Haiku Definitions

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Trying to define HAIKU ...

Haiku is a kind of formal Japanese poetry, defined by the use of the Japanese language.
The situation for haiku in other languages is rather different, as you will see reading along. ...

Traditional Japanese haiku are about the many changes during the seasons (not simply about nature ! but about the seasonal changes of nature), the changes in the life of plants and animals, heaven and earth, but also the changes in the daily life of humans within the society, like festivals and food.

Traditional Japanese haiku are defined by their form,
whereas ELH are not defined by any form and therefore mostly explained via the opinion of an author/editor and these explanations differ quite a lot. This can be quite confusing for a beginner.


Here I collect definitions of HAIKU, in no particular order, as I find them.
They do not all correspond to my own opinions about HAIKU. It might even be questioned if "Definitions of Haiku" are really good for the genre ...

Once you have defined HAIKU for your convenience, you can try and find the "RULES", guidelines (yakusokugoto) that you want to follow in your composition of haiku.


Send your definition please !
Gabi Greve


HAI 俳 : something humorous, witty, funny, joking : こっけいなこと。おどけ。 as in haikai「俳諧(はいかい)」

KU 句 : part of a text or poem : 文中の言葉のひと区切り。




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Japanese traditional haiku can be defined by form (5-7-5, kigo, kireji)

The simple definition of
three lines (short / long / short)
one season word and
a cut marker
and
write from personal experience ...
this is where everyone should begin.

But there is more to it once you are well on your way.

KIGO HOTLINE


If you want to write about personal feelings and interpretations of a situation, or use overly poetic language, better make it a waka or tanka.


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No-Definition of Haiku, my Way


If you call a tail a leg, how many legs has a dog?
Five? No, four.
Calling a tail a leg doesn't make it a leg!
Abraham Lincoln


Before reading the parable of Lincoln, I had phrased my question in this way (and that was way before the birth of my kitten Haiku-Kun).

If you take a cat (or dog to keep in the parable),
cut off his head (kigo),
cut off his four legs (5-7-5),
cut off his tail (kire-ji) and
present this creature to the world,
what would it be called?

Maybe a very badly damaged cat/dog, unable to live up to his nameing.

Or maybe reborn as something completely different, vaguely ressembling his former self?

AAAA, what are we to make of this ?
How to name the new creature ?

　©　Gabi Greve, 2006


(One of my latest findings is:
The haiku patient has a right to informed consent!)


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Mercedes Benz is a German car.
Not all cars in this world are Mercedes.

Other people produce cars "in the spirit of the car",
but give it a different name, like Toyota or ...

I am all for experimenting !

Take off the wheel of kigo
Take off the wheel of cutting word
Take off the wheel of 5 7 5

Drive your "car" safely! You only got one wheel left ...


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haimi 俳味 the flavor of haiku

What does this mean in each country where haiku poets live?
In Japan it is a kind of gentle humour ユーモア.
(the HAI of haiku)

In senruy this humour is more open and obvious ユーモアたっぷり.


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Basic Conditions of Japanese Language Haiku
Inahata Teiko 稲畑汀子
President of the Japan Traditional Haiku Association

It is very important that you feel free to write a haiku your way.
But there are certain basic conditions which you as a haiku poet are supposed to observe.

In Japan and the world perhaps, there may not be such a short yet profound form of poetry as a haiku. The short poem, namely haiku, consists of 5-7-5 syllables.
This is the first condition.

Picture an iceberg floating on a cold sea. It shows only a small part above the sea while the majority is hidden beneath the water. Like an iceberg haiku shows a very small part in the 5-7-5 syllables while it leaves the poet's sentiment and unspoken messages hidden under the water. If you try to cram too much in a haiku that affords only a snail number of words, your messages will be spread too thin to be meaningful. So it is better, like an iceberg, to reveal a part only and omit or leave hidden as much as possible under the water for the reader's imagination.

Haiku is a poem born from a "season word." Haiku appreciates nature and our daily life by means of season words. From the time you wake up till you say "good night" and retire in bed, your daily life at home and at school is filled with pleasant and unpleasant events, things you want to do, affairs with your friends or family members. Your life further includes a comfortable night, or sleepless hours as it is too cold or too hot. Have you ever stopped to think that all these routine affairs keep you closely related to all the vicissitudes on earth that follow the change of seasons?

