Haiku: The Art of Japanese Poetry — Part.3
The times we live in can, at times, feel too surreal. There are bad news left and right — an ongoing pandemic, police brutality, explosions, a military base surrounded by dark events, fires on the west coast, and a possible category 4 hurricane heading my way. The one thing these all have in common is death. But if we learn from the father of haiku, Matsuo Bashou, to take a moment and appreciate the beauty of everyday life, the world might not always seem so bad.
To quickly recap from last week, a haiku consists of three sets of lines in syllables of 3–5–3 or 5–7–5 each. They typically contain a kigo, or seasonal word, and a kireji, or cutting word, but this is not always the case in English haiku.
Her sun was hot. Bright.
My moon set without goodbye
Too soon. Hi, winter.
Here is a haiku I created in light of recent personal events. Perhaps you’ve guessed the meaning behind this simple 5–7–5 set. If you haven’t, it’s too much to explain and not relevant to this topic. It is important to note, however, that, other than its syllable set correctness, it should not be considered an appropriate example of a haiku. I’m no poet, but perhaps we could find more inspiration by learning about two other great masters in this last part of my Haiku series.