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Haiku - Poetry of the Past & Future

First, … for all of those who are sitting there trying to remember some obscure English class in your past, when you vaguely recall some droning teacher’s explanation of “What is a haiku?”, … here it is in a nutshell.

A haiku is a traditional Japanese poem, made up of three lines. It doesn’t have to rhyme (most don‘t), but it does have a very specific amount of syllables, and they are arranged as follows. 1st line -5syl./ 2nd line -7syl./ 3rd line -5syl., for a total of 17 syllables. That’s it, … those are the basic rules.

I say “traditional”, but actually haikus are a spin-off of an ancient form of poetry (we’re talking thousands of years), that was a much longer epic type of poem. “Modern” haikus, only started showing up as a new form of poetry in the 1890’s. (This style is barely a 100 years old.) As far as poetry standards go, … this is the “new pup on the block”.

Now according to “tradition”, most early haikus focused their subject matter on Nature. (Lots of ponds, … and frogs, … and dragonflies, … Oh my!) That makes sense, since Nature had always been the basic theme for the longer poems. They would compare their lives to Nature, because that was the most powerful thing surrounding their world.

However, this is where the newer haikus are starting to branch away from their beginnings. Our world/lives are made up of much different parameters, and haikus are slowly reflecting that change. This is a good thing! It’s necessary to evolve with the world around you, because poetry should always be a reflection of life, … with all it’s myriad faces.

Our modern world is fast and full of multi-tasking days. I’m not sure most of us could find the time to sit down and read a long poem, even if we wanted to. (This doesn’t mean we “shouldn’t” sit down and ponder life every so often, … but I fear it’s becoming a forgotten art.)

Haikus step into this need very nicely. It’s basic structure requires the author to get to the point fairly quickly. I like to explain haikus like this. “It’s like painting a mural size concept, … on a postcard.” You take a larger idea, emotion, comment on life, …, and you find a way to convey this picture using only 3 lines & 17 syllables. If you do it properly, you can create multi-level pictures/meanings, just by which words you choose to use.

Modern haikus should reflect thoughts and feelings of life, without compromising the depth of those subjects in the name of brevity. It’s actually a remarkably flexible form of poetry, considering it’s basic restraints.

You can choose to humorously comment on the cart traffic in your local grocery store, or seriously ask “What’s it all about?”, using the same format. It’s all in how you approach it. (Hint: Get a good dictionary!) Your “life” words are already out there for the picking, … you just need to find the right ones. Hmmmm!

Life’s words are out there
For the picking, you just need
To find the ripe ones.

See what I mean? Think I’ll call it …“Harvest Time”.

Article Source: http://www.articlemap.com

About The Author: B. MacNichol is the award winning, premier poet of the “frameable greeting card” line - N OTHER WORDS , whose background includes Senior Engineering, Master Drafting, Journeyman Blacksmithing, and Farriery (horseshoeing). While spending her formative years in Missouri, she currently resides in the mountains of North Georgia, and is pursuing a professional writing career. To view additional samples of her work, please link to www.notherwords.com

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