Have you ever been aware of what nature has in store for your unbiased eyes and heart? Season words symbolize the nature-man relations.
Haiku is a poetry that expresses itself through season words:
this is the second condition of haiku.

Each person is unique in his or her way of viewing or feeling things.A haiku that reflects your unique viewpoint or feelings belongs to your personality.

Anything can be a good subject for haiku.
This is what I learned through years of haiku practice. I want you, my readers to be always alert for little things around you and appreciate them. I may dare say that haiku poems are not haiku in the true sense of the world which you cannot make unless you visit some scenic spots.

Haiku practice helps discover and grow your sensitiveness which, in turn, enriches your heart and enlightens your observation.
We all live a busy life in a busy world, but haste is not all there is to it. From time to tine we need to stop and look about us. That gives us a moment of quietude of mind, when a haiku is born.

My advice to you. dear readers, is that the first step of haiku practice is for you to describe the scene you see as it is.
To describe or sketch a scene means first to capture a scene with your own eyes, second reflect it on your mind, and third describe what you feel by means of the reflected scene.

Like so many different faces and bodies, Personality determines what is reflected on your heart and how it is reflected. Personality, when expressed in haiku, presents itself in unique feeling and viewpoint, rendering haiku all the more interesting.

A haiku which is stuffed too much has little left in there to impress you.
Omission is the soul of haiku. It contains the whole universe in 17 syllables.
An implied message born from omission is vitally indispensable to haiku. An implied message or, yo-in 余韻, is what you infer from what is expressed in words.

Kireji
"Ya", "kana", "keri", or "nari" and other kire-ji effectively add to the author's feeling in a short haiku or speak for omitted words. Kire-ji, in this respect, provides a structural support for haiku.
Examples are such works of haiku as are noted for refined sharpness. Haiku that values omission alway seeks perfection by use of Kire-ji or its concept, I think.

Please note an established rule that kire-ji is used just once in a haiku. Two kire-ji might blur the message of a short poem of 17 syllables.


A haiku that fails to make itself clearly understood is one that lacks consideration for the reader, thus failing to convey the writer's poetic sentiment to the recipient.
Always try to make haiku which anyone can understand.

Read the full article HERE
Invitation to Haiku
©　Inahata Teiko


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A good piece of advise from my Japanese haiku sensei

"Find your own voice within the limits!
Express yourself within the promises (yakusokugoto) of haiku!
And if you can not or do not want to do that,
write free short poetry (tanshi). "

. Freedom and the Haiku Rules .

Gabi Greve

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When you think the word HAIKU -
do you think of Japanese haiku first or of English (or your language) haiku first?

The word HAIKU used outside of Japan has taken on so many shades for different poets, it is necessary to define the genre further by using various adjective.


Adjectives are used to define types of Japanese haiku
in ABC order

Association of Japanese Classical Haiku -
Nihon Dentoo Haiku Kyookai 日本伝統俳句協会
Traditional, Classical Haiku - Dento Haiku 伝統俳句

Essential Haiku - Kongen Haiku 根源俳句

Experimental Haiku - Jikkensei Haiku 実験性俳句

Free Autonomous Haiku - Jiritsu Haiku 自律俳句
free form haiku

Modern Haiku - Gendai Haiku　現代俳句

Muki Haiku - Haiku without a season word 無季俳句

Neo-classical Haiku

New Style Haiku - Shintai Haiku　新体俳句

New Trend Haiku - Shin Keiko Haiku 新傾向俳句

Objective sketching from life - Kyakkan Shasei 客観写生

Parody Haiku - Kokkei Haiku 滑稽俳句
http://ameblo.jp/raika2001/entry-11317320454.html

Vanguard Haiku - Zenei Haiku 前衛俳句

Young and New Haiku 新興俳句 shinkoo haiku, Shinko Haiku
New Style Haiku

. WKD : More about Haiku .


muki haiku 無季俳句　haiku without a season word
. Muki haiku and Kaneko Tohta .

eigo HA.I.KU 英語ハイク English Haiku
(spelled with katakana to show they differ from 俳句)

Japanese hokku　発句
English language hokku - Hokku

Anglo-Western haiku-ike poems

ELH - English Language Haiku
WLH - Western Language Haiku
HHE - Hybrid Haiku English

desk ku, desku, desk haiku
enviroku
kitsch ku, キッチュ句 Kitschi-Ku

one-line haiku, monostitch
one-word haiku

free-range haiku
free-style haiku
anything-goes-haiku
new ku

haiku-like short poetry
haiku-like free verse
haiku noir

twaiku (on twitter)


sangyooshi 三行詩 Sangyoshi, poem with three lines
gogyooshi 五行詩 Gogyoshi, poem with five lines
Gogyōshi - invented by Taro Aizu in May 2011
©　More in the WIKIPEDIA !

You find more if you google!

ex-ku = experimental haiku in English

winter's end -
his ex-wife writes
an ex-ku


More TBA as they come up.

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Discussion on Facebook in August 2012

Don Baird wrote
Haiku is on the brink of destruction as an art form, drifting farther and farther away from Basho/Buson/Issa/ (even Shiki) poetics, it's almost not recognizable any more. The "last frog" (Basho's ways) is on the edge of being destroyed for ever.
It's so sad.
Folks do not understand that, as Kala mentions, the "river banks are the form and the water is the poetry" (rough quote).
There is so much freedom within form, there is no reason to destroy the form, the aesthetics to create something so new it is beyond recognition.



Gabi wrote to conclude :
I like the image of a river, that whirls and swhirls ...
but in the end, if it looses its "banks",
ends up in the ocean of "short form poetry".
.
Linda wrote
"I do not understand writers who want to throw out everything
but the name "haiku"."
.
Same here, Linda.
Why not just give the baby a new name and be done with the endless and often so heated discussions about the "haiku form" and "haiku format" ?
.
Long live Haiku, Senryu, Zappai . . . and Short Form Poetry.

source : Facebook - Joys of Japan


. Senryu Zappai 川柳, 雑俳 . 　


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Haiku Society of America
September 2004
Official Definitions of Haiku and Related Terms

Definition:
A haiku is a short poem that uses imagistic language to convey the essence of an experience of nature or the season intuitively linked to the human condition.

Notes:
Most haiku in English consist of three unrhymed lines of seventeen or fewer syllables, with the middle line longest, though today's poets use a variety of line lengths and arrangements. In Japanese a typical haiku has seventeen "sounds" (on) arranged five, seven, and five. (Some translators of Japanese poetry have noted that about twelve syllables in English approximates the duration of seventeen Japanese on.)

Traditional Japanese haiku include a "season word" (kigo), a word or phrase that helps identify the season of the experience recorded in the poem, and a "cutting word" (kireji), a sort of spoken punctuation that marks a pause or gives emphasis to one part of the poem.

In English, season words are sometimes omitted, but the original focus on experience captured in clear images continues. The most common technique is juxtaposing two images or ideas (Japanese rensô). Punctuation, space, a line-break, or a grammatical break may substitute for a cutting word.

Most haiku have no titles, and metaphors and similes are commonly avoided. (Haiku do sometimes have brief prefatory notes, usually specifying the setting or similar facts; metaphors and similes in the simple sense of these terms do sometimes occur, but not frequently. A discussion of what might be called "deep metaphor" or symbolism in haiku is beyond the range of a definition.

Various kinds of "pseudohaiku" have also arisen in recent years; see the Notes to "senryu", below, for a brief discussion.)

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First Thoughts –
A Haiku Primer by Jim Kacian

The Poetry of the Real

Haiku is the poetry of the real.
That is, it is the poetry which seeks to convey as clearly as possible the actual events of an experience so that the reader may come to find the same experience in himself, and therefore share the insight which the experience prompted. Anything which diverts the reader from that moment works against the purpose of the poem. So it follows that the language in haiku should be chosen with an eye toward making the expression of the experience, the haiku moment, as clear as it possibly can be.

source : blogs.law.harvard.edu




Jim Kacien once said
that a haiku is a haiku
if the poet says it is.

Now it is up to the reader to see this as a haiku, a senryu, a zappai, a short poem, a sentence, or anything else . . .


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Haiku and Haiku
by Martin Lucas

What Is Haiku?
Haiku is not haiku. Our ‘haiku' are not haiku. Haiku - here identified by italics - is a very short form of Japanese verse. It would not be quite true to say that it can be written only by a Japanese, but it can be written only in Japanese, and it would require the same level of fluency in Japanese culture, history and literary tradition as in language. If you want to get to know haiku, you need to get to know Japan; the country, the people, the language. That's a huge project, a lifetime's project, but there's no point in minimising the scale of it and pretending that you can somehow get to know haiku without it.

source : http://www.poetrysociety.org.nz/node/460

- Backup Copy


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English-language haiku is an altogether different beast from that of the Japanese tradition —
most closely resembling gendai senryu, not haiku.


The Morning After: Haiku Faces a New Century
by Richard Gilbert

source : THF 2nd POSITION

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THE ESSENCE OF HAIKU
AS PERCEIVED BY WESTERN HAIJIN

One thing I learned is that any definition of haiku can and will be debated.
This convinced me that a set definition is impossible. Yet among the multitude of contemporary haiku we find poems that really touch us. Certainly the poets who wrote them must have a notion of what really makes a haiku a haiku.

　©　Max Verhart, Modern Haiku, 2007


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　©　HAIKU at the WIKIPEDIA

Haiku (俳句) is a mode of Japanese poetry, the late 19th century revision by Masaoka Shiki of the older hokku (発句, hokku).

Hokku once were the opening verses of a linked verse form, haikai no renga. The traditional haiku consisted of a pattern of 5, 7, 5 on. The Japanese word on, meaning "sound", corresponds to a mora, a phonetic unit similar but not identical to the syllable of a language such as English. (The words onji ("sound symbol") or moji (character symbol) are also sometimes used.)
A haiku contains a special season word (the kigo) representative of the season in which the renga is set, or a reference to the natural world.

Haiku usually combines three different lines, with a distinct grammatical break, called kireji, usually placed at the end of either the first five or second seven morae. In Japanese, there are actual kireji words. In English, kireji is often replaced with commas, hyphens, elipses, or implied breaks in the haiku. These elements of the older haiku are considered by many to be essential to haiku as well, although they are not always included by modern writers of Japanese "free-form haiku" and of non-Japanese haiku.

Japanese haiku are typically written as a single line, while English language haiku are traditionally separated into three lines.

In Japanese, nouns do not have different singular and plural forms, so 'haiku' and 'kigo" are usually used as both a singular and plural noun in English as well.

Senryu is a similar poetry form that emphasizes humor and human foibles instead of seasons, and which may not have kigo or kireji.


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Defining the haiku form
　©　Michael Rehling, Haiku Hut

What is the proper form for haiku in English? Well, a simple definition might be a poem that captures a ‘moment in time’, usually involving nature, and as perceived or experienced by the poet. It is recorded in less than seventeen syllables, usually in three lines, and usually with the center line longer than the others, sometimes with a seasonal reference, or ‘kigo’. Although many times a 5-7-5 pattern is prescribed as a ‘firm’ rule in rudimentary definitions of haiku this is not supported by research, translation, or history, even in Japanese haiku.

One component that does appear critical is a ‘break’, 'cutting word' , or 'turn', which usually occurs between the second and third lines, but can occur also in the second line, but a ‘break’ or shift of perspective that juxtaposes the other images in the poem is considered by many as an important aspect of haiku. There are many ‘schools’ of haiku, both in Japanese and the English, and there always have been. In fact Basho, considered by most scholars to be the Father of the modern haiku, told his students to: “Learn the rules, so that you can break the rules”. Today three lines, two lines, single line, and ‘Zip’ poems all offer the sincere student of this poetic form realistic options to pursue in finding their personal approach to haiku.

Haiku has long been associated with Zen Buddhism, but it has always stood apart from any religious or philosophical bent, and so maintains its universality. Perhaps the association with Zen can best be explained by the fact that both place high value on the ‘present moment’, and human interactions with nature. In any case a knowledge of, or practice of Zen is unnecessary to understanding or creating fine haiku.


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This is the poetic art form known as haiku
© Becky Alexander, February 10, 2007

There are many definitions of haiku. I find some of these definitions to be too simple, too complicated, too limiting, too vague. Basically, haiku is a form of short image poetry, about nature, historically from Japan, which has been accepted and become profuse in the Western World. It is most often written in a three-line form, in the present tense.

Historically, in Japan, haiku was based on a strict 17-syllable structure of those three lines: five syllables for the first line, seven for the second, and a repeat of five syllables for the last line. This structure had to do with the vowel sounds in the Japanese language.
But modern haiku, in any language, does not need to follow that regimentation.

A Haiku is:

• a poem that is Japanese in tradition. The art of haiku has moved from Japan into the mainstream literary world and is studied and written around the globe.

• a poem of immediacy; snap your fingers: that nanosecond is the length of a haiku;

• a poem written in the present tense to emphasize its immediate nature;

• a poem that must be authentic: meaning that it must be obvious to the reader that the poet actually and truly experienced what is shown in the haiku.

