Japanese Poetry: Haiku
Today's
Snack:
Enjoy a bowl of rice with some soy sauce and sprinkle a little chopped green
onion and water chestnuts on top. Imagine yourself to be like a Japanese child,
eating the same thing halfway across the world!
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Supplies:
Pencil or pen
Colored pencils or markers
Encyclopedia or other
reference book with a map of Japan
10 or 20 pieces of paper,
cut in 8½" x 5½" size
Two pieces of colored
cardstock, cut the same size
Staples
Lovely, serene and beautiful are
good words to know about haiku, a form of Japanese poetry which presents a
picture of nature.
A haiku poem is simple and follows
these rules:
- The words in a haiku
make you "see" what they describe.
- A haiku will zero in
on something in nature to give you a "snapshot" of one tightly-focused
scene so that the reader "feels" what you feel.
- A haiku should raise
up feelings, moods and emotions in the reader.
- The first line has
five syllables, or "beats."
- The second line has
seven syllables.
- The third and final
line has five syllables.
Read this haiku aloud:
Water tumbles
down
In a gently
flowing stream.
Over rocks it
trips.
Now read it again, lifting a finger for each syllable
that you say for each line, to see the 5-7-5 rhythm.
What feelings, moods and emotions
does this haiku bring out in you? Does it surprise you that the first two lines
make you think of a quiet, flowing stream, and then BOOM! You hit a patch of
noisy, unexpected whitewater? Life is like that, isn't it?
Think of something that you really like in nature. It
could be the way your favorite animal moves, or something that happens during
your favorite season of the year.
Now come up with a theme or a "point" to your haiku.
What are you trying to say, that you can use the item from nature to help you
say in an indirect way?
Start listing words that the nature scene and your
theme bring to mind. Rough out three lines - don't worry about your syllable
count right now.
Once you have your haiku roughed out, go back and
work on it and polish it until the three lines really flow well together, and
you've met the 5-7-5 rhythm.
It's OK to have periods, commas or semicolons at the
end of each line, but remember that a three-line haiku is intended to be said
aloud with just one breath.
Be sure to read your haiku aloud to someone and enjoy
their feedback!
Now write as many more as you would like. Be sure to
title and date each one so that you can look back on them later.
Let's make a haiku booklet. Use a half-sheet of
cardstock for a cover. Looking at a map of Japan, draw that country on your
cover. Add your own illustrations for things that you associate with Japan. A
geisha's fancy hairdo? A tranquil bridge? Some Japanese pictograms, or written
words? Look at the encyclopedia for more ideas.
Place the haikus you've written, plus several blank
sheets of paper, stacked underneath your cover and on top of the blank
half-sheet of colored cardstock. Now staple the left edge like a book. You can
come back later and add more haikus whenever you're in the haiku mood!
Here are some more haikus you might enjoy studying: www.haikuvillage.com
By Susan Darst Williams
