Haiku

1. Haiku Beautiful Japanese Poetry

2. 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.

3. 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

4. Show me! All night long light shines in the eyes of the carousel ponies

5. Example 2 All summer long the sixteen story crane bows and bows

6. Example 3 November evening— the wind from a passing truck ripples a roadside puddle

7. Example 4 From the tar papered tenement roof, pigeons hot-foot into flight

8. Example 5 Stickball players shout as moonlight floods their field from curb to curb

9. Example 6 The sudden storm’s dead… petals from the dogwood tree on the still pond

10. Example 7 The young artist takes pains to paint a masterpiece: a smiling pumpkin

11. and at last… The moaning snowplow shatters the frigid stillness of a crystal night