Haiku is a poetic form most of us have some experience with. This Japanese form which found its way only about a hundred years ago to those writing in English merits a much closer investigation. The form contains useful lessons for most (if not all) writers.
J.W. Hackett’s suggestions for beginners and others writing haiku in English:
- Life is the fount of the haiku experience. So take note of this present moment.
- Remember that haiku is a poetry of everyday life, and that the commonplace is its province.
- Contemplate natural objects closely. . . unseen wonders will reveal themselves.
- Identify (interpenetrate) with your subject, whatever it may be: “That art Thou.”
- Reflect in solitude and quiet upon your notes of nature.
- Do not forsake the Suchness of things–nature should be reflected just as it is.
- Express your experience in syntax natural to English. Don’t write everything in the Japanese 5,7,5 form, since in English this often causes padding and contrivance.
- Try to write in 3 lines, of approximately 17 syllables.
- Use only comon language.
- Suggest, but make sure you give the reader enough, for the haiku that confuses, fails.
- Mention season when possible, as this adds dimensions. Remember that season can be implied by the poem’s subjects and modifiers.
- Never use obscure allusions: haiku are intuitive, not intellectual.
- Don’t overlook humor, but avoid mere wit.
- Rhyme and other poetic devices should never be so obvious that they detract from the content.
- Lifefulness, not beauty, is the real quality of haiku.
- Never sacrifice the clarity of your intuition to artifice: word choice shoul ebe coverned by meaning.
- Read each verse aloud, for unseen contrivance is usually heard.
- Bear in mind Thoreau’s advice to “simplify! simplify! simplify!”
- Stay with each verse until it renders exactly what you wish to convey.
- Remember R.H. Blyth’s admonition that haiku is a finger pointing at the moon, and if the hand is bejeweled, we no longer see that to which it points.
also:
There are values inherent in haiku which make it more than just a form of poetry. Prior to Basho, the writing of great contribution to bring haiku to life by basing it upon intuitive (i.e. immediate) experience. Certainly haiku’s real treasure is its touchstone of the present. As Basho said, ‘Haiku is simply what is happening in this place, at this moment.’ There are, of course, important considerations involved in the expression of haiku. It is, however, the essence of haiku–the immediate life experience–which provides the real basis for its universal adaptation.Get Haiku Poetry Volume One (Paperback)
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