Flowers shake raindrops
thrilled to feel cool mud again
happy as wet dogs
I was chatting to Jade Herriman the other day about writing haiku when there’s little time for writing. That got me thinking again about all the things I use my little haikus for (yes, I like adding the s). When I started writing poems as a kid, I loved trying out the structured forms like limericks and the different kinds of sonnets. The old Japanese haiku (5 syllables, 7 syllables, 5 syllables) also got a turn, but it was only in 2010 that I really started writing them as a habit. I love telling the story of how I travelled to Namibia with friends at a time when my friend Pat and I were trying to do a 100 consecutive days of writing a daily haiku. At first it was about the challenge and the fun of coming up with images to fit into these little forms.
But we discovered something amazing after the trip: those daily haikus made a wonderful travel journal. With minimal effort we had created a day-by-day log of our trip: vivid, memorable and condensed. Since then, I’ve made a habit of writing haiku on trips, look at how this one captures the kind of trip another friend and I recently made to Hogsback:
Icy waterfall
glittering under bent ferns
Here we had to stop
Recognise the picture at the top of the post? It gets better. Even the most mundane work day was given some meaning by documenting it with a haiku. And they aren’t always beautiful or happy, but they often were funny and made everything better. I’m the world’s worst diary keeper and journal writer, but suddenly I could read back over my days and recall them vividly! It is like having a photo album of words, of even seemingly mundane things like the weather. Last week it was very hot:
Slowly the night bakes
till the sound of cicadas
quiver out the sun
And then it started to rain:
Sharp drumming raindrops
swaddle the heat with a roar
in a white blanket
Turns out documenting was only part of it. We started sending our haikus to friends via email, SMS, WhatsApp and Social Media and not only do you have an instant audience and travel companion; it turns out these little poems are contagious! More friends joined in, added lines when we got stuck, made up their own. It was also a wonderful way to get people who don’t normally write poetry or who thought that writing poetry wasn’t for them, to stick a foot into the water. Here are two fun ones we all slapped up together at the Afrikaans Leeskring (reading circle) in Empangeni:
Bol poedel sit en wagBol rol en rol en rol enpoedel is gebolHygend op die matogies wag vir beter daestertjie bly vol hoop
During times when I feel I have no time or energy for writing or anything creative, a little haiku is an easy way out. But turns out that writing them is like putting a bucket under a leaking tap. Sooner or later those little drops make a bucket full of water! They’re like oil for that engine, a kind of low effort maintenance. And after a while I noticed how the constant squeezing of images into these little poems improved and sharpened my writing in other genres too – even my academic writing!
Fietsspeke knetter
langs die gras wat wakkerword
en ruik na oop pad
Do you write haiku? Would you like to try it? You can go Google all the rules and conventions and traditions that go with this art form, it’s fascinating. But I generally stick to the 5-7-5 and biedem the rest.
Leave me your haiku in your comment on this post and I’ll feature all the ones I get by Friday in a post!
Really enjoyed this blog and haiku(s)! Looking forward to the next one.
Thanks, Wicus! Julle moet gerus gaan kyk na Wicus se cool blog ook! http://versindaba.co.za/2015/05/16/wicus-luwes-rysjoernaal/
The grind of ban saw
Aches through my window, the sound
Of neighbourhood renewal
Thanks Jade! That’s brilliant, I love how you contrast what the noise means to you and to the neighbourhood. I felt a shudder!
I like the way you’ve listed so many different benefits of writing haikus. They do seem to present a more accessible form of poetry, especially for people who are more scientifically-minded. Those rules seem to be easy to follow. There’s more to them than that, but it’s a good start!
Mid afternoon slump
Tatters of the day melt down
In pools of sunlight
That’s a wonderful haiku! Thank you for sharing it!
The wind still blows cold
But sun, light and joy return
Hear Red Robin sing
Thank you, I love it! A whole change of season in 1 haiku!
Nice! I love the contributors’ haikus.
Doret, I LOVE this post! You’ve reminded me of how much I enjoy this form, and your haikus are brilliant! Thanks so much.
Thank you, Amy! Yes, people have been writing lovely haikus. Come on, givvus one too! 🙂
This TEDx talk also has some fun poetry related writer-block busting techniques https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oww7oB9rjgw
Dankie Doret! Het dit baie geniet! Miskien waag ek my hand ook een van die mooi dae aan ‘n Haiku!
Dankie Corrie! Ja, gooi vir ons ‘n Afrikaanse een!
I’ve got one, I’ve got one…. thank you Doret for initiating this!
In the morning me
the sunshine makes the color
inside painting now
Thanks Hilke! I like it a lot! I’ll go put it in the Friday post with Jade’s and Caren’s.
Now here a little from me in german:
Ich lausche leise
dem Wind auf seiner Reise
flieg mit ihm fort g’schwind
fühlend wie sein eigen Kind
(It’s my first try now – last time I have write was at school , excuse me. the haikus from all are sounds wonderful.)
That’s great, Elke! That’s exactly what the Dust-offs are about: so people can get a chance to practice a new, forgotten or rusty skill or interest 🙂 Last year we had one with musical instruments, such fun! Dein Gedicht ist sehr schoen, es hat so viel Bewegung und Gefuehl drin!
What a great post Doret. I love your writing style. Somehow I’m transported and ‘see’ what you are writing about in images in my mind. Very powerful. I will have a go at a Haiku…..not something I’ve ever done much of, the last one being with you guys and Barbara at the course………….here goes.
Sunshine glistens
Silver rooftops
Blinding reminder of summer
Cheers,
Maggie
Thanks Maggie! And thanks for the haiku! I love how it makes me see what you’re seeing! That’s the heat of summer in a tiny poem!
Dear Doret,
it IS a lovely post! It’s easy to imagine how theses haikus got a travel book full of word pictures.
I haven’t done Haikus yet. A friend of mine does “Elevensees” (Elfchen = eleven words)
one word
two words
three words
four words
one word
as a habit. Having gone through depression, she could do with an easy way out, how you so wonderfully called it.
Maybe I could do something like that for my staycation. 🙂
Probably in German, my mother tongue…
Thanks, Jana! I enjoyed reading the story about your friend too. Yes, try it! I also write most of mine in my mother tongue, as much as I enjoy playing around with other languages. It’s even fun to mix languages 🙂 The participants in my haiku workshop enjoy the fact that they can walk out with a few small poems in their hand.