The Haiku Habit
                                  by Jeanne Emrich

Imagine you are lying out on the grass one summer evening. A firefly comes winging over your head and, for just a second, you see it set against the constellation, "Cassiopeia." In that one brief moment, the firefly has aligned you, the earth, and the universe, and you are reminded that all things are interrelated.

How would you describe such an experience in a poem?

The haiku way is just to say it--simply. Written in a very direct manner, haiku tell the who, what, where, and when of the moment as the author perceived it through his or her senses. The end result of such a concrete description is that the reader feels as if he or she also is having the experience. And because commentary is kept to a minimum, the reader is free to come to his or her own conclusions about what the experience means.

"Ah yes, all things are interrelated."

star gazing . . .
a firefly joins
Cassiopeia

Haiku are Japanese in origin and traditionally consist of seventeen sound-symbols written in vertical lines. In English, they usually are seventeen or less syllables and spread over one to four horizontal lines with three lines being the norm.

white chrysanthemum
catching in one's eye
nary a speck of dust

MATSUO BASHO
(1644-1694)

Matsuo Bashō the grand master of this form, emphasized that the poet should write directly from experience and strive to perceive the inner life of the subject or moment.

"Learn of the pine from the pine;
learn of the bamboo from the bamboo."

Because haiku often are written fresh from experience -- or soon thereafter -- and jotted down on the odd piece of paper or, better yet, in a pocket notebook kept on hand just for this purpose, they are easy to get into the habit of writing.

As a result of writing haiku, you will:

~be more alive to the present moment

~recapture the freshness and vividness of perceptions you had as a youth,

~deepen your appreciation of nature and your place within it, and

~realize the potential of each moment for profound realization.

Haiku currently is growing worldwide in popularity. Traditional ways of understanding and composing haiku exist side by side with experimentations with the form as well as withits underlying philosophy and aesthetics. The following basic approach is meant to get you started writing haiku. As your understanding and experience grows, you may wish to explore other approaches. Before starting, it might be a good idea to do a little warm-up to get you in the haiku frame of mind. during the next week, try the following exercises:

~ Practice focusing totally on the moment at hand--the who, what, where, and when of it.

~Devote a day to each of your five senses. Write down a day's wroth of sensations from all that you touch, for example.

~Try walking slowly through a park, woods, or along city streets. Absorb the myriad details, the little happenings, as well as the ambiance.

To start writing haiku, you need only be on the lookout for a "haiku moment" in your daily life. For example, say you are driving to work during the morning rush hour. Behind you is a glorious full moon setting in the west. What two or three images or sensory impressions in this moment combine to make it meaningful to you? In this example, the images are the rush hour traffic and the full moon as you see it in your rearview mirror. Jot these images down (eg. at the first stoplight). Make a mental note to work them up into a haiku sometime later in the day. When you are ready, sit down with a fresh sheet of paper--or perhaps a notebook--and work up several versions describing these images in three lines. IN the end, your poem might be as simple and straightforward as:

rush hour traffic . . .
in the rearview mirror
the full moon setting

Remember that haiku are grounded in your senses. Try to describe what you saw, touched, tasted, smelled, or heard.

lights out . . .
still the fragrance
of daffodils

Try not to use Western-style literary metaphors or similes, such as "my love is like a red, red rose." Use simple language and let the moment speak for itself. This allows the ereader to draw his or her own conclusions about what the poem means.

an armful of roses--
the look
in your eyes

For the same reasons, use adjectives and adverbs sparingly.

To help your reader linger within your poem and savor its meaning, put in a grammatical break at the end of the first line or the second, but not at both. This slows down the speed of the poem and gives it a greater feeling of substance.

clouds drifting
past a liquid moon . . .(break)
frog chorus

To emphasize the break, you may wish to use an ellipsis, hyphen, comma, colon, or semi-colon.

A single line followed by a break should consist of just a word or two or a short phrase.

traffic intersection --

The two lines that follow may be a short sentence or another longer phrase.

a butterfly crosses
against the light

This also is true when the structure is two lines--break--one line.

In haiku, brevity is a virtue. Use approximately seventeen syllables or less, striving always for natural expression.

such morning glories!
the postman's hand reaches in
to find the mailbox

Many people write in lines of 5-7-5 syllables, according to the Japanese tradition of 5-7-5 sound-symbols. However, English syllables are longer than average Japanese sound-symbols and make for a wordy poem.

You may wish to try writing haiku with 10-14 syllables using approximately a short-long-short line arrangement.

spring walk--
there it is again
my shadow

However, do not cut out so many syllables that your poem sounds as clipped as a telegram!

Haiku traditionally follow the seasons and include a "kigo" or season word. In Japan, there are "saijikis" or season word reference books with thousands of entries to help poets in each season as well as in the "New Year." While today many poems do not contain a "kigo," knowing and using them will help you to become aware that topics for your haiku are almost inexhaustible. Here are a few kigo for each of the four seasons:

SPRING--apple and cherry blossoms, tulips, lovers, sunrises, kites, melting snow, plowing, muddy roads, chicks, tadpoles, spring rain, Vernal Equinox.

