The Curious Creative: Week 25

The Language of Spring Haikus

This is the twenty-fifth installment of The Curious Creative, weekly 10-minute writing exercises for busy individuals interested in exploring their creativity. For the complete rationale, click here. 

My Thoughts:

Haikus are very short poems in which writers, instead of using the language of emotions, use the language of objects to tell you how they feel. The aim is that if they share with you the event that gave them the feeling, you might feel similarly. Therefore, it’s the poet’s job to get to the bottom of the essential nature of the thing written about. To do this, the language used is simple yet descriptive. Here are some examples written by Matsuo Basho (1644-1694), one of the great founders/masters of haiku:

old pond…

a frog leaps in

water’s sound

well! let’s go

snow-viewing till

we tumble!

In this week’s exercise, I will provide you with a list of words taken from Japanese haikus written about spring. You will use this simple yet descriptive language as a jump-off point for your own writing. Whether or not you want to challenge yourself to write a haiku is up to you!

Your Turn!

I’ve provided below seasonal wordlists taken from Japanese haikus about spring. Your options for play are (in order of least to most challenging):

1. Choose one of the words/phrases as a jump-off point for a freewrite. Begin with a sentence that includes the word/phrase and see where it takes you!

2. Create a found poem using only words found on this list.

3. Write a haiku using one or several of these words/phrases. What are the basic rules of a haiku?

·      7 accented syllabus, plus unaccented syllables up to a total of about 12

·      3-line structure of 2, 3, and 2 accented syllables

·      grammar should be stripped to a minimum that seems reasonably natural; complete sentences may or may not occur; use articles (a, an, the) and prepositions (to, of, for, etc.) sparingly.

ASTRONOMY

forgotten frost

hazy moon

hazy [moonlit] night

halo of the moon

mist / to mist

thin mist

evening mist

heat shimmer

wind is bright

east wind

fragrant wind/balmy wind

GEOGRAPHY

between snowfalls

leftover snow

melting snow

floating ice

snow-slide

water warms up

waters of spring

hills smile

LIVELIHOOD

burnt-over field

to plow

seeds

low tide

gather shells

tea [leaf] picking

closing the fireplace

balloon

swing

ANIMALS

cats in love

nest of mice

robin

wild geese

returning geese

sparrows

ten thousand birds

twittering

eagle’s nest

tadpoles

snails

PLANTS

camellia blossoms

first cherry blossoms

cherries bloom

clouds of cherry blossoms

falling cherry blossoms

old tree’s flowers

tulips

grass sprouts

tree buds

asparagus sprouts

How did you do? Did using the language already chosen by master haiku poets take your writing into a new plane?

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Inspired by: Higginson, William J. with Penny Harter. The Haiku Handbook: How to Write, Share, and Teach Haiku. Kodansha International, 1985, p. 105-106, 267-271.