More about haiku

Well, I thought it might be interesting to reduce the quantity of tags I've got on this blog that only refer to one post. I'm not sure I'll finish the project or it will produce anything worthwhile, but it should give me plenty of things to write about. I decided to start this project with the topic of haiku.

For those of you who follow my creative writing blog (currently under the URL i-wrote-this.tumblr.com) I've been writing a haiku pretty much every day for a few months now. I've covered lots of strange topics usually supplied by my followers. I've written haiku about mac and cheese, broccoli, and orchids among a long list of oddities. It's a fun process and it isn't as easy as it sounds.

For those of you who don't know about haiku, here's the deal. Haiku were developed in Japan and they are a traditional poetic form in that country. They are short and sweet and the structure is pretty simple. First the haiku is only 3 lines long. There is no need to rhyme when you write. In fact, rhyming my be looked down on with this form. Next we worry about the length of each line. It all comes down to syllable. Line one has 5 syllables, line two has 7 syllables, and line three also has 5 syllables for a total of 17 syllables.

That's all there is to it, but it's not as easy as it sounds. You can't break a word with a dash to make your syllable count work. You're going to have to play around with word choice and word order to make it work out. I suppose you want some examples to help you on your way. Well, I've got some space so we can make that happen. Here are a few samples from my creative writing blog.

Lillies
on the water, in
a vase, growing in a field-
they are wonderful.

Smiles
A frown turned upside
down makes the world a brighter
place to those in need.

Travelling
Balloons in the sky,
planes, trains and automobiles,
let’s go on a trip.