#HaikuTip Issa often asked questions of small creatures in his haiku, like:
evening lark—
which pine island’s
good for sleeping?
Try writing a haiku that incorporates an asked question, or an implied one like in this poem by Liz Fulton:
winter walk
half a robin egg
at my feet
#haiku
#HaikuTip Have you been using the Translate feature hidden in the line of dots in each post? You may discover that many fine poets are writing in languages you don’t speak.
Sometimes I find I prefer a different word choice, but the translation gets me close enough to understand the meaning.
#haiku
#HaikuTip How much do you trust your readers? Have you dared to try to trigger in them an Aha Moment you’ve experienced?
Have you pointed to it, but left the epiphany of that moment undefined, trusting readers create their own custom enlightenment out of their reflections and imaginations?
#haiku
#HaikuTip Have you thought of being poor as a topic for haiku?
autumn colors—
the scarecrow’s shirt
nicer than mine
(Stanford M. Forrester)
Issa often wrote about being poor & the real treasures in life:
hole in the wall—
my harvest moon
comes in
(p. 69 of Lanoue’s book Write Like Issa)
#haiku
#HaikuTip Look for deeper meaning in your everyday life; there may be a haiku hiding there. For instance, this simple act happened today. Only as I put it into words did I see that what they were planting was significant.
planting seeds
with Pop-Pop—
forget me nots
#haiku
#HaikuTip Issa’s haiku weren’t just imaginary but grounded in real experience, like an actual bronze statue he’d seen.
1813
in the great bronze
Buddha’s nose chirping . . .
sparrow babies
1818
from the great bronze
Buddha’s nose . . .
soot-sweeping
(Lanoue’s Write Like Issa, pp. 77-78)
#haiku
#HaikuTip Writing to a prompt can be fun, but
—writing haiku about what you’re doing can help keep you centered & present (or a senryu may emerge that improves your perspective),
—and writing about what’s going on in the natural world can enhance awareness.
❤️ You can enrich your life with #haiku
#HaikuTip #haiku
Haiku can capture special moments in your life to share and savor later, again and again.
Here’s one of my special memories:
#HaikuTip Haiku are very short, so it’s easy to overdo poetic devices like alliteration, rhyme, & repetition. Reading your haiku aloud will reveal overcrowding.
Sometimes, though, separated words that begin with the same letter or that share an internal rhyme tie a haiku together.
#haiku
#HaikuTip It’s valid to call haiku about being human either senryu or haiku. Ironically, our most personal, revealing haiku may be the most appealing. Centuries ago Issa wrote:
when will it become
a cricket’s nest?
my white hair
(p. 66, Lanoue’s Write Like Issa)
I can still relate today.
#haiku
#HaikuTip Listening to Ezra Klein/Brian Eno podcast: creating Art is adult play, discovering & exploring our feelings.
For me, haiku is Art. I am sometimes transported, enlightened, enriched reading haiku & often uncover new meanings as I write haiku of my own, putting feelings into words.
#haiku
“to be wild and perfect
for a moment, before they are
nothing, forever”
(Excerpt, Mary Oliver’s poem “Peonies”)
#haiku
#HaikuTip Every haiku is an opportunity.
Looking for inspiration or advice on how to get started writing haiku?
Two new Writing Prompts have been added on the
www.haiku-insight.org
One is to trigger early autumn observations; the other is step by step instructions on how to write a haiku.
Added more My Haiku also.
#haiku #HaikuTip
#HaikuTip Some writers of haiku determinedly keep themselves out of haiku moments they share; not Issa. Others find his many introspective haiku very relatable even today. The day his father was cremated he wrote:
splashing me
the survivor . . .
grassy dew
(p. 64, Lanoue’s Write Like Issa)
#haiku
#HaikuTip A haiku may seem silly on the surface & yet have an undercurrent of sabi (loneliness, melancholy, appreciation for the old & faded), inviting reflection, like this one by Greg Longenecker:
abandoned farm
the dandelions make
their own wishes
(p. 58, Lanoue’s Write Like Issa)
#haiku
#HaikuTip Issa poked fun at pomposity, sometimes with potty humor. A mild example:
pointing
at the fart bug . . .
laughing Buddha
(p. 51 of Lanoue’s Write Like Issa)
We need not take ourselves or others too seriously, regardless of station. A haiku can be both funny & food for thought.
