Haiku practice

[Trench_Man]

Would anyone wanna try making Haikus? I think it'd be a fun writing exercise

The traditional rules of a haiku are that it has to be short and follow the "5-7-5" format, meaning the first line has five syllables, the second line has seven, and the final back to five, not rhyme, and be spoken in the present tense with regards to a brief and mundane moment in nature or in life. Here I will start with one I just made!

An egg in a fridge

A pale hand withdraws the egg

Crack! Time for omelets.

I look forward to seeing what y'all come up with!

[thefanciestpigeon]

ooh yes, haiku are always a form I have struggled with (simplicity is really hard)! keep in mind that the syllables rule was an adaptation for English (and only one possible way to do that) rather than an original part of the form, so you don't need to get too hung-up on sticking to it exactly! I was taught specifically that a more vital part of the form was there being some sort of "turn" in the middle, but ymmv.

I'm very interested in the internet as an environment/location, so I'm gonna try writing some about spaces on the internet!


star-snow running down
rests on the poets under grinning moon-
living on a small screen.


Life grows here too
true nature in houses as in anthills-
vine growing in computer room.

(yes I did actually have a vine growing from outside into my house for a bit!)


people gather in blue
collecting wasps and rushing strange beasts
building family here.


which feels a bit weird to do because the form is so associated with nature, but also I like to remember that humans (and the things we make) are a part of nature too, we just keep forgetting that.

and a Haibun! because I like them! :> (a prose poem followed by a haiku, originally written to be a sort of travelogue/record of a trip somewhere but it doesn't have to be about that)


There are lights, there are large motions, and still objects changing shapes I have known since childhood, since before the blanket-ceiling let up and I stopped learning meaning from mind. Where a mask was put on and the day went out and we could become some other place, before the world was made thinking. here it is again, they play the way we used to, running on sandcastle-time, on the plenty of chaos, the human pulse that pushed hands dipped in red chalk against the wall. There is a thin black road and motionless movement swimming murmurations across me. I have a mask again, I have the sky, now all-coloured now changing shape and below me, now decided by hands I know I could have known were this a different life. Rain falls down but doesn't pass my head, walk the small trails laid out by those before, there are oceans here, I know, there are palaces.

long down the images play
shadow-birds projected in my mind
red glow as sun gets to eyes.

[goat]

eponymous goat
quill betwixt their humble hooves
droppin dat haiku <3

[fablefound]

@thefanciestpigeon i love these omg!

i've also really struggled with the short, tight, and quite simple formatting of haiku. similar to how flash fiction has always eluded me. but in honour of pigeon's really fun approach to the internet as nature, lemme try something...

blue light beating down
circadian disturber
shows me homecoming

sidenote, circadian disturber would be a great band name 

[kringle]

rain on the rooftop
tissues cluttering my desk
winter in my lungs


i am SICK 

realtalk tho this is a super fun thread idea. i LOVE reading everyones poetry  !!!! and i can see myself dropping a haiku in here every now and then

I was taught specifically that a more vital part of the form was there being some sort of "turn" in the middle, but ymmv.

oh interesting, can you elaborate on this? what do you mean by sort of turn?

also i've never heard of a haibun before, i loved yours! it feels so magical to read

[thefanciestpigeon]

oh interesting, can you elaborate on this? what do you mean by sort of turn?

also i've never heard of a haibun before, i loved yours! it feels so magical to read

Most haiku have two parts. Put two images together to create harmony or contrast, emotion and expansion of ideas. One image can appear on one line; the other image in two lines (either the first two lines or the last two). There is usually a pause, or kireji, at the end of either the first or the second line.

-from the haiku Canada education resources page

the kireji is also sometimes translated as the "cutting word" and isn't really a thing in English so some poets choose to use punctuation (like an em dash or ellipses) to represent it, but you don't have to! it can serve to highlight the turn if you do use it.

I was taught that the turn or twist is pretty open-ended. it can be directly a subversion of the expectation set by the start of the poem, for example from the Haibun Oku no Hosomichi by Bashō:

Even a thatched hut
May change with a new owner
Into a doll’s house.

or by George Bowering:

yellow maple leaf
falls from branches nearest the clouds
glides off gun barrel

but it can also be a less dramatic contrast or harmony of images, or a change in focus, it is pretty flexible.

the rains of summer;
somebody on the boat,
smoke rising

contrasts the image of rain in the first line with that of smoke/fire in the last line, for example

five miles round
the kite appears and soars,
at the low tide

by Taigi

sky/flying imagery with low/water imagery

I am by no means an expert on haiku, I am a form poetry nerd who took a class about them a while ago but who doesn't really focus on them or write them usually, this is just what I remember from being taught about them, but I don't know that much. I also don't speak Japanese and so can't say a ton about how the form works in its original language. 

if you like Haibun, you might want to look into other haiku variations such as renga, senryu or tanka! actually, the renga would be cool to do as a forum activity like this since iirc it is a collaborative form.

hopefully that made sense. hit me up if you ever wanna talk about form poetry it's my favourite thing ever!