Do you know about Haiku?
Haiku uses words to express the writer’s feelings or viewpoints by employing limited syllables and words associated with seasons. Haiku recently received attention from people from other countries and they have been written a lot.
Rules
This is the first rule:
Use only 17 syllables.
There are three lines. The first line is five syllables, the second line is seven syllables, and the third line is five syllables, the same as the first.
This is the second rule:
Using words associated with seasons.
Japan has four distinct seasons, and each one of them has its own appeal. So, Japanese people focus on expressing seasons from long ago. In haiku, using a seasonal word like “cherry blossom” tells the readers indirectly what season it is.
Masterpiece
I will introduce the most famous haiku in Japan.
An old silent pond
A frog jumps into the pond—
Splash! Silence again.
Matsuo Bashō, “The Old Pond”
This example creates the image of the area around the old pond that is so quiet that you can clearly hear the sound of water as frogs jump into the pond. The point of this piece is that it does not use the word quiet, but you can imagine the countryside. It is more memorable to let the reader imagine the scene than to use direct words.
My original haiku
Sleepless winter night
I go outside and look up
Orion twinkle
My work represents the constellation Orion shining in the clear winter night sky of Boston. It also expresses my wish that you will look up at the beautiful stars on nights when you are anxious or nervous and cannot sleep.
Would you like to express through a haiku your feelings about your love towards your family or moving moments, or any emotion related to memories?