• a poem honouring nature, which may include human nature.

• a poem that has a sense of loneliness or Sabi (the Japanese word for solitude or loneliness).

Becky gives a lot more • points.
I have only selected a few at random. Please read her full article.

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Jane Reichhold

HAIKU TECHNIQUES
Jane Reichhold, 2000

In my early years of haiku writing, I easily accepted the prevalent credo being espoused on how to write haiku. This was, sometimes implied and occasionally expressed, as being: if the author's mind/heart was correctly aligned in the "proper" attitude, while experiencing a so-called "haiku moment", one merely had to report on the experience to have a darn-good haiku.

Haiku How-to


Take Your Pick

Haiku, which seem so light, free and spontaneous, are built on discipline. If you've a desire to write haiku, you are manifesting a desire for a few more rules in your life. And rules aren't bad as long as they are your rules for your work.

You've heard Robert Frost's saying poetry without rules is like a tennis match without a net and it is true also for haiku. And Basho had his motto: "Learn the rules; and then forget them."

But first he said, "Learn the rules." If you are at that stage of the game (we are all, at all times, students), here are some old and new rules. You can't physically follow all of these, because they conflict, but among them I would hope you'd pick a set just for you. Then write down your thoughts, impressions, and feelings while following your own rules.

As soon as you get proficient (you will notice your haiku all sound alike) it's time to raise the tennis net by picking a new rule or so, either from this list or one you've made up from reading and admiring other haiku, or, and this is possible and not treason, from other poetry genre.

Here we go:
Haiku Rules That Have Come and Gone

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The Isn'ts of Haiku

Haiku ISN'T easy to write, but when you get "hooked" you'll be glad you tried it. The study & discipline sharpen the perception & improve all other fields of writing, as well as adding zest to living.
Haiku IS what IS!

Read the full essay HERE:
©　Lorraine Ellis Harr, 1976

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Do Something Different
by Peter Yovu

Buddhists describe a simple practice: when you find yourself falling into some habitual pattern, acknowledge it, and then step out by doing something different. The idea, of course, is that anything we do by habit we do half-awake at best, and the goal is to wake up.
..... Many writers have decried a sense of "sameness" in much of what appears in the journals today.
..... So what's the problem?
source : poetrysociety.org.nz


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I'll omit historical notes for brevity and will talk about the haiku form only. There are some levels in this art; I'll go from the simplest "external" to the most difficult "internal" level gradually. ... snip ...

7. Philosophy
a) Experience.
b) Unity and Harmony.

8. Humor in Haiku

The Definition of Haiku
Alexey Andreyev, 1996

Text 01 / Text 02

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Beyond the Haiku Moment
Haruo Shirane

What would Basho and Buson say if they were alive today and could read English and could read haiku done by North American poets?

I think that they would be delighted to find that haiku had managed to cross the Pacific and thrive so far from its place of origin. They would be impressed with the wide variety of haiku composed by North American haiku poets and find their work most innovative. At the same time, however, they would also be struck, as I have been, by the narrow definitions of haiku found in haiku handbooks, magazines, and anthologies.


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An Analysis of Haiku in 12-dimensional Space
Charles Trumbull
A.C. Missias : ... Thus, Missias points our attention to the haiku “norm,” while acknowledging the existence and even importance of non-normative haiku, while Platt concentrates on developing and proving subjective criteria for the definition of “normal.”
source : Simply Haiku 2004


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In a Sea of Indeterminacy:
Fourteen Ways of Looking at Haiku
Peter Harris

Haiku as Koan
Haiku as Global Phenomenon
Haiku as Tip of a Pyramid
Haiku as an Adapted Japanese Form
Haiku as a Paradigm for Modernism
Haiku as Beat Phenomenon
Pioneering Specialist: Cor van den Heuvel
Roberta Beary
The Generalist and the Specialist: Billy Collins and Scott Metz
Robert Hass
Chase Twichell
Ted Kooser and Jim Harrison
Ian Marshall
Haiku's Current Future
References and Further Reading

source : books.google.ca


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definitions

Collection of further links by HAIKUPOET

in 17 syllables from Cricket
A.C. Missias from Perihelion magazine.
Alexey Andreyev from the Shiki Internet Haiku Salon.
John Barlow from Snapshots magazine
Matsuo Bashô
R. H. Blyth
a checklist from the British Haiku Society
Dan Brook
L. A. Davidson from Feelings magazine.
Allen Ginsberg
Harold G. Henderson
Forms in English Haiku by Keiko Imaoka
Jack Kerouac
Jane Reichhold from the Shiki Internet Haiku Salon.
Santôka Taneda
Beyond the Haiku Moment by Haruo Shirane
Speculations by Robert Spiess


Above all,
a Haiku must be very simple and free of all poetic trickery
and make a little picture and yet be
as airy and graceful as a Vivaldi Pastorella.
Jack Kerouac

source : haikupoet.com



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genuine haiku

a term not known in Japan
maybe "traditional haiku "


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ELH - English Language Haiku


Humpty-Dumpty: Through the Looking Glass


`I don’t know what you mean by “haiku,”‘ Alice said.

Humpty Dumpty smiled contemptuously.
`Of course you don’t — till I tell you . . .
When I use a word,’
Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone,
`it means just what I choose it to mean —
neither more nor less.’

`The question is,’ said Alice, `whether you can make words mean so many different things.’”

`The question is,’ said Humpty Dumpty, `which is to be master – - that’s all.’”

source : THF 11th sailing



E-L “haiku” 英語ハイク
. . . if we were being sticklers, haiku would have to remain in quotation marks.
Philip Rowland
source : THF 4th POSITION
Is Haiku Poetry? - Discussion


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enviroku
haiku about the environment

Enviroku is a relatively new medium for used by many environmental activists all over the world. This method seeks to implant messages in not only the minds but also the hearts of the its target audiences by combining the ancient Japanese art of haiku with important messages about today's issues.

Reference


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kitsch ku, キッチュ句 Kitschi-Ku

Waka is kitsch. Haiku is kitsch.
Waka and haiku are greatest art.
All the statements are corrects although they are contradictory.


avant-garde and kitsch
source : avantgardeandkitsch.blogspot.com



KITSCH
an inferior, tasteless copy of an extant style of art

Two dollars
thrown in rusty bowl -
a day's meal.
source : athenatyh.blogspot.com

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At I-ku Haiku you can create a haiku, then send it as an eCard and/or submit for on-site publication.
I-ku Haiku
The Haiku Gallery


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haiku noir

A term not familiar in Japan.

Fire Blossoms: The Birth of Haiku Noir
Denis M. Garrison

quote
Haiku Noir is a new variety of the ancient poetic form, haiku.
Haiku noirs exist at the farthest end of the spectrum of subject matter, dealing with that which is not generally considered to be proper subject matter for the classical haiku; for example: tragedy, loss, sorrow, depression, madness, terror, horror, anger, macabre humor, anti-heroism, crime, passion, the underworld/subcultures, squalor, eros, science fiction and fantasy.
We are developing a new kind of haiku, not in the classical form, so the rules are substantially simpler.
source : haikunoir/editorial


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Deutsche Haiku Gesellschaft
Haiku - Was ist das?

Eine sehr alte japanische Tradition sind Kettengedichte. Ein Dichter schreibt einen siebzehnsilbigen ersten Teil, das so genannte Hokku und der oder die PartnerIn ergänzen vierzehn Silben. Es galt als besondere Ehre, das Hokku vorgeben zu dürfen.
Damit die Dichter, sollte ihnen diese Ehre zuteil werden, nicht mit leeren Händen da standen, wurden schon früh Sammlungen besonders gelungener Hokku veröffentlicht. Aus ihnen entwickelte sich das Haiku.

Warum zählt man in japanischen Gedichten die Silben? Das japanische kennt keine Silbenbetonung, so dass nicht, wie z.B. in europäischen Sprachen, Hebungen oder Betonungen das Versmaß bestimmen. Deutsche Silben sind in der Regel sehr viel länger als japanische und transportieren meistens mehr Inhalt. Deshalb sollten siebzehn Silben als Obergrenze für deutsche Haiku gelten.

Ein unverzichtbarer Bestandteil japanischer Dichtung ist der Bezug auf eine Jahreszeit. Seit Beginn des letzten Jahrhunderts spielen aber auch Themen wie Verstädterung und Industrialisierung eine Rolle. Neue Haiku-Schulen hinterfragen die traditionelle Form.
Wie keine andere Versform hat sich das Haiku rasant in der Welt ausgebreitet und wird in allen bedeutenden Sprachen geschrieben.
Überall probieren Menschen aus, was Haiku für sie bedeuten kann.

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... still too many American haiku being written about Japanese subjects ?

... "pseudo-haiku," how you would define it ?

... haiku and senryu on issues of social concern ?

... what is "haiku sensibility" ?

Discussing Haiku
Larry Bole, Haiku Information Board, December 2007

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desk ku, desku, desk haiku (no Japanese equivalent)

This naming should not be mixed with the judgement of the "quality" of a haiku.


A haiku is an experience, where the poet is leading his normal life, practising awareness and suddenly becomes aware of something special ... a haiku is born.
(genba ni tatsu, to be there on the spot) as my sensei would say. The AHA moment is not a common expression in Japan.)

The haiku comes to the poet.


A deskku is said to be one where the poet sits down with the intention :
Now I am going to write a haiku about xyz kigo or xyz keyword.
Of course (hopefully) he takes the material from memories and past experience, or uses his imagination and wit, but anywy ....
Some forums give daily prompts or use the last word of the haiku before them in line to stimulate writing.

The poet looks for a haiku.



Another version of a "desk ku" is the toriawase, joining two ideas.
Once the poet has his inspriation from an experience, usually in two lines of a haiku, he now looks for an appropriate kigo in his vocabulary.
Poetry needs finetuning and crafting like any other craft, and toriawase is one step in this direction.
Toriawase technique of writing haiku is already taught in Japanese grammar schools.


. toriawase 取り合わせ . 　
literally "taking and putting together",
"a combination, an arrangement, an assortment" 　


Gabi Greve

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HAIKU TECHNIQUES
Jane Reichhold

Slowly, over the years, I found by reading the translations of the old Japanese masters and the haiku of my contemporaries whom I admired, that there were more factors than just these three on which one could build a haiku. However, there seemed a disinterest in others wanting to study these aspects which I call techniques. Perhaps this is because in the haiku scene there continues to be such a reverence for the haiku moment and such a dislike for what are called "desk haiku".
The definition of a desk haiku is one written from an idea or from simply playing around with words. If you don't experience an event with all your senses it is not valid haiku material. A ku from your mind was half-dead and unreal. An experienced writer could only smile at such naivet・ but the label of "desk haiku" was the death-knell for a ku declared as such. This fear kept people new to the scene afraid to work with techniques or even the idea that techniques were needed when it came time to write down the elusive haiku moment.
source : www.ahapoetry.com



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GOOGLE for more: "definition of haiku"

GOOGLE for more: "My "definition" of haiku"



twaiku
Haiku are like amaryllis: They thrive in close quarters. And with its 140-character limit, Twitter is blooming with haiku — or twaiku, as some call them.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=127774103


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CONTINUE HERE:

Haiku, Senryu, Zappai (俳句, 川柳, 雑俳 )

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. . . . . BACK TO
My Haiku Theory Archives 　


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How about this symbolic thought concerning
"Haiku without Kigo":

Instead of aruging

Our parents wore trousers and shirts, but who cares,
we are now going naked (without kigo!)

you might argue

Our parents wore a certain kind of cloths that do not really fit in our times, so let us try and design new ones that fit our climate and culture
(start our local saijiki with regional kigo!).

(With the World Kigo Database running since 2004, I think I have shown a way that it can be done, though it takes a lot of effort ... )

And there is nothing wrong with running around naked at the right place in the righ time ... !

Gabi Greve, World Kigo Database

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Haiku an Art of Discovery
David G. Lanoue talks with Angelika Wienert

Angelika Wienert:
Haiku is traditionally a genre with a strong seasonal reference. How do you qualify haiku without kigo? Do you agree with Kacian and others that kigo and / or keywords work in haiku?

David G. Lanoue:
When I'm writing haiku in a traditional mode, I include a seasonal reference. When I'm not writing in a traditional mode, I don't include a season word.

I see no reason to muddy the waters with a new category: the so-called "keywords" that poets like Ban'ya Natsuishi are putting forth. Instead of inventing a new, Byzantine system of keywords, and thus inviting the inevitable, endless argument over which words to include and which to leave out; why don't we just keep it simple and say:

(1) traditional haiku has a season word;
(2) non-traditional haiku has no season word?

My definition of haiku embraces both its traditional and non-traditional forms, so long as the haiku is a quest of discovery into the truth of the universe where the conscious mind collaborates with an "Other Power" of imagination and deep feeling.

