Haiku Musings

Haiku Hut is a forum where you can get feedback and critiques on your haiku.

There are many nice people who will help you and educate you on the seemingly endless ways to go about writing a haiku poem!

Click here to visit Haiku Hut. You have to register to post and read the forums.

Even the world's shortest poems deserve to be heard! Introducing Wisteria Press's new haiku podcasts! Now you can listen to haiku on your iPod, Mp3 player or right here on the internet! To download, just right-click and select "save target as." Choose a file name and that's that! Or click the link and listen online.

If you'd like to be a part of our haiku podcasts, simply email your haiku to us along with your name, email address, and brief bio. We'll record it and put it up here!

Haiku Podcast #1 - December TwilightI
n this premier podcast, Edward reads one of his haiku poems from the book "Seashore Haiku." (Mp3 file - 1.08 MB)

Haiku Podcast #2 - March Wind
Here, Edward reads a haiku from his upcoming book "Bird Haiku." Enjoy! (Mp3 file - 1.31 MB)

When writing haiku, many poets submit you must have what is called an "aha" moment. This occurs primarily because of something called juxtaposition. For example, take a look at this haiku by the Japanese master Basho:

Not one traveler
braves this road -
autumn night

It consists of 3 lines. The first 2 lines describe something specific. In this case, it's describing something that is not taking place, i.e. no people on a road. In line 3 we have the setting "autumn night." The aha moment occurs when we read the haiku as a whole and go back and forth between lines 1 and 2 and line 3. This juxtaposition causes one, hopefully, to...

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I've been reading a lot of what is called "modern" haiku lately. And I have to say that much of it fails to move me. Not that I intend to cry or sob over 3 lines of poetry, but for some reason, many new haiku poets just don't have or understand the haiku sensibility.

To me, haiku is about the beauty of nature and this beauty's impermanance. Personally, this is the kind of haiku I'd like to see more of. Your thoughts?

I've started a new haiku podcast over at http://www.wisteriapress.com/haiku_podcasts.html If you have any haiku you'd like to see featured here, just visit the above link for details.

I've also posted the first haiku to the podcast. The cool thing about podcasts using Mp3 is that you can download them and upload right to iPod or Mp3 player. When I was growing up in the early 70's and heard that the information age was coming, I had no idea I'd be a part of it. Fantastic!

You know, I've read many poems by the Japanese haiku masters. Some I like, but most I don't. Why? Because I just can't completely relate to their aesthetic. Sure, nature is nature throughout the world. It's just their way of writing about it that doesn't do it for me. For instance, look at this haiku poem by the Japanese haiku master Basho:

Don't imitate me;
it's as boring
as the two halves of a melon.

Now this haiku isn't bad. And I'm not saying that Japanese haiku is bad. It's just different. And this difference has to do with culture. Perhaps if I lived in Japan for 10 years, I'd understand the many hidden meaning in many of their haiku poet's work. In fact, the Japanese have hundreds of words to describe the nuance in seasonal change. We here in the west don't. We're more straightforward and in my mind, even more zen like. For example, look at this poem by Canadian haiku poet Bruce Ross:

winter stillness...
on a high branch the crow
opens and closes its beak

Notice how direct this is. And simple too! There are no hidden meanings or allusions to something other than what this haiku portrays which is a crow performing a simple act of moving its beak. The real beauty of this particular poem is the contrast between "winter stillness" and lines 2 and 3. Using juxtaposition, we get a sense of "nothing special" happening here. Yet it is exactly this sense of nothing special that produces that beautiful Zen-like effect!

Japanese haiku also have this quality and I suppose it's just a matter of taste. The west has learned much from the Japanese haiku poet and has developed its own unique way of expression.

So, you want to learn haiku. It's no surprise. Many people are attracted to this elegant and economical poetry form. In just a few words, an entire scene is captured.

To learn haiku, you need to forget about what you've heard regarding writing it. The notorious 5-7-5-syllable rule no longer applies to modern haiku poetry. This is a good thing for it frees you up to focus on expressing yourself without worrying if your syllables fit a predefined pattern.

The most important thing you need to know about learning how to write haiku is... Click here to read the rest of this article!

Rules are a good thing. They keep us focused and help us understand how to do something. When it comes to haiku rules however, some things are less than useful.

Take the 5-7-5-syllable rule for instance. A nice rule that dictates the form of the poem. Five syllables for line 1, seven for line 2 and five again for line 3. It's been used for many, many years to generate fine haiku poems. But this haiku rule in particular has given way to what is called "free form" haiku.

Free form haiku still uses the 3-line format (for the most part) but instead of the strict adherence to 5-7-5, we have...

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Ok. Here it is. I don't like most of what I read as modern haiku. Why? Because it really isn't haiku at all! It's something called senryu. Senryu uses haiku form and format but instead of using nature as subject, takes the human drama instead. You know, everthing that happens to us.

I dont' know about you but I've about had it with human drama. That's what drew me to haiku in the first place. Here was a poetry of elegant simplicity where I could turn and escape from the world for a while. Now we have poets who just don't seem to get the "haiku mindset" which, in my mind at least, explores the miracle of the natural world. Instead we get clever little poems about something happening in our world.

There's nothing wrong per se with senryu. Except that I really don't like it that much.

So you're off to work. A million things to think about. Deadlines and your boss are at your throat and you wonder why you even got out of bed. At least you have daily haiku!

Daily haiku is a new service presented by Wisteria Press, a small haiku press located in San Diego. For those of you who don't know, haiku is an age-old Japanese poetry form that uses just a few words to capture the beauty of nature. While the 5-7-5 syllable rules may or may not be followed by modern haiku poets, the poem's form itself really hasn't changed.

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