POETRY

What a Haiku is Not

Haiku and Tanka

One of the challenges I’ve set for myself this year is to become more comfortable writing traditional haiku and tanka poetry. Looks easy, but it is much harder than it seems.

What follows are some basic poems depicting what haiku can look like — or not! A fun challenge!

Haiku flirts with life with delicate images to evoke nature.

Counting syllables is but first step in haiku to set boundaries.

Next comes the ‘kigo”, words to evoke a season with merely a hint.

And the natural world is the star of the poem. Keep our feelings out.

Beauty of haiku is its painting of nature using only words; readers become the artists, images unfold in minds.