#haiku
Check out #HaikuTip (& #HaikuTips) on Bluesky & my website
www.haiku-insight.org
for support for “rule breaking” for the sake of impact & meaning.
Rules for modern western haiku are different & constantly changing. Even old haiku masters treated rules more as guidelines. So can we. #haiku
Is it #haiku or #senryu ? Depends on who you ask. Issa knew about senryu & he poked fun at human foibles, but he called his poems “haiku” because they weren’t just shallow fun; they triggered thought about human nature.*
Human nature is nature too.
*p. 47, David Lanoue’s Write Like Issa
#HaikuTip
#HaikuTip For Issa “any & all experiences [were] worthy of attention and suitable for haiku.” Lanoue wrote:
someone else
couldn’t sleep, the warm
toilet seat
& he quoted:
the silent party
after the guests leave
ant covered shrimp
by Kath Abela Wilson
(pp. 43,44 Lanoue’s Write Like Issa)
#haiku
Even in troubled times, I find joy in reading Issa’s haiku & writing like Issa. Issa helps me zoom in on details of life around me, responding in childlike wonder, as Tom Sacramona does here:
a puppy
licking the dew
off everything
(p. 37, of David G . Lanoue’s Write Like Issa)
#haiku #HaikuTip
#HaikuTip I’m preparing a course based on the book Write Like Issa: A Haiku How-To by David G. Lanoue. I’ll post some snippets here.
Issa wrote with empathy & compassion, respecting every creature as his peer & companion in life:
the cricket’s
winter residence . . .
my quilt
(poem on p. 12)
#HaikuTip Ever need help revising your haiku? A fresh eye can be helpful when you’re stuck.
Just remember that your writing belongs to you. If someone’s suggestion doesn’t get you closer to what you want, say so. In attempting to clarify, you may find your own answer.
(1/2)
#haiku
#HaikuTip Searching for content? Here’s a challenge/prompt you can use anytime: Try looking at the world through an imaginary zoom lens.
Many classic haiku capture moments from everyday life. It’s not big ideas or big words that make haiku meaningful; it’s close attention to small things.
#haiku
I see some Tips have #HaikuTip and others have plural hashtag #HaikuTips but it’s all the same collection.
#haiku
Here’s a #HaikuTip from 6 months ago: Don’t be afraid to write bad haiku. If what you write reminds you of a haiku moment, you can always revise it later. Basho, a revered haiku master, sometimes wrote and retained multiple versions of one poem. You can, too.
#haiku
#HaikuTip Don’t let what you don’t know about syllables keep you from writing haiku. The video on why westerners can’t really replicate the Japanese rule made my eyes glaze over.
For us in the west now, brevity and getting readers to share a moment that stands out to us is the goal.
#haiku
#HaikuTip “It is necessary to write if the days are not to slip emptily by. How else, indeed, to clap the net over the butterfly of the moment?” (quoting Vita Sackville-West)
Reading & writing #haiku can help you recognize meaningful “butterfly moments” in your life & net them for keeps.
#HaikuTip 2/2 Do you enjoy starting with a prompt, challenge, or fantasy? Fine. Start there. But if you make the next step relating the prompt, challenge, or fantasy to a real experience or memory of one, you’re more likely to write something that “rings true” and benefits your readers.
#haiku
#HaikuTip What haiku CAN be: You can start with a true moment (that happened to you or to someone else). You can hold that moment in a spotlight of carefully selected and arranged words so that others can see the beauty, feel the realization, the connection of that moment for themselves. 1/2
#haiku
