Writing a Haiku

Hello students,

Today, you’ll learn about Haiku in the lab session.

A Haiku is a particular kind of poem. In order to know more about this, you’ll need to do some research on the internet. For your research, consider the following questions:

• What’s a Haiku?
• Where does it come from?
• What do you notice about the structure of these poems (hint: think about syllables)?
• What is the general subject matter of these poems?
• How is this poetry different or similar to the limericks we studied last week?
• Why do you think the poets wrote these poems?
• What is significant about the length of these poems?
• What do you notice about the language used in these poems?

The Haiku present a snapshot of everyday experience, revealing an unsuspected significance in a detail of nature or human life. Haiku poets find their subject matter in the world around them, not in ancient legends or exotic fantasies. So, as an attempt to write your own Haiku watch the following video about nature.

After you watch it, do this:

• Lie back for 5 minutes and clear your mind of inner conversation.
• Think only of your five senses: smelling, hearing, tasting, touching, and seeing.

Personal Inventory:

Write down at least one sensation in each of your five senses categories.

• Smelling __________________________________________________________
• Hearing __________________________________________________________
• Tasting ___________________________________________________________
• Touching _________________________________________________________
• Seeing ____________________________________________________________

Steps to write a Haiku:

1. Write two lines about something beautiful in nature. You can use the ideas taken from the video. Don't worry about counting syllables yet.
2. Write a third line that is a complete surprise, that is about something completely different from the first two lines.
3. Look at the three lines together. Does the combination of these two seemingly unrelated parts suggest any surprising relationships? Does it give you any interesting ideas?
4. Now rewrite the poem, using the 5-syllable, 7-syllable, 5-syllable format and experimenting with the new ideas or perspectives that have occurred to you.

Present the poem to the rest of the class.