How to Write Haiku - A Beginner's Guide

Each haiku paints a unique and dramatic scene that expresses emotions and sometimes a philosophical thought to be contemplated from the natural or social world.

The process of writing and searching for that elusive word to bring the emotion in visual perspective provides an avenue to still the constant chaos of the mind.

everything that comes from the heart in a flash of insight is haiku. Holding on to that seed and then putting words around it to paint a picture, to make it a complete thought that makes readers reflect upon it, is what I feel writing haiku is.

The Haiku Society of America, founded in 1968, spent two years and used some 200,000 words in letter exchanges among authorities before reaching a dictionary definition for haiku — They are the smallest poems, consisting of 17 syllables arranged in a sequence of 5-7-5.

Arthur Waley (1865-1966), an early translator of Japanese literature, wrote, “It’s not possible that the rest of the world will ever realize the importance of Japanese poetry, because of all poetries it is the most completely untranslatable.”

Haiku should be just small stones dropping down a well with a small splash --James Kirkup

In all their brevity, haikus tell a story and paint a vivid picture, leaving it up to the reader to draw the meanings out and complete them in the mind’s eye.

Haiku lovers look for specific words and images to help reveal the deeper layers of meaning that expand the scope of each poem.

The oldest poetic tradition of Japan is ‘The Kokinshu’ – whose thousands of leaves was compiled around 920 CE, in which the poems--divided into a section of love and the four seasons, is organized according to the theme.

The opening 17 syllable stanza was known as Hokku, which 19th Century poet Shiki named haiku (which denotes a freestanding autonomous Hokku poem).

Be aware of your surroundings and the small happiness in life. Experience it fully, and then the words will form automatically.

A haiku becomes more powerful if it contrasts or aligns nature with your own thoughts and feelings.

“I need to tell a story. It’s an obsession. Each story is a seed inside of me that starts to grow and grow, like a tumor, and I have to deal with it sooner or later… It’s so important for me, finding the precise word that will create a feeling or describe a situation. I’m very picky about that because it’s the only material we have – words. But they are free.” - Isabel Allende, celebrated Chilean American author

I would like to say that the world needs its authors, who are the mirror to the society we all are living in. We are there to host, to heal our readers within the pages of what we write.