by Kelly

Sunday’s preacher says

what the yoga teacher says —

be still and be here

by Kelly

Sometimes, even the easiest things can seem so complicated.

Take haiku. Perhaps you’re new to haiku and you’re seeking a simple description about the poetry form. You want to know where haiku comes from, what a haiku is supposed to mean, and if there are any rules you need to follow.

Do a Google search on any of these topics and you’re likely to become so overwhelmed that you’ll lose your creative drive to write your own haiku.

Enter a new book by Valerie Bodden called Poetry Basics: Haiku. The haiku title is just one in a series of four books by Bodden, all with the title Poetry Basics. The series also features concrete poetry, limericks and nursery rhymes.

The haiku version explains the origins of haiku in straight-forward language before explaining how the form was introduced to Western culture.

The book explains the reasoning behind the 5-7-5 syllable rule, but also opens the door to “free form” haiku, or uncounted English-language haiku, encouraging readers to first try out the counted version before revising their haiku into something less rigid.

The author also explains the concept of a cutting word, or a break in the language of the haiku that divides the poem into two ideas.

She also emphasises the nature theme then moves on to explain that a haiku which is not about nature, but about people instead, is called senryu.

While the book is clearly a picture book meant for children, I must say I found it helpful to read. It reminded me of haiku points I’d already known but had forgotten.

If you’re seeking a resource to explain the very basics of haiku, this might be a title to put on your library list — even if you are an adult.

And if you’re a teacher or a school librarian this is definitely a resource that would get used.

If you want more ideas about teaching haiku to kids, check out this listing of picture books on the topic:

Haiku Picture Books for Kids

Thank goodness for Twitter! Because this is where I first became acquainted with the haiku of Barb Heath. And after just a few tweets I was already hooked on her poems. So I asked Barb if she would be interested in being a guest at our site and I’m glad she said yes. Her haiku will appear over the next five days.

Barb is a professional writer who has found a different kind of sanctuary in haiku. Let’s give a big welcome to Barb as she tells us a bit about her life, work and approach to haiku:

I’m Barb Heath, a full-time freelance writer/editor. I’ve been writing as long as I can remember, but I didn’t discover haiku until my sophomore year of college. For the first 20 years of my life, I learned to “expand on my thoughts.” “Add supporting details.” Organize paragraphs. Write ten page papers. Fifteen page papers. Twenty page papers. Cite ten sources or more.

And then came haiku. I stumbled into a “poetry in translation” class that was originally supposed to be “advanced creative writing.” Haiku: it was mystifying, aggravating to me at outset. I loved what we read in class, but I couldn’t reproduce it. I had never learned to love such little things as syllables before. I was about to throw my haiku homework in the garbage when I realized, “I don’t have to be good at writing haiku, but I do have to learn something from it.”

Haiku actually taught me (what I think is) the most important thing for all my writing: focus. Haiku forces me to focus events, emotions, settings, etc. until they’re in their purest, most impactful forms. For me, writing haiku is like squeezing the juice out of a 750 page orange. Sometimes it takes me days to choke the nectar out of a single sentiment. Stray segments of haiku hang around my apartment on sticky notes, ripening. Professionally, I write essays, articles, standardized testing stories, web copy, and advertising materials. Recreationally, I even do some comics. Haiku fits in there somewhere.

together we pull

her red toboggan through the

white and black landscape

by Kelly

not pot holes but holes

every road I drive is cracked –

we’re all damaged goods

by Alison

my big fat tabby

perched in the sink licking up

soggy parmesan

by Kelly

“Some husband,” I pout,

“you never read my haiku.”

“Yeah but, I’m your muse.”

……….…soaring through the sky

……….…is still just for boys in the

……….…Winter Olympics

by Kelly

morning crowned in frost

royal till the mid-day sun –

status is fleeting

by Alison

puppy surrounded

by the white wooly clouds she

chewed from our sofa