Haiku Love

Oh, I've been wanting to write this one since I started my blog.

I love haiku. I. Love. It. 


The humorous, delicate, multi-layered Japanese art form tickles my literary fancy like nothing else ever has.

If you're like most average Americans, you probably find it awkward and unbalanced. That's the way I felt about it before I read the following article:

 http://www.ahapoetry.com/haiartjr.htm

My eyes were opened. I suddenly entered a whole new world of riddles and unlikely comparisons.

Haiku is a literary form. You need to get that in your head. If you are turned off by them, it's most likely because you aren't recognizing their format, which is everything to a haiku. A haiku is rather very strict. Yes, there is room for artistic interpretation, but for the most part they follow very specific patterns.

It's all about patterns. If you've never studied haiku patterns before it will be difficult for you to pick up on the context.

It's true- one can, and often does, spend four paragraphs discussion and interpreting something like:

      Long hard rain
      Hanging in the willows
      Tender new leaves.

(from   http://www.ahapoetry.com/haiartjr.htm)

Isn't that beautiful? That's a wonderful technique called contrast. That is easy stuff. It's gets harder with other forms like double entendre and leap linkage. But I won't go into those things yet.

What I would like to do is have more conversations about haiku using the above article as a reference, taking each technique one at a time and discussing them in detail. I'll try my hand out at haiku's of my own.

For now, I'll leave you with my all-time, favorite haiku:

      Moving into the sun
      The pony takes with him
      Some of the mountain

(http://www.ahapoetry.com/haiartjr.htm)

Beautiful, beautiful image.