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Wednesday, July 14, 2004

Haiku

Water reflects sky
Summer of my soul open
Under the spell still





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edited November 4, 2018
Haiku – v2

posted July 17, 2004
Haiku
Written July 7, 2004 22:13

Haiku is a Japanese structure poem format. It consists of three lines with five, then seven, then five syllables. Generally, they are meant to be expressions of sensation (usually of nature). That is, something you saw, or smell. Like little poetry photographs.
Didn't haiku develop from the final "answering" part of a longer structure, the renga: a thing rather like a sonnet, where an idea is introduced, developed then replied to, or thrown into a new light? So a haiku could be compared to the closing couplet of a ShakespeareanSonnet.
The RenGa consists of a waki (sp?) followed by a hokku (sp?). These forms have been translated into English as 7-7, 5-7-5. Also, the RenGa is a truly collaborative form of poetry - so a RenGa wiki page is much more ideal than a HaiKu wikki page. Also, wakki just so happens to sound a whole lot like wiki.
Haiku is usually spooged into its basic 5-7-5 format and then used to say anything. This is ok, provided you recognize that you're not really writing Haiku.
I've also heard that the 5-7-5 format is too easy in English to suggest the same kind of profound economy that a Japanese haiku would.'
More importantly, it is difficult to even count syllables in English. How many does 'file' have? What about 'shit'? In Japanese, syllables are always clearly delimited.
If you think the answer to both questions is One, understand that a Japanese speaker would normally pronounce them as fai-ru and shi-to.
''And even more, Japanese do not count syllables, but "uttering time". i.e.: DÔ (way), as it has a "long O", counts as TWO "syllables".''

five, seven, then five,
nature's fragrant seasons grow
signal amidst noise

mountains of clouds
cleansing winds of morning
wet apple blossom

HaiKu's inventor
must have had seven fingers
on his middle hand


"We will bury you!"
Freedom wins. We are dancing
on the Berlin Wall.

the invisible
rattlesnake: coiled, sleeping
Wakes! and glides away
-- CrotalusRuber? 19940410 MissionGorge? med Tico

First snow, then silence.
This thousand dollar screen dies
so beautifully.

Seen taped to a printer...
The tao that is seen
Is not the true tao until
You bring fresh toner.

or join a good haiku mailing listfive7five

I wrote a program in elisp to generate haiku at random from a buffer. I've also begun to write 'aesthetics' functions which judge lines according to an aesthetic function. The computer will then generate a number of random lines (100 to 10000, depending on how fast the computer is an how much time you have on your hands) and pick the most beautiful.
Here is a computer generated haiku from a buffer-ful of spam
today and ADULT
inconveniences NICKEL
FREE independence
For a very similar project, see: http://www.headlinehaikus.com/ - haiku generated from the text of current news articles. E.g.:
Bankrupt WorldCom? resists breakup
When people see that
the big companies are worth
little or nothing

Today is pretty
Miss, MyDogAteMyHomework?
See you later then

                Why the japanese
                think seventeen syllables
                are enough is a

Writing a poem
In seventeen syllables
Is very diffic

Paper ships at sea
Blue is the color of hope
It's about to rain

Shattered illusions
pierce my space . . . I huddle back,
feel that one crack, too ---
Bottom of Form



All of my poems, photographs, and videos are copyrighted by Raymond A. Foss, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018. All rights are reserved. Contact me at Ray Foss (raymondafoss@gmail.com) for usage. See all 48,000 of my poems at www.raymondafoss.blogspot.com Poetry Where You Live.


Concord NH, creator, God, haiku, New Hampshire, poetry, Poetry Where You Live, Raymond A. Foss, sky, soul, summer, water, Writing Poetry,

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