TheBanyanTree: from Maria: Re: Haiku challenge]

[Sachet]

Ok, I'll jump right on out there and say that the explanation left me 
wondering exactly how to go about haiku-ing.  Can it be as simple as 
"the whole thing is three lines composed of 17 syllables"?  But 
sometimes it seems like verses and each is about in the 14ish range (of 
syllables) and the verses can go on for as long as the writer feels a 
need to.
 
Laura, Laura.......help me; give me the explanation you might give a 
group of first graders hoping for their excited and innocent, inspired 
lines...........
 
Yours with confusion but a willing heart!!
 
Maria


On Sun, Sep 14, 2008 at 7:48 PM, Sachet <sachet at alltel.net 
<mailto:sachet at alltel.net>> wrote:

    What a fun idea!

    I love haiku's.

    They can be obscure...so much so that only you know their intended
    meaning. Or just clear enough for one other.

    Or sometimes they are for everyone to enjoy.... their whimsy and
    cleverly playful jumble of words.

    A haiku always challenges me to search for the exact combination of
    words to convey my meaning.

    Love it, love it love it! I can't wait to see what others create!

    Great challenge, Wolfie!


    ....Sachet



    Laura wrote:

        I challenge everyone subscribed to The Banyan Tree to try out a
        haiku.  There are a few of us here who really like them, for
        whatever reason, but I hate for us to hog all the fun.  So -
        give it a try!  Just one, please?
        Not sure exactly what a haiku is?  Senior English a long time
        ago, and for whatever reason you missed poetry day anyway?
         Well, here is some of what Wikipedia has to say about haiku:
        In English, haiku are usually written in three lines to equate
        to the three metrical phrases of a haiku in Japanese that
        consist of five, seven, and five on (the Japanese count morae,
        which differ from English-language syllables; for example, the
        word "haiku" itself counts as three on in Japanese (ha-i-ku),
        but two syllables in English (hai-ku); writing seventeen
        syllables in English produces a poem that is actually quite a
        bit longer, with more content, than a haiku in Japanese).
        Because most Japanese words are polysyllabic, with very short
        sounds (like the syllables in the three-syllable English word
        "radio", but unlike the one-syllable words "thought" or
        "stressed"), the seventeen sounds of a Japanese haiku carry less
        information than would seventeen syllables. Consequently,
        writing seventeen syllables in English typically produces a poem
        that is significantly "longer" than a traditional Japanese
        haiku. As a result, the great majority of literary haiku writers
        in English write their poems using about ten to fourteen
        syllables, with no formal pattern.

        *   Possibly the best known Japanese haiku is Basho's "old pond"
        haiku:  (note from Laura- chinese characters did not paste, darn
        it.)
        This separates into on as: furuike ya ( ) (fu/ru/i/ke ya): 5
        kawazu tobikomu ( ) (ka/wa/zu to/bi/ko/mu): 7 mizu no oto (  )
        (mi/zu no o/to): 5 Roughly translated:
        old pond a frog jumps the sound of water

        See?  Easy! Even the "rules" are flexible.  More like
        "guidelines" really.  ;)  Go on, give it a try!!