HaikuBeautiful Japanese Poetry

How did haiku get started? Nearly a thousand years

ago in Japan, young poets often gathered at parties to write long collaborative poems called renga. After the poet with the best reputation wrote the first section of the renga, his friends took turns writing other short parts. Eventually these short parts were released from the long poem and developed into haiku.

What does a haiku poem look like?

A haiku is a kind of verbal snapshot. Generally, a haiku will Contain 17 syllables in lines of

5,7,and 5 syllables; include some sort of seasonal

word and some sensory image; focus on nature; and be written in the present tense

about the present moment

Show me!All night longlight shines in the

eyesof the carousel

ponies

Example 2

All summer longthe sixteen story

cranebows and bows

Example 3

November evening—the wind from a passing

truckripples a roadside puddle

Example 4

From the tar papered tenement roof, pigeonshot-foot into flight

Example 5

Stickball players shoutas moonlight floods their

fieldfrom curb to curb

Example 6

The sudden storm’s dead…

petals from the dogwood tree

on the still pond

Example 7

The young artist takespains to paint a

masterpiece: a smiling pumpkin

and at last…The moaning snowplowshatters the frigid

stillnessof a crystal night