How to Write a Haiku Poem

A haiku is a non-rhymed verse genre. In Japanese, haiku has five syllables in the first line, seven in the second, and five again in the last line (they count sounds, not strictly syllables, however, and also write in a single vertical line, but we use three horizontal lines in English). In Japanese, the word "haiku" means "playful verse." More important than form is that a haiku contain a "kigo" (season word) and employ the equivalent to a "kireji" (cutting word), which means that the poem should present two juxtaposed parts in three lines. In addition, haiku should use objective sensory images, and avoid subjective commentary. You also must use imagery to write the Haiku, in order for the reader to visualize what you are writing.

 Steps

1.  
   Understand the way haiku is made. Haiku in Japanese is written in a single vertical line with seventeen sound units or mora (not strictly the same as syllables) in a rhythm of five, seven, and five. In English (a stressed language), the ideas can be expressed with a short line, a long line, and another short stack. Sometimes, haiku can turn out very bad and cheesy. Pick a good topic.
2.  
   Choose a season. Many haiku seem to focus on nature, but what they are really focusing on is a seasonal reference (not all of which are necessarily about nature). Japanese poets use a "saijiki" or season word almanac to check the seasonal association for key words that they might use in a haiku (thus the haiku is a seasonal poem, and thus often about nature, but does not have to be about nature if the seasonal reference is about a human activity). The season is important for coming up with words to use in a haiku. Because the poem has so few words, simple phrases such as "cherry blossoms" or "falling leaves" can create lush scenes, yet still reflect the feeling of the verse. Moreover, season words also invoke other poems that use the same season word, making the poem part of a rich historical tapestry through allusive variation. In Japanese, the "kigo" or season word was generally understood; "autumn breeze" might be known to express loneliness and the coming of the dark winter season
   • Winter usually makes us think of burden, cold, sadness, hunger, tranquility or peace. Ideas about winter can be invited with words like "snow," "ice," "dead tree," "leafless," etc.
   • Summer brings about feelings of warmth, vibrancy, love, anger, and many others. General summer phrases include references to the sky, beaches, heat, and romance.
   • Autumn brings to mind a very wide range of ideas: decay, belief in the supernatural, jealousy, saying goodbye, loss, regret, and mystery to name a few. Falling leaves, shadows, and autumn colors are common implementations.
   • Spring, like summer, can make one think of love, but it is usually more a sense of infatuation. Also common are themes like innocence, youth, passion, and fickleness. Blossoms, new plants, or warm rains can imply spring. For more information on seasons, go to the link listed below.
     
     Seasonal references can also include human activities, and Japanese saijikis contain many such listings. Be aware that some references to human activities, such as Christmas, are effective season words, but require a geographical limitation; while Christmas is a winter season word in the northern hemisphere, it's a summer reference in the southern hemisphere.
3.  
   Add a contrast or comparison. Reading most haiku, you'll notice they either present one idea for the first two lines and then switch quickly to something else or do the same with the first line and last two. A Japanese haiku achieves this shift with what is called a "kireji" or cutting word, which cuts the poem into two parts. In English, it is essential for nearly every haiku to have this two-part juxtapositional structure. The idea is to create a leap between the two parts, and to create an intuitive realization from what has been called an "internal comparison." These two parts sometimes create a contrast, sometime a comparison. Creating this two-part structure effectively can be the hardest part of writing a haiku, because it can be very difficult to avoid too obvious a connection between the two parts, yet also avoid too great a distance between them that becomes obscure and unclear. The haiku poet wants to come up with the perfect words to spark the emotions (not ideas) they wish to communicate. It doesn't have to be extremely severe; it can be anything from one color to another. In English, punctuation between the two lines can create that contrast, although this is not necessary provided that the grammar clearly indicates that a shift has occurred.
4.  
   Use primarily objective sensory description. Haiku are based on the five senses. They are about things you can experience, not your interpretation or analysis of those things. To do this effectively, it is good to rely on sensory description, and to use mostly objective rather than subjective words.
   
   
5.  
   Like any other art, haiku takes practice. Basho said that each haiku should be a thousand times on the tongue. It is also important to read good haiku, and not just translations from the Japanese but the best literary haiku being written in English. To learn haiku properly, it is important to take it beyond the superficial or even sometimes incorrect ways it has been taught in most grade schools. It is important to distinguish between pseudo-haiku that says whatever it wants in a 5-7-5 syllable pattern and literary haiku that adheres to the use of season words, a two-part juxtap

Tips

• To get inspiration and begin to understand the subtle emotions within images from nature, read the works of famous Classic haiku poets, such as Basho, Buson, Issa, or Shiki, but do try to read more modern or contemporary Japanese haiku writers to avoid writing in a pseudo Classic fashion.
• Write what you see, not what you feel. In the end, haiku are about emotions expressed through concrete images. When reading haiku, don't read them like you would other poems. Haiku are written to capture a feeling and image. Keep an open mind when reading haiku and try to feel what the writer was trying to get across. The more you read haiku, the easier they are to understand. Haiku has been called an "unfinished" poem because each one requires the reader to finish it in his or her heart.
• Remember that Japanese was originally a pictographic language. When it is written, it uses mostly picture characters to represent ideas visually instead of letters such as those in the English alphabet. Because there is so much difference between the Japanese language and our language, haiku in English will have some differences.
• There are some who say that haiku can just be a short fragment (no more than three words) followed by a phrase. The following is an example of such a structure, which is often very effective, but this example fails to have the necessary seasonal reference or to create an intuitive spark or leap of understanding in the relationship between the two parts.
  
  

  early evening

  small flat stones

  line the shore

EXAMPLES OF DESCRIPTIVE WRITING

NOTICE THE USE OF ADJECTIVES, VERBS AND ADVERBS FOR EFFECT.

NOTICE ALSO THE MIX OF SIMPLE AND COMPLEX SENTENCES AND PUNCTUATION.

EXAMPLE 1: Extract from Jamaica Inn by Daphne du Maurier

Chapter 1

It was a cold grey day in late November. The weather had changed overnight, when a backing wind brought a granite sky and a mizzling rain with it, and although it was now only a little after two o'clock in the afternoon the pallor of a winter evening seemed to have closed upon the hills, cloaking them in mist. It would be dark by four. The air was clammy cold, and for all the tightly closed windows it penetrated the interior of the coach. The leather seats felt damp to the hands, and there must have beena small crack in the roof, because now and again little drips of rain fell softly through, smudging the leather and leaving a dark-blue stain like a splodge of ink. The wind came in gusts, at times shaking the coach as it travelled round the bend of the road, and in the exposed places on the high ground it blew with such force that the whole body of the coach trembled and swayed, rocking between the high wheels like a drunken man.

The driver, muffled in a greatcoat to his ears, bent almost double in his seat in a faint endeavour to gain shelter from his own shoulders, while the dispirited horses plodded sullenly to his command, too broken by the wind and the rain to feel the whip that now and again cracked above their heads, while it swung between the numb fingers of the driver.

The wheels of the coach creaked and groaned as they sank into the ruts on the road, and sometimes they flung up the soft spattered mud against the windows, where it mingled with the constant driving rain, and whatever vew there might have been of the countryside was hopelessly obscured.

The few passengers huddled together for warmth, exclaiming in unison when the coach sank into a heavier rut than usual, and one old fellow, who had kept up a constant complaint ever since he had joined the coach at Truro, rose from his seat in a fury; and, fumbling with the window-sash, let the window down with a crash, bringing a shower of rain upon himself and his fellow-passengers. He thrust his head out and shouted up to the driver, cursing him in a petulant voice for a rogue and a murderer; that they would all be dead before they reached Bodmin if he persisted in driving at breakneck speed; they had no breath left in their bodies as it was, and he for one would never travel by coach again.

EXAMPLE 2: Extract from The Kalahari Typing School for Men by Alexander McCall Smith

Chapter Eleven

Mma Ramotswe Goes to a Small Village to the South of Gaborone

She drove down in the tiny white van, the morning sun streaming through the open window, the air warm against her skin, the grey-green trees, the browning grass, the plains stretching out on both sides of the road. The traffic was light; an occasional van, minibuses crowded and swaying on their ruined suspension, a truck full of green-uniformed soldiers, the men calling out to any girl walking along the edge of the road, private cars speeding down to Lobatse, and beyond, on their unknown business. Mma Ramotswe liked the Lobatse road. Many trips to Botswana were daunting in their length, particularly the trip up to Francistown, in the north, which seemed to go on forever, along a straight ribbon of a road. Lobatse, by contrast, was little more than an hour away, and there was always just enough activity on the way to keep boredom at bay.

Roads, thought Mma Ramotswe, were a country's showcase. How people behaved on roads told you everything you needed to know about the national character. So the Swazi roads, on which she had driven on one frightening occasion some years earlier, were fraught with danger, full of those who overtook on the wrong side and those who had a complete disregard for speed limits. Even the Swazi cattle were more foolhardy than Botswana cattle. They seemed to lurch in front of cars as if inviting collision, challenging drivers at the very last moment. All of this was because the Swazis were an ebullient, devil-may-care people. That was how they were, and that was how they drove. Batswana were more careful; they did not boast, as the Swazis tended to do, and they drove more carefully.

Of course, cattle were always a problem on the roads, even in Botswana, and there was nobody in Botswana who did not know somebody, or know of somebody who knew somebody, who had collided with a cow. This could be disastrous, and each year people killed by cattle which were knocked into the car itself, sometimes impaling drivers on their horns. It was for this reason that Mma Ramotswe did not like to drive at night, if she could possibly avoid it, and when she had to do so, she crawled along, peering into the darkness ahead, ready to brake sharply if the black shape of a cow or a bull should suddenly emerge from the darkness.

fun poem

                   The man who wasn't there

 

               As I was going up the stairs

               I met a man who wasn't there

               He wasn't there again today

               I wish, i wis he'd stay aw

              The chair that wasn't there 

              As I was sitting in my chair

              I know the bottom wasn't there

              Nor legs nnor back, but i just sat

             Ignoring little things like that.

Developing Characters

 In order that develop a living, breathing , multi-faceted character, it is important to know way more about the character than you will ever use in the story. Here is a partial list of character detail to help you get started.

* name                        * age             *     Job                                  *favorite color

*phobias                     * appearance               * hobbies                  * religion  etc.

  Imagining all these details will help you get to know your character, but your reader probably won't need to know much more than the most importanding of the character.

 * appearance: gives your reader a visual understanding of the character.

* Actions : show the reader what kind of person your characteris , by describing actions rather than simpply listing adjectives.

* speech: develop the character as a  person....don't merely have your character announce important plot details.

* Thought: bring the reader into your character's mind, to show them your character unexpressed memories, fears, and hopes

  _    Her name is jen, short for Jennifer Mary Johnson. She is 21 years old, she is a fair-skinned Norwegian with blue eyes, long, curly red hair, and is 5 feet 6 inches tall. Contrary to typical red heads , she is actually easygoing annd rather shy.

busy day

          today i fell very busy day because i spend a long time to create webblog . The reason of this is i cannot sign in gmail and i ask the teacher he told me that you should have gmail first. Suddenly, i try many times until i fell borring.I ask my friend beside me she is very good friend because she give power or spirit with me . I dont know what can i do.Alhamdulillah (thank) for Allah give me success for tody . Finally, my felling are change very quickly  from busy to happy. This is my felling this day