Writing Haikus for Fun
- March 07, 2016
- Blog
- 2 Comments
The New Oxford American Dictionary defines a haiku as “a Japanese poem of seventeen syllables, in three lines of five, seven, and five, traditionally evoking images of the natural world.”
I enjoy Tweeting haikus with a nature theme, like these:
My feet run the trail
Spiderwebs adorn my hair
As birds call above.
A withered leaf falls.
Its scent crushes the present
And brings forth the past.
But fantasy has always been my first love and I began combining that theme with the form:
What spell do I weave?
Dust motes swirl to my needle
And pull the thread tight.
A genie offers
The girl ponders carefully
Then seals the bottle.
It didn’t stop there. Humor wove itself into images as well:
Strewn with yellow leaves
The black tar of the road called.
The elves took a cab.
The werewolf next door
Trades recipes with vampires.
The ghost sits and sulks.
I guess for me, haikus can be summed up by this one:
Haikus fill my soul
Offering the universe
In 5-7-5.
I find that haikus are fun and thoughtful and far ranging even while they fit inside the box of syllables that contain them.
Do you write haikus? If not, give it a try.
I’m not clever enough to write haikus I’m afraid! But your’s are delightful. (love the elves taking a cab)
Thank you! For me, it involves counting a lot on my fingers. And for every one I write, at least one or two don’t work so I can’t use them. But I find the format fun and that’s the key.