Worm safe underground,
snatched up by red breast Robin.
No longer happy.
Since Spring 2024 I have been writing haiku about moments I witness in my garden. Occasionally when sitting outside and just relaxing and observing, sometimes when sitting indoors and looking out, and other times when I’m doing some work and something catches my eye and imagination.
Haiku is an art form created in the moment, often used to capture a feeling or to record a specific occurrence. There is a lot of power in the short format they inherit which can be used for wisdom, spirituality, politics or fun. Due to the short attention span of many people today, this short format is a perfect way to deliver a message before people get bored. Long poetry certainly has its place but is possibly less relevant now than in the past.
Noble emeralds,
Swift flashes through sapphire sky,
Majestic in flight.
To me, haiku is a relaxing pastime. It is a special moment when I am provided an opportunity to sit in the garden and observe the wildlife with little or no interruption. Equally, it can be exciting. There is a sense of satisfaction when finding the perfect combination of words when something unexpected happens.
The format I have adopted for haiku is not an accurate like-for-like of the original Japanese. It is, however, the most popular format when using the English language (at least from what I can see). The format makes use of three lines. The first line has five syllables, the second seven syllables and five again for the third. In traditional Japanese haiku the poem was often written as one line – not three. It also uses sounds (or mora) as opposed to syllables. This significantly changes how a haiku is written and the rhythm when it is read back. Even in the English language there are debates surrounding the correct formatting of haiku. Over the years poets have altogether ignored syllable and line counts and just written a short poem calling it a haiku. It is often said that poetry has no rules, as such, maybe it doesn’t matter how many lines or syllables English haiku uses so long as it captures the feeling or spirit of the moment.
Oh to be a bee:
Lavender to lavender.
The endless parade.
I have only just begun my haiku journey. As I continue, I aim to experiment more with the flow of the lines and the use of punctuation. One haiku I have written about dandelions in my garden (see below) shows the beginnings of this journey.
Gentle breeze blowing
slender stems topped with yellow
sunlight beaming bright.
Each line can be read independently of the others, but they also bleed into each other:
- ‘Gentle breeze blowing slender stems’
- ‘slender stems topped with yellow sunlight’
- ‘yellow sunlight beaming bright’
I enjoyed writing this haiku because it contains more complexity; within the three-line and seventeen-syllable count you can create three more sentences. This allows space to say so much more and evoke a greater sense of what is being observed.
Peanuts for the birds.
Grey acrobat gets lazy;
thin squirrel now fat.
For now, my journey continues. As they say, “practice makes perfect”, although I imagine perfection to be an impossible task in the art of haiku, after all, a feeling is so very often subjective.
Visually Interesting 
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