Hai Ku

Haiku is a Japanese structure poem format. It consists of three lines with five, then seven, then five syllables. Generally, they are meant to be expressions of sensation (usually of nature). That is, something you saw, or smell. Like little poetry photographs.

Didn't haiku develop from the final "answering" part of a longer structure, the renga: a thing rather like a sonnet, where an idea is introduced, developed then replied to, or thrown into a new light? So a haiku could be compared to the closing couplet of a ShakespeareanSonnet.

The RenGa consists of a waki (sp?) followed by a hokku (sp?). These forms have been translated into English as 7-7, 5-7-5. Also, the RenGa is a truly collaborative form of poetry - so a RenGa wiki page is much more ideal than a HaiKu wikki page. Also, wakki just so happens to sound a whole lot like wiki.

Haiku is usually spooged into its basic 5-7-5 format and then used to say anything. This is ok, provided you recognize that you're not really writing Haiku.

I've also heard that the 5-7-5 format is too easy in English to suggest the same kind of profound economy that a Japanese haiku would.'

More importantly, it is difficult to even count syllables in English. How many does 'file' have? What about 'shit'? In Japanese, syllables are always clearly delimited.

If you think the answer to both questions is One, understand that a Japanese speaker would normally pronounce them as fai-ru and shi-to.

''And even more, Japanese do not count syllables, but "uttering time". i.e.: Do (way), as it has a "long O", counts as TWO "syllables".''

: five, seven, then five,
: nature's fragrant seasons grow
: signal amidst noise

: mountains of clouds
: cleansing winds of morning
: wet apple blossom

: HaiKu's inventor
: must have had seven fingers
: on his middle hand

                -- Brian Del Vecchio

: OnceAndOnlyOnce
: RefactorMercilessly
: ExtremeProgramming

: "We will bury you!"
: Freedom wins. We are dancing
: on the Berlin Wall.
: -- JasperPaulsen

: the invisible
: rattlesnake: coiled, sleeping
: Wakes! and glides away
: -- CrotalusRuber 19940410 MissionGorge med Tico -- ChrisGarrod

: First snow, then silence.
: This thousand dollar screen dies
: so beautifully.

Seen taped to a printer...

: The tao that is seen
: Is not the true tao until
: You bring fresh toner.

and many more... http://www.enchanter.net/haiku.html

or join a good haiku mailing listfive7five

http://www.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/five7five

I wrote a program in elisp to generate haiku at random from a buffer. I've also begun to write 'aesthetics' functions which judge lines according to an aesthetic function. The computer will then generate a number of random lines (100 to 10000, depending on how fast the computer is and how much time you have on your hands) and pick the most beautiful.

See http://tommyrot.arrr.net/ComputerPoetry.html

Here is a computer generated haiku from a buffer-ful of spam