no hard set rules, remember), but the cut is followed by a reaction to what happened in the first two lines. How does the morning paper, the “harbinger of good and ill” affect the poet? What does he do? He steps over it.

4. Seasonal theme or word – Traditionally, haiku include a season word, something that indicates in what season the haiku is set. For instance, if you are describing a summer meadow, you could mention a butterfly, or the sun, or blue skies. If the haiku is set in the winter, you could mention snow, or frost, or cold. It doesn’t have to be obvious…most modern haiku, if they include the season reference at all, are quite subtle.

Example:

Glass balls and glowing lights
Dead tree in living room
Killed to honor birth.
(Ron Loeffler)

There is no specific season word, but it is obvious he is describing a Christmas tree. You’ll also notice the 6,6,5 syllable pattern and no punctuation mark indicating the cut – more proof that there is no set-in-stone set of rules.

And that’s it! You can now write haiku! Three lines of 5,7,5 syllables…maybe throw in a seasonal reference or cut, and you’ve got yourself haiku poetry. Here are a few more examples for you:

Whitecaps on the bay:
A broken signboard banging
In the April wind.
(American novelist, Richard Wright)

an ageing willow –
its image unsteady
in the flowing stream.
(Robert Spiess – Red Moon Anthology, Red Moon Press, 1996)

Haiku can be incredibly romantic – here are a couple examples:

With each warm embrace
love’s embers race anew to
set our breast ablaze.
(Andreas Wittenstein)

Two flames burn as one
Apart in life, but our souls
Forever entwined.
(written for me many years ago by one who shall remain nameless) ;-)

What haiku can you write? Give it a try and leave them in the comment section! I’d love to see your work!!

Stay tuned next week for tips on how to write a ballad.