Friday 28 March 2008

How all Writers can learn From Haiku

My article about how all writers can learn from haiku is now up at Epiphany. You can read it here.

Edited to add: the article linked to is not a guide to writing haiku.

12 comments:

Vincent said...

Basho's The Narrow Road to the Deep North is a book I go back to over the years.

But I find that writers of haiku in English often appear to forget that the precision and detail of the form are nothing without sincerity. A piece which has been composed without an intensity of feeling which the author feels impelled to share is surely a waste of the reader's time.

Almost the only contact I have with writers (other than the books I read) is listening to BBC Radio 4 and reading blogs; in neither of which is sincerity ever mentioned. Indeed, Teach yourself creative writing (Diane Doubtfire), a book I strongly discommend, speaks against it in several contexts.

I would like to make a bonfire of those books, especially poetry, which are written without sincerity. The resultant carbon emissions would be offset by a clearer, cleaner cultural world.

Larry Kollar said...

Good article, Crafty. I've said similar things about haiku. I think the summation is "focus" — you have to intensely focus on the subