HAIKU

Haiku

The haiku originates from Japan and consists of 3 lines made up of 5 syllables, 7 syllables and 5 syllables.

Originally haikus were written purely about nature, emotions and experiences. They did not rhyme, and consisted of just one verse. However, over time the haiku has gradually developed and it is acceptable now to choose to rhyme a haiku, or even to use several together as verses to create what would then be classed as a Haikai.

Nature walks

Nature walks inspire poetic thoughts and this is the original setting about which haikus would have been written. Pick up leaves, bits of bark etc, listen to sounds, consider the seasons and put your observations into words that fit the pattern of syllables 5 – 7 -5.

For example:

The Gift of Nature.

Beautiful nature:
Hills roll, clouds drift, hikers stroll
Peace and harmony.

The syllable count of a haiku makes it effective for short, succinct pieces of information.

Some poets struggle with haikus as they feel restricted and have more to say: others thrive at being able to make the most of one brief thought. They are a particularly good poem therefore, for encouraging close looking, and the filtering out of ‘unnecessary information’ to focus on key, important thoughts and moments.

Use this to concept to create haikus which can be used as a guessing game

For example:

Who am I?

Cheerful, round and kind
Christmas Eve – very busy.
Generous old man.

Try this idea for different topics in the classroom (not necessarily just nature inspired) to encourage children to look closely for the important detail, improve their descriptive skills, and to be succinct in their writing…..

For example:

Garbage truck

A hungry monster!
Emptying the bins weekly
Devouring rubbish.

I find that sometimes I am forced to look for alternative words of the same meaning to be able to fit the haiku pattern of 5 7 5 , which is a good discipline to establish and helps to widen the writer’s vocabulary.

If you would like to see examples of my haiku poems, you will find them under the category POEM FORMS and the sub heading HAIKU. Many of my poems will, of course, come under several different categories above, but they are duplicated deliberately so that you can find them by whichever means you need to use them.  Poems are also listed alphabetically in the POEM INDEX by title.