For most of my life, I’ve been writing poetry when I experience a lightbulb moment. Over time, this habit shapeshifted to mainly haiku & senryū, often composing sequences of 23 - 31 or more on a day out. Although they’re usually reluctant to share, the more people that I’ve met, the more I’ve discovered that also have this practice in one way or another. People are like onions; they have layers. If you peel back enough, you’ll reach the heart – haiku & senryū are the key to mine.

4 Facts

1.) Haiku & senryū do not have to follow the 5-7-5 syllable pattern.

In Japanese, the pattern is 5-7-5 onji but onji cannot be directly translated to “syllable” and even less so to English syllables, which are much longer. Nonetheless, many poets pay homage to 5-7-5. For example:

• The hackneyed 5-7-5 pattern
• Entire poems in 5 or 7 syllables
• Asymmetric subsections of 5 or 7 syllables (e.g. first two lines are 7 syllables total and last line is 5 syllables)

The closest structure in English poetry to onji is called the mora, aka a sound unit. 5-7-5 morae approximately correspond to 2-3-2 beats. I composed a haiku below and underlined each beat to demonstrate the rhythm:

hunter's hound
scans the fragrant wood --
flyting dove

I drift to the 2-3-2 beats method because it’s concise and maintains a prime structure – 7 beats. Rule of thumb: a reader should be able to recite the poem in a single breath. Nonetheless, I sometimes don’t follow any structure at all; ultimately, it’s what sounds and feels right.

2.) Haiku & senryū do not have to be written in 3 lines.

Poems are visual and often times I’ll read poets that write their haiku as a single line, or space words on different lines to evoke structure. Here’s a senryū that I composed in three forms:

grey drags :: precipice of too much vs. too little

grey drags ::
precipice
of
too much
vs.
too little

grey drags ::
precipice of too much
vs. too little

In my opinion, the weakest structure for this senryū is the traditional 3-line one.

3.) Haiku & senryū should be built upon sensory images.

Haiku are intrinsically tied with nature and senryū reflect on the human condition. Both types should generate an image in the reader’s mind, often tied with emotion. The goal is to literally capture an experience that evoked an emotion so that the reader may also experience that same emotion.

A complete haiku incorporates kigo, aka “seasonal reference”. The season can be associated with the haiku either through an explicit word or inferred from the image or culture of the poem.

Check this out: Here are some of Onishi Yasuyo’s astounding senryū. This selection is considered gendai haiku, aka modern haiku that challenge tradition.

4.) Kireji, aka “cutting words”, blur the boundary between haiku & senryū.

Haiku & senryū often have kireji in the first or second line, which pivot the poem in a related, but new, direction. In English, poets sometimes denote them with punctuation. Kireji make two from one by splitting the poem into two ideas, either through the first two lines, the last two lines, or even both! If you look closely, the middle line of the poem separately relates to each of the first and last line but also connects them when they might otherwise stand apart.

As I’ve experimented with haiku & senryū, I’ve found that they are not necessarily mutually exclusive. What counts as haiku to one person may in face sound more like senryū to another, depending on the image it stirs in each. The way I see it: they are the two poles of a spectrum. Take the poem below for example:

noon’s sidelight --
fall of the weighty screw
wasted again

Is the screw wasted because, while I was building, it fell somewhere unreachable, or am I wasted at noon?? Up to you, chat.

History

• Matsuo Basho is considered the first haiku master
• The term “haiku” was coined in the 19th century by poet Masaoka Shiki
• Haiku was originally the opening 3 lines of renga
  • Renga is a party poem where you go around a circle and each person crafts a stanza that logically follows from the previous stanza
  • The opening stanza is a haiku, called a hokku in this context
  • The closing stanza is two lines of 7 onji, called a geku
• Tanka = hokku + geku
  • Tanka was the form often used in samurai death poems and consists of 5 lines totaling 31 syllables, usually reflecting on the beauty of life and the environment
• Predecessors of waka have roots in ancient Chinese and Korean verse.

(Good) References

• Higginson, William J., and Penny Harter. The Haiku Handbook: How to Write, Teach, and Appreciate Haiku. Kodansha USA, 2013.
• Gurga, Lee, and Scott Metz. Haiku 21: an Anthology of Contemporary English-Language Haiku. Modern Haiku Press, 2011.
• Adam L. Kern. The Penguin Book of Haiku. Penguin UK, 2018.
• Matsuo, Bashō, et al. Basho: the Complete Haiku. Kodansha International, 2008.
• Gendai Haiku Collection
• Blog: The Art of Haiku
• Blog: Becoming a Haiku Poet