SUMMER--baseball, mayflies, camping, twilight, short nights, gardening, ladybugs, grasshoppers, zoos, rainstorms, hot days, rainbows, swimming, hiking.

AUTUMN--falling leaves, aspects of the moon, chrysanthemums, pumpkins, sunsets, starry nights, scarecrows, autumn winds, Indian summer, cutting wood, canning.

WINTER--snowflakes, longest night, icicles, cabin fever, Winter Solstice, pines, geese, wrapping presents, baking, Northern Lights, skiing, hothouse flowers.

Haiku work with the ordinary facts of daily life. One of the greatest surprises of this form of poetry is that in the ordinary, the everyday, you can find the sublime.

my bathwater--
here too shines
the moon

Look around you right now. What do you see, hear, taste, touch or smell that would make a good haiku subject?

In so short a form as haiku, you must get right to the point. One way to do that is to focus on the particular--the one among the many, the close-up in the general scene, the last, the first, the opposite. The significant detail--the particular-- puts your concrete images in sharp focus and provides the evidence that convinces the reader of what you re trying to say.

a pause to admire
the mosquito's long legs--
then I slap!

To add depth to your poems, look for and try to express fundamental truths about life rather than merely recording a fact.

behind the barn
prairie grasses reclaiming
the basketball court

This is a poem about the persistent life force of nature, its resilience and capacity for self-renewal.

Consider also using natural symbols in your poems. The world abounds with them, and they come to life when we see them in action--when they are doing something or something is being done to them.

falling
with the snowflakes--
magnolia blossoms

Here a symbol for winter and a symbol for spring (in my part of the world) interact, evoking the fragility of all living things.

Resonance in a haiku comes from juxtaposing two (or sometimes three) images or impressions to create an unspoken meaning that really sings! Your task is to recognize those elements within the "haiku moment" as you experience it.

retired barn . . .
next to the old sleigh
a snowmobile

Here the passing of one era and the arrival of another resonate in the juxtaposition of two images seen in a barn.

The highest degree of resonance often comes from juxtaposing quite disparate mages and showing a connection between them.

first snow . . .
lines up against the window
red peppers

Here the "first snow" and "red peppers" are the dissimilar images. The middle line shows how they are connected in a meaningful way. Against the chill of the season's first snowfall, the red peppers have been set up as a line of defense.

While writing several versions of a poem, you will explore different ways of juggling your images to get the best possible juxtaposition. A good rule of thumb is that the image that makes the rest of the poem resonate should be on the third line. In other words, save the best for last!

morning reflections--
suddenly a fish leaps
into the trees

Occasionally, you may wish to try a "leap" in which certain explanatory words are left out of your poem, resulting in an unusual juxtaposition of images or way of describing those images.

spring storm--
in the cornfields
puddles of sky

In the third line of this poem, I left out the word "reflected," in in "puddles of reflected sky," to accomplish this leap.

Nature often is expressed in haiku filtered through the Japanese aesthetic of "sabi" -- a sense of beauty in nature combined with a feeling of loneliness. When you feel a touch of sadness upon seeing a lovely scene in nature, try to figure out what elements evoke that feeling in you and include them in your haiku.

winter stillness . . .
the last leaf on the bush
curling into itself

Haiku also has a long tradition of humor, whether it be a wry observation of the moment at hand or a playful use of the language--and sometimes both in combination. Do not hesitate to put in your poems what strikes you as amusing.

pickup basketball--
every house
dribbling kids

Remember to save the best for last, so your third line reads like a punch line in a good joke.

People, being part of nature too, are excellent subjects for your poems. Be alert to haiku moments--both serious and humorous--where the essence of being human is made manifest.

spring project . . .
he paints his red wagon
in camouflage colors

But most of all, include the outdoor world of nature in your haiku. Put some fresh air in your poetry!

sunlit moss . . .
my footsteps
already forgotten

Educators tell us that it takes three to four weeks of daily practice to acquire a new habit. To make writing haiku a personal habit of your own, try this simple discipline: for the next four weeks, commit yourself to writing at least one haiku a day in your calendar.

Remember that every moment is potentially a haiku moment. Masaoka Shiki, one of the four great masters of haiku, said that a single place can provide enough haiku for twenty poems!

Once you have acquired the habit of writing haiku, you will enjoy sharing your poems. Include them in your greeting cards and letters, slip them into your conversations, and invite your friends to answer your poems with their own. You may also wish to subscribe to haiku magazines, join a haiku society, and browse the Internet for haiku sites. You might well find yourself sharing your poetry with people all around the world.

Enjoy! And may your next moment be a haiku moment!

Jeanne Emrich is the author of The Haiku Habit.  A workshop version of The Haiku Habit is available through The Haiku Society of America as a resource for teachers.

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