　©　Interview with Angelika Wienert


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Haiku in the US

Some thoughts by Jim Wilson

I want to suggest that there are two haiku worlds in the U.S.
The first is a kind of 'official' haiku world. It is the world of the HSA and Northern California Haiku Poets, and other local Haiku organizations. They tend to be small but dedicated.

With the significant exception of Yuki Teiki, they all tend to advocate for free verse haiku. It is in this sense that I meant that American Haiku has become a type of free verse; that is to say that official, or organizational, American Haiku has become a type of free verse.

Outside of the context of official haiku organizations there is another type of haiku. It is not organized; that is to say it doesn't have any official organization advocating for its point of view.

Read more here please :
. WKD : Haiku in the US 　
February 2011


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Jari Sutinen:
Debate on
Is Western Haiku a Second Rate Art?

“If we judge haiku with this statement it leads to following.
Only thing we end taking from Japanese haiku is its name.
We neglect its long traditions. We are not even trying to understand differences between Western and Japanese culture. In 1930′s an article was published about Japanese poetry by G.J. Ramstedt. In it there was a short passage about Yone Noguchi analysing a “Western poem”.

According to Noguchi after taking out all the unnecessary tautology and unmeaningful words from four stanzas there was not enough left for a tanka. See the difference between two approaches. If we take something from others we could at least try to understand their culture, even a little.
What’s the point of judging something with standards of your own culture if that something does not originate from it?”

. WHC Academia Discussion 　
WHC, May 2001


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Tsukinami Haiku 月並み俳句

"monthly haiku", a term for haiku written at the monthly or bimonthly haiku meetings at the end of the Edo period. They often wrote trite and hackneyed, clichee and mediocre haiku. Often written by poets to make a living by haiku writing and catering to the (often low) taste of their patrons.

Shiki often used the word tsukinami .
Mediocre haiku poets blindly following traditional conventions in a superficial way. Low-quality haiku. Clichee-poems.

Some modern haiku poets think writing haiku to get a special intellectual effect or impress the editors of magazines is a form of tsukinami.



遠山に日の当たりたる枯野かな
tooyama ni hi no ataritaru kareno kana

In the distant hills
A patch where sunlight touches
The withered meadows.
Tr. Donald Keene

Written on November 25, 1900 at Kyoshi-An

Stepping out of his home, he could see the Shikoku mountains behind Dogo Hot Spring in Matsuyama Town. When the last sunshine hit these mountains, he felt some sort of comfort and security in his life. This is all he wanted to express in this haiku.
He did not want interpret this haiku as a talk about the change of seasons, the change of the human heart or anything personalized in this haiku, as his son tried to interpret it.

"No need to interpret it in the lines of "jinsei kan", an outlook of human life, or a generalization about the human condition. If you do that, it will only be "tsukinami", a mediocre haiku.
I only wrote about what was in front of my eyes!"

Read more here:
Withered fields (kareno)Discussion


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cultural snobbery ???
Let's expand the "boundaries" of haiku-production to include areas outside of Japan.
The American minipoem has its roots in the Japanese short poetry form, haiku...

Chibi and Larry discussing, December 2008


Japanese and English Haiku are different, and we have to accept this as a fact.
Japanese are like a game that have "Haiku Rules" that can not be changed, unless you re-name the game and play it differently. They have a recipe for "Haiku bread" and if you change the rules, you get a different kind of cookie ... and so on with the examples.

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quote
- The Complete Works Of Chuang Tzu - Zhuangzi

Words are not just wind. Words have something to say.
But if what they have to say is not fixed,
then do they really say something?
Or do they say nothing?
People suppose that words are different from the peeps of baby birds, but is there any difference, or isn't there?
What does the Way rely upon, that we have true and false?
What do words rely upon, that we have right and wrong? How can the Way go away and not exist?
How can words exist and not be acceptable?
When the Way relies on little accomplishments and words rely on vain show, then we have the rights and wrongs of the Confucians and the Mo-ists.
What one calls right the other calls wrong;
what one calls wrong the other calls right.
But if we want to right their wrongs and wrong their rights, then the best thing to use is clarity.
...
What is acceptable we call acceptable;
what is unacceptable we call unacceptable.
A road is made by people walking on it; things are so because they are called so.
What makes them so?
Making them so makes them so.
What makes them not so?
Making them not so makes them not so.
Things all must have that which is so; things all must have that which is acceptable. There is nothing that is not so, nothing that is not acceptable.

source : Translated by Burton Watson





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