by Garrett Dempsey

Created on: March 09, 2009   Last Updated: March 11, 2009

Moon shining brightly
Over this calm lake. Tonight -
I see a blackbird

In this Haiku, I have stuck to the rigid rule of 5-7-5 consonants (or 'on')and have also included a reference (kigo) to the moon as meaning Autumn. The ancient Japanese poetry of Haiku is not easily converted into other languages but a quick search on google will reveal thousands and thousand of sites in English.

For a good overall summary, see wikipedia

To my mind, the most important part of a Haiku is the pause or link at the end of the 2nd line - it links the first two lines to the last. Clever poets such as Basho do this very beautifully. When this link is done well - it should at first appear to be totally disconnected from the first part of the poem, and yet; upon closer examination is not only connects, but clarifies and enlarges the earlier section.

furu ike ya
kawazu tobikomu
mizu no oto

an ancient pond
a frog jumps in
the splash of water

Basho 1686

The kigo is a very nice trick - by the use of one word (eg Moon for Autumn), the reader is immediately immersed into the time (season) when the author has composed the Haiku. It is amazing how much meaning a poet can install into the 17 'on' of a Haiku. I've noticed on the internet that many English-speaking Haiku poets do not stick rigidly to the 17 'on' or requirement for a 'kigo'. I'm a bit of a traditionalist and usually tried to adhere to this but it's not essential - it's great to see so many people trying to write Haiku.

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