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The Haiku Itself

This grove, ‘The Haiku Itself’ is self regarding.  These are haiku about haiku - their inspiration, their form and some thoughts about both their strengths and difficulties.  The DIY haiku allows the participating reader free choice in the placing of the words.  Thing and Rose is a confection of groups of words attributable to: (i) Marilyn Monroe, (ii) Gertrude Stein, (iii) William Shakespeare.  Other haiku experiments are to be found Beyond the Haiku.

On Terimati’s Verses

Terimati’s works Concise, well formed, numerous —Their bonsai forest Teri and Mati Two bards sitting with two beards —Seeds of an idea Many of our best Are true joint compositions (No, not smoking #!) The Great Master’s works Clear, wise, concise, to the point —Calls a glade a glade Deepest tragedy Next to stand-up comedy —What makes Shakespeare great Gags and deep feelings - Fuckin’ Hell, that’s what life is All about, innit? Desp’rate Dan, Korky, Dennis the Menace, Gnasher —Our hero’s Basho

The Haiku Form

Subject Matter

	Finding a subject A little more difficult One must work at it Writing a haiku A way to communicate Brief and to the point. Haiku.  Good to read. Marquand inwardly digests Morsels of Wisdom Haiku are morsels That don’t give indigestion Leaving room for more Haiku come full-formed I’ve tried many media This one is for me Linking up haiku One fence wire—many dew drops Seems to work for me 2 b or not 2 b that is the quest I’m on Have I got this right? Writing a haiku A matter of season words And using them well Haiku—they show us Compassion—and for ourselves How brief our life is Much to aspire to— Such humbling constraints—haiku Metaphors for life Haiku are about Observing impermanence Seizing the moment Perhaps some landscape Mixed in with an epigram Is a beginning In all our haiku No sign of an elephant Ah!  There is one now!

Inspiration

Thought up some haiku Then used the quality rake —They were moss not grass My muse has left me Now me and my doggerel, Old prose, go walkies I ascend the stairs To craft my better haiku —Poems are the stars Awake in the night Whopping big black silences Sometimes haiku come Kew Gardens Sunday Splendid water lilies there Haiku may follow Challenge of haiku Attracts my concentration Attention wanders Haiku are like days They are just not long enough To fit it all in I offer a jest Even an insight on life Each is a haiku Haiku poet’s tears —Her cutting words.  Makes peace with Seventeen kisses

Polysyls

Polysyllabics => Artificiality => Insincerity Metaphorical Polysyllabicity - Illumination Quadrilateral Perpendicularity —Rectification? Exonerating Apologetically —Justification? Reincarnation - Phenomenological Metempsychosis Versifications Extemporaneously Elaborated

Syllable Problems

Haiku’d dance all night And still have asked for more—than Seventeen syllab… Half syllables like ‘While’—is it ‘wile’ or ‘wyull’? Sometimes bother me In the Lone Star State Syllables count differently Not left but ‘lay-uff’ Now not just Tow-unn We now have City, Man U Facturing as well Say ‘little pebbles’ Syllables go by quickly Then say ‘small round stones’ In English we have Big bricks, small bricks and half bricks Not like Japanese Syllables, buses— Not enough when you want them Or more than you need

Having pun

Highland cattle trips Farmer has a wee problem Righting a high coo Rambler on the moor Ill-advised path through peat bog Encounters hike ooze Friday afternoon All the working week is done Haiku’d sink a pint Room 575 Cilla Bull’s sweet seventeen, Ike Hughes counts on her Stacked over Heathrow Round and round and round we go. Is this a high queue?

Experiments

The DIY Haiku I just hate to be A [ ] is a [ ] is a [ ] by any name For each [ ] substitute ‘Thing’ or ‘Rose’ at will, mixing and matching, as seems appropriate at the moment.  See the appendix for further explanation. Chicken crosses road Many possible reasons [Insert just one here] A sort of meta haiku—do ‘could be seventeen’ or ‘grass greener maybe’ qualify? This one has the same syllable in the centre of each line—a ‘spiku’? Clear, warm sunny days Blessed our Whitsuntide away —Liked your sunday best

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