I have just started the A215 creative writing course with the Open University. An immediate benefit is that it is introducing me to forms, subject-matters and approaches I have hitherto not experimented with. One of this week’s exercises is to write a daily haiku. Traditionally haiku, a form of Japanese poetry known for its brevity, deals with the seasons or moments in nature. In English it typically takes the form of three lines, the first with 5 syllables, the second with 7 syllables and the third with 5.
It was also suggested we watch the news for writing inspiration in general. Well, hard not to watch the news at the moment. Anyway, yesterday’s daily haiku came out topical.
Funny that Iceland has
banks and bankers as well
as seals, whales and Bjork.
(c) Kate Allan, 2008
Do you haiku?
Hey, I like that one. You should come over to The Write Idea. They have several haiku threads going at any one time.
Jon you miss the point
The aim was to get you to
do a haiku here
(And ‘has’ should be at the start of the second line in yours Kate)
Nipponese verse means
Nothing at all to me. I’m
Missing an iamb.
Haiku leaves me cold,
Perhaps I’m missing something.
Maybe I’m just old?
Ohmygod! What have you started Kate?
Help! I’m beginning to think in haiku. I live next to a farm and it’s getting pretty bizarre here:
Silent sheep next door,
The farm is strangely quiet,
Maybe they’re debarred?
Time for my medication I think.
Haiku explosion!
Are we turning Japanese?
(Not like The Vapours).
Haid do a haiku
But hi’m afraid that hikan’t
(That better, Ian?)
Oh my good heavens
A haiku that proves its main
premise to be wrong
Since it seems I should have added to this thread long before I shall simply say (again!)…
To apologise
Is not the way to begin
A fine day’s writing
A haiku in the
Hand is worth more than two in
The thick of thinking
What’s all this haiku?
Just the sound of a loud sneeze?
I think it’s all crap.
Me and poetry:
In all of it’s forms, of course,
It leaves me out cold.
Except, maybe just
A little Edward Lear, or
Lewis Carroll. There!
I’m sure the original Japanese intention was to make something beautiful out of few words in the Japanese language, or to issue words of wisdom in fortune cookie style, perhaps. But really, is it worth the effort?
Of course it is.
Just ‘cos you can’t do pomes
Well lookie here -
http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/display.php?id=34882
Only in the good ol’ US of A could they award winning points for a 17 syllable form to someone who can’t count them correctly!
You worry too much
about trivial concerns
Take a chill pill, dude
“You worry too much
about trivial concerns”
Me? Nah … Mind you, it did occur to me that haiku by its very nature is discriminatory: what about all the innumerates amongst us who can’t distinguish the 5/7/5 layout?
Blatant innumerism, that’s what it is.
To enumerate
is to fall into the trap
that was set for you
(bloody hell Kevin, it’s only counting syllables)
I prefer daft rhyme,
Silly limericks are fun.
Haiku’s time…is gone.
Alas poor haiku!
I knew him, my friends, a play,
A fancy, no more.
Reports of my death
Are greatly overstated
The Haiku lives on
If the haiku is
dead, or at least is smelling
a bit funny then
perhaps we need to find an
alternative – a tanka?
So now tanka – 5/7/5,7/7.
Like I said, blatant innumerism.
Come to think of it, is literature a form of ism against dyslexics?
is literature a form of ism against dyslexics?
Best. Post. Ever.
quiffed old rocker pens
new song for his far east tour
a haiku ca choo
its called a haiku
not hai karate (dummy)
that’s an aftershave