Haiku is one of the most important form of traditional Japanese poetry. In Japanese, the rules for how to write Haiku are clear. In foreign languages, there exist no consensus in how to write Haiku poems.
Haiku-poems can describe almost anything, but you seldom find themes which are too complicated for normal people’s recognition and understanding. Some of the most thrilling Haiku poems describe daily situations in a way that gives the reader a brand new experience of a well-known situation.
The metrical pattern of Haiku
Haiku-poems consist of respectively 5, 7 and 5 syllables in three units. In Japanese, this convention is a must, but in English, which has variation in the length of syllables, this can sometimes be difficult.
The technique of cutting
The cutting divides the Haiku into two parts, with a certain imaginative distance between the two sections, but the two sections must remain, to a degree, independent of each other. Both sections must enrich the understanding of the other.
To make this cutting in English, either the first or the second line ends normally with a colon, long dash or ellipsis.
The seasonal theme
Each Haiku must contain a kigo, a season word, which indicate in which season the Haiku is set. For example, cherry blossoms indicate spring, snow indicate winter, and mosquitoes indicate summer, but the season word isn’t always that obvious.
Source: HAIKU for PEOPLE
~Maryam~
