Haiku is a Japanese written art form featuring unrhymed poetic verses containing a total of seventeen syllables arranged in lines of five, seven, and five syllables respectively. Haiku generally include a seasonal or naturalistic reference that captures a brief moment in time. Haiku date back to the seventeenth century in reaction to what was at the time very elaborate poetic traditions. Thus they are short and highly structured, and evoke profound imagery rather than rhyme. The stark simplicity and sparseness of Haiku are absolutely elemental to their beauty and appeal.
Ancient Haiku often don’t translate well to English, in terms of the rigorous construct and strict form required, as Japanese and English syllables simply do not usually correspond. Examples of traditional Japanese Haiku:
Only Mount Fuji
The summer grasses
Is left unburied
All that remains
By young leaves
Of warriors’ dreams
Haiku written in English obviously much more easily follow our form of the requisite structure. Examples of unrhymed English Haiku:
Refreshing and cool
Calm as a river
Love is a sweet summer rain
Tranquility in my heart
That washes the world
Blue summer skies reign
The author is Western-born but with Eastern sensibilities. He is forever cursed by a lifelong penchant to reinvent all that he touches, and he proudly writes what no one else could have (perhaps because no one else would have wanted to?).
The author absolutely loves highly structured poetry, and rhyming within the already tight and abbreviated framework of Haiku seemed to him to represent the ultimate challenge. The exquisite form, with so few words that they cannot get in the way of the message, with the rigid structure, discipline, and focus required - all were too inviting an opportunity to ignore. Thus, he has produced redefined Haiku, all of which preserve the sacred 5-7-5 structure, all of which display careful internal rhyming (at minimum three rhymes within each seventeen-syllable poem), and most of which present signature teachable moments and life lessons, insights and punchlines, in a uniquely American way. Examples of my new American Rhyming Haiku:
Haiku underwent
Sacred Fuji climbed
My passion to reinvent
New Haiku written and rhymed
Not by accident
Completion well-timed
Poet laureate
Listen to the word
Words and rhymes a careful fit
Let the meaning sink unblurred
Plus punchlines and wit
Heed what you have heard
Haiku explore themes
What I wrote you read
Consider what each one means
As writer I worked and bled
Fulfill poet’s dreams
Ponder what I said
Some might argue that the sanctity of the already perfect Haiku written art form did not require or invite further experimentation. To those so inclined there is only a half-hearted apology. Please enjoy these short poems in an open-minded and positive way to seek out the value offered. The reader can either ‘power read’ through all of the Haiku, or use the calendar format to read one Haiku each day as a ‘thought nugget’ to stimulate hungry brain cells.
