Haiku. Was that a Sneeze?

In the spirit
of a new writing obsession,
haiku poetry

Haiku is such a difficult style to achieve perfection with because the tiny poem must convey so much emotion, visual flow and conclusion using just 17 syllables. I considered writing this entire blog in haiku style but it is Thanksgiving morning at 8:30 and I do not have that much brain power just yet. Instead of a haiku blog, how about I share a little haiku history lesson & some of my newly created haiku poetry from this week.

Here is one I wrote to submit to a contest:

Coffee to the brim
is spilled on the motherboard.
Ship it back damaged

Here is one I wrote from the point of view of a kid:

Run and run around.
Everyone fights for a seat.
Eliminated.

There are two parts to a haiku – the phrase & fragment – which basically refers to the fact that there is a distinct break & sentence structure in each line. The Japanese typically use kireji at the end of each line (a word which implies a break) but in English we more commonly use punctuation to imply the rhythm of the poem. This creates two very distinct types where Japanese haiku (potentially originating from the linked verse form of renga) is one continuous flowing sentence and English versions tend to be multi-line poetry.

Hokku in early 19th century Japanese culture was sometimes written with regard to nature and followed closely to Zen practice thanks to Kobayashi Issa who helped to develop a somewhat new form of haiki, drawing from his own sad life experiences. After the 18th century this former beautiful art of wordplay fell into a time of overall frivolity but was soon redeemed by Masaoka Shiki with an introduction of interest in Western culture. Shiki is considered the first true haiku poet as he helped to transform the ancient art into a new and beautiful form of expression. In haiku today themes not previously explored are prevalent such as sex, love and technology.

Last night I actually went to sleep dreaming about how to format a great haiku poem relating to falling asleep. Unfortunately the theory that if you think about it before you fall asleep you will remember in the morning did not quite work out for me today. Well, it worked to a point, I remembered there was a poem in my mind but what the words were is a mystery given up to eight hours of dreaming.

History lesson
researched. Wikipedia
was the resource used.