Whyku?

Haiku, the Japanese art of poetry, has been around for thousands of years. Haiku actually stems from earlier types of poetry, that were longer and written by several authors. Over many years it became what we recognize now as a short verse. It was rejuvenated as an art form by a man named Shiki, who stressed the importance of “sketching,” as a way of description.

To many, including myself, Haiku is often a misunderstood art form. However, if you have ever tried to write a Haiku, a good one, you have probably noticed it isn’t always easy to come up with those three lines. Three lines which must express something, and for many authors, they do not know what. What are they trying to express? What does this short form accomplish and why would we restrict ourselves to two or three lines when we can write 50?

I like to think of Haiku as an “awareness art.” What I mean by this is that the author is keenly aware of the things around him, usually in nature, that so many of us go without noticing, and then writes a short, descriptive couple of lines that explains what he has seen, without giving you every detail. Instead, you must fill in the blanks for yourself. You must write just enough for the reader to be able to expand on his or her own. As short as the pieces are, they are not as easy to write as one might think. As writers, we are all working in some heightened sense of awareness, or at least I like to think so, and we try to translate that into our work. Haiku is a concentrated form of this, and more strictly compounded. We do not have the liberty of rambling on, or using unneeded words for the effects of drama and foreshadowing. The art of Haiku demands that you keep it short, so to speak. Many, many writers have difficulty with this. In Japan, this art form is centuries old, and practiced often. In the west, we like to talk. We like to go on and on and on, and use every kind of description and tall tale we can about whatever it is we are talking about. Our poetry is long and heartfelt. Haiku is foreign to us in many ways, and we as writers have difficulty translating our thoughts into this shorter form. Haiku is heartfelt as well, but kept to a minimum. The working theory here, less is more.

I read a great quote recently in this wonderful book, “The Dharma Bums,” by Jack Kerouac, which

Go To Page: 1 2

Articles in this Topic    Discussions in this Topic