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History
The heart and essence and core elements of haiku began in ancient Indonesian poetry which was then imported into China by Chinese conquests and evolved into Chinese linked poetry. A Japanese explorer in China took the knowledge of this linked poetry back to Japan and it initiated a poetic tradition in Japan called waka that eventually evolved and gave way to renga. The renga poem had a beginning verse called hokku that Basho later separated from the renga making it a form of poetry in its own right. As time passed it began to be called haiku. Shiki adopted and popularized the term haiku in the late 1800s so that is why we call it haiku today.Although the term haiku only came to be in the 1800s, we retroactively apply the term to all hokku that were written earlier for ease of reference. That is why we speak in terms of Basho's haiku, and Buson's haiku, and Issa's haiku, etc. Just be aware that during their lifetimes they knew and referred to what they wrote as hokku.
Haiku in Japanese is a short poem written in a rhythmic cadence of 5 phonetic sounds, 7 phonetic sounds, and 5 phonetic sounds. Even though it was often written in one line, the three rhythmic parts were clear to the Japanese reader.
Haiku began to be exported from Japan to Western nations in the mid 1800s. Western poets and scholars began to learn about it and write books about it and translate Japanese haiku for Westerners to enjoy. Eventually some imagist poets began to experiment with the ideas and after World War II haiku grew in popularity.
When it was originally imported into America, it was imported with the idea of trying to emulate the Japanese haiku. So to delineate the three rhythmic parts, early pioneers said to write haiku in three lines; and to emulate the 5-7-5 phonetic sound pattern of the Japanese, early pioneers said that the three lines should be 5 syllables-7 syllables-5 syllables, which is where we get the traditional American 5-7-5 haiku pattern.
But these early pioneers overlooked the significant difference between the way the Japanese count phonetic sounds and the way we count syllables in English. So a traditional 5-7-5 English language haiku is actually way too long compared to the Japanese as we will see in the next section. But since 5-7-5 was the way it was introduced to us and the way it is now established in academia so that it is still widely taught in that manner, and since there are still thousands upon thousands of people who write haiku in 5-7-5, it will probably continue to be a very popular format for haiku.
However, American haiku poets, haiku societies, and poets of other Western nations now practice a more modern form of haiku that is briefer as discussed in the next section.
The Basic of the Basic of the Basics of Haiku
Most modern English language haiku poets are moving on to a briefer haiku format (discussed below) but I want you to know that it's okay to write 5-7-5 haiku if that is what you choose to do, because it is the original traditional English language emulation of the haiku and it is widely practiced. But it is also good to be aware of why this was not the best way to emulate the Japanese haiku and why modern English language haiku, everywhere around the world, is now practiced without the 5-7-5 requirement.
As discussed, the recommendation to write haiku in three lines came from the fact that Japanese haiku are written in three rhythmic units. In Japanese these three rhythmic units are clear so they do not need to break their haiku out into lines. However, in the English, the way we often show the grammatical and rhythmic units is by line breaks. So breaking a haiku into three lines is a standard practice.
One of the most famous haiku ever written is Basho's frog haiku. First is the romaji (Westernized alphabet way of presenting Japanese characters) followed by a translation:
furu ike ya kawazu tobikomu mizu no oto
old pond...
frog leaps into
the sound of water
Did you notice that the haiku in English is NOT 5-7-5?
(2) old pond...
(4) frog leaps into
(5) the sound of water
This haiku poem is actually 2-4-5 in English. However, in the Japanese it is 5-7-5.
Let's compare the length of the Japanese to the English version:
furu ike ya kawazu tobikomu mizu no oto
old pond frog leaps into the sound of water
Isn't it phenomenally remarkable that the English version is actually slightly longer with more characters than the Japanese original of this haiku—and yet the Japanese is 17 sound units and the English only 11 syllables.
This is a remarkable example of how the Japanese language is far different than English and sound is counted differently; yet, when haiku was initially introduced to the West, it came with the idea that we should equate our syllables to their sound units.
Japanese sound units are far different than ours and if we write in a full 17 syllables we will have much longer poems, some almost twice as long as Japanese haiku.
After the haiku was introduced as 5-7-5 syllables, a number of Japanologists and linguists studied the differences in languages and came to a consensus and conclusion that the 17 Japanese sound units equates to about 9-12 syllables.
I have moved on and grown and learned to write the succinct modern haiku that more closely approximates the Japanese. Even so, I still appreciate the history of the 5-7-5 haiku and I still write them occasionally because that is how they were introduced to the West and so now it is an established English language tradition.
If you choose to develop and practice the modern English language haiku, writing in 17 syllables or less spread over three lines is the standard practice. But "less than 17" can be a nebulous figure so many haiku linguists, scholars, publishers, and journals recommend that modern haiku writers aim to ideally write 9-12 syllables in three lines because this makes the haiku more pithy, succinct, and poignant and more closely relates in length to the Japanese haiku.
For those of who want to write modern but who also want to try to retain a patterned form that emulates the Japanese patterned rhythm, it would be better to write a haiku of 3-5-3 in English (11 syllables) or 4-6-4 (14 syllables).
Remember this is the basic of the basic of the basics, so these are not the only ways of writing haiku. In later units we will look at 1-line, 2-line, and 4-line haiku. And remember, modern English haiku can be up to 17 syllables, but will ideally shoot for 9-12.
So our first item or point in writing haiku is this:
1. Write your basic haiku in three lines.
a. for modern English language haiku use 17 syllables or less over 3 lines, BUT ideally shoot for 9-12 syllables over the 3 lines
b. for traditional English language haiku write in 5-7-5 syllables
c. for a briefer patterned form, try 3-5-3 or 4-6-4 syllables
Okay, on to our next point for item 2. Now we'll look at the basic general mechanics of the grammatical structure of most haiku. This method is widely called the fragment/phrase method or structure. This means the haiku is written in two parts. There is a fragment side to the haiku and a phrase side to the haiku. These two parts, the fragment and the phrase, are separated by a distinct "cut or shift" in the haiku. We will discuss this cut in the next point. For now, let's focus on the two parts.
I'm going to share two haiku with you that we will use to illustrate the fragment/phrase structure and which will help us to understand how to check our own haiku to see that the two parts are working.
new moon . . .
curve of the steeple bell
in winter twilight
—Ebba Story, San Francisco, California
Mother’s scarf
slides from my shoulder—
wild violets
—Peggy Willis Lyles, Tucker, Georgia
First of all, both of these haiku show the "cut or shift" with punctuation, so it makes it easy to parse. The first one is cut by the ellipsis ( . . . ), and the second by the em-dash ( — ).
So now we are going to take the haiku and parse it out in one line to show the fragment and the phrase. A slash ( / ) is used to show the separation of the parts:
new moon / curve of the steeple bell in winter twilight
See how Line 1 (L1) is a fragment (new moon) and how L2 and L3 actually read as one phrase (curve of the steeple bell in winter twilight)?
Now the second haiku:
mother's scarf slides from my shoulder / wild violets
In this one, see how L1 and L2 are actually the phrase and L3 is the fragment?
It does not matter whether the phrase comes first or the fragment, so long as the haiku is in two distinct parts.
Here's a haiku that was shared in one of my forum workshops that makes a good illustration of how the lack of fragment/phrase worked against the haiku and after fixing it with fragment/phrase it was much more powerful.
sudden rain
wings wide open
the robin
This one has no clear cut and grammatically it reads as three separate fragments. If we try parsing it both ways to make a fragment/phrase out of it, we still get sketchy results:
sudden rain / wings wide open the robin (fragment/phrase)
OR
sudden rain wings wide open / the robin (phrase/fragment)
No matter which way we "cut" it, the phrase does not work together and it does not read right. What this reads like is 3 parts, not 2:
sudden rain / wings wide open / the robin
So this makes it clear that it is lacking the classic haiku two-part, fragment/phrase structure. However, this is EASILY FIXABLE.
sudden rain / the robin's wings wide open
Now we have a phrase that reads correctly together. L1 is the fragment, and L2 + L3 is the phrase. We can put an ellipsis after L1 if we want to make the cut more clear or just leave the punctuation off because the reader will be able to figure out what the fragment is, and what the phrase is.
sudden rain...
the robin's wings
wide open
That's how easy it can be to correct structure.
So our second point in the basics is:
2. Use the classic fragment/phrase structure to present your haiku in two parts.
Seems pretty easy so far, but now we go on to our third point. Let's look at the importance of the "cut or shift" in haiku.
What really gives the haiku its power, its energy, its wonder, its impact, its ability to "wow" a reader, is the way the two parts of the haiku are abutted together or matched together for purposes of giving the reader some sort of comparison to think about—how the two parts relate to each other, whether there is a contrast, or they are opposites, or there's a parallel, maybe a progression, or some other interrelated connection between them—and it is in the surprise noticing, or the revelation of this match or combination that there is the aha!, or enlightenment, or sense of wonder invoked by the haiku.
This match or comparison brought on by the cut or shift in the haiku is called the juxtaposition in English language haiku. The two parts of the haiku are juxtaposed. But also understand, the word used to describe what the cut does in the Japanese means "a uniting and dividing at the same time". So the match is a bit more than what the English word juxtaposition means.
Look at this one by Bashō:
summer grasses
all that remains
of warriors' dreams
summer grasses / all that remains of warriors' dreams
We are invited by this haiku to ponder these two parts. Summer grasses are fleeting, here today, gone tomorrow. Basho visited this ancient battlefield where a significant battle took place, the future and warriors' dreams hinged upon this battle, and many died there in that field and all that now remained of these warriors' dreams were summer grasses. We can also match the fleeting nature of grasses to the thwarted dreams.
One way I think of this is how fleeting life is, especially for warriors. The grass is here today and gone tomorrow—just like that warriors are killed in battle and their dreams ended.
So the third point of our basics is:
3. What really gives the haiku its power, its energy, its wonder, its impact, its ability to "wow" a reader, is the way the two parts of the haiku are abutted together or matched together (juxtaposed) for purposes of giving the reader some sort of comparison to think about.
Now on to our fourth point. The best language to use in haiku are words that pack a lot of meaning and show vivid imagery. Try to paint a picture in words of what you saw, experienced, or thought about. Relate concrete images in as much specifics as possible. Nouns are the strongest words to use—so use them freely. The haiku should not have too much action going on so usually one verb should suffice, or two carefully used, or an action implied without the use of a verb. Minimize the modifiers, adjectives and adverbs. Show the reader the scene/event don't tell them about it, show it as it is, present it in strong words, let them see it in their mind's eye.
So this simple fourth point is:
4. Show, don't tell, and use nouns and vivid imagery.
[In Unit 3 we'll look at "season words" (kigo) and other words that pack a lot of meaning.]
Let's move on to our final point. An important thing to know about haiku is that they are supposed to capture a present moment, so even if it is a memory or you experienced it in the past, you put yourself back in that moment and write your haiku in the present tense like it is happening now, even as the reader reads it. So this final point is:
5. Write in the present moment.
As far as the basic of the basic of the basics goes, that's it. Just 5 simple points and you can be writing effective haiku. There are many more nuances and techniques to learn beyond these basics but we need to get these basics down to understand the nature of haiku before going on to learn intermediate and advanced nuances and techniques.
Here it is all together, the basic of the basic of the basics of haiku.
1. Write your basic haiku in three lines.
a. for modern English language haiku use 17 syllables or less over 3 lines, BUT ideally shoot for 9-12 syllables over the 3 lines
b. for traditional English language haiku write in 5-7-5 syllables
c. for a briefer patterned form, try 3-5-3 or 4-6-4 syllables
2. Use the classic fragment/phrase structure to present your haiku in two parts.
3. What really gives the haiku its power, its energy, its wonder, its impact, its ability to "wow" a reader, is the way the two parts of the haiku are abutted together or matched together (juxtaposed) for purposes of giving the reader some sort of comparison to think about.
4. Show, don't tell, and use nouns and vivid imagery.
5. Write in the present moment.
Now, just to be sure we are not working against ourselves in writing our haiku, here are some things to avoid. Remember, this is not Western style or English language style poetry, so many conventions that are prevalent in Western poetry are avoided in haiku.
And just remember, avoid doesn't mean never. These are not edicts. One of the beautiful realities of haiku is that it can go wherever it wills to go. If it works, then it works.
1. Avoid rhyme — the Japanese language naturally rhymes and with its limited number of end sounds it is almost impossible for their haiku to not internally rhyme in some way. This is not planned or intentional, it's just their language. We avoid rhyme in English language haiku. But this does NOT mean NEVER. You are the artist, the creative poet, if you feel deeply that rhyme is the best and most powerful expression in a certain haiku or two, then use it.
2. Avoid overt metaphor, simile, and other figures of speech. A haiku is subtle, simple, straightforward and unadorned with fancy language techniques. Again, this doesn't mean never. Just be aware of how much the usual use of these techniques will weaken haiku significantly. If you know what you are doing, you may be able to skillfully use a technique in a certain rare few haiku.
3. Capitalization is an English language characteristic and is not necessary in haiku except for proper nouns and titles of persons, places, or things. This is an accepted contemporary convention.
4. Haiku are not titled. The Japanese haiku poets wrote many of their haiku either in poetry party games (linked verse) or in their personal journals. So sections of their journals had titles, but not the individual haiku within them.
5. Minimize punctuation, no periods are needed. Again, this does not mean never. I especially like to use punctuation for the "cut" when I think it is needed. Occasionally you will need to separate a point with a comma. Don't fear it, just minimize it.
That's it! Enjoy writing haiku and practicing it as you grow in your haiku journey.
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