Haiku Corner.
Posted: 18 Nov 2009, 22:36
Haiku is probably the best-known form of Japanese poetry in the West. In English it is often a three-line poem of 17 syllables, arranged 5-7-5. However, a Japanese haiku consists of 17 onji, or sound symbols.These are shorter than our syllables, and some experts have suggested that English haiku should really consist of about 12 syllables!
Confusing?..maybe, but haiku is always supposed to contain an element of discovery, natural images and a seasonal word or allusion. It should be a definite comment on something interesting or unusual. The form does not make the poem!
With that in mind, I thought a section of the poetry forum could be reserved for members and guests to present their haiku offerings. This will not require much in the way of analysis/criticism....the reader either experiences that "haiku moment"....or the reader doesn't.
Please allow me to present 5 haiku, just to start proceedings. They were written by Basho, Alan Spence,Andrew McGeever,Moritake, oh, and Leonard Cohen. Match the writer with the haiku! By the way, I don't think it will serve any useful purpose to use "haiku corner " to present the writings of others:My sole purpose in this exercise is to get things going!
A fallen flower
returning to the branch ?
It was a butterfly.
The breeze sweeps fallen
cherry blossom into neat
drifts of pink on pink
Silence
and a deeper silence
when the crickets
hesitate.
A brushwood gate,
and for a lock-
this snail.
the whole sky and more
reflected in each raindrop
hanging from that branch.
I hope this posting will get forum members writing! Yours,
Andrew McGeever.
Confusing?..maybe, but haiku is always supposed to contain an element of discovery, natural images and a seasonal word or allusion. It should be a definite comment on something interesting or unusual. The form does not make the poem!
With that in mind, I thought a section of the poetry forum could be reserved for members and guests to present their haiku offerings. This will not require much in the way of analysis/criticism....the reader either experiences that "haiku moment"....or the reader doesn't.
Please allow me to present 5 haiku, just to start proceedings. They were written by Basho, Alan Spence,Andrew McGeever,Moritake, oh, and Leonard Cohen. Match the writer with the haiku! By the way, I don't think it will serve any useful purpose to use "haiku corner " to present the writings of others:My sole purpose in this exercise is to get things going!
A fallen flower
returning to the branch ?
It was a butterfly.
The breeze sweeps fallen
cherry blossom into neat
drifts of pink on pink
Silence
and a deeper silence
when the crickets
hesitate.
A brushwood gate,
and for a lock-
this snail.
the whole sky and more
reflected in each raindrop
hanging from that branch.
I hope this posting will get forum members writing! Yours,
Andrew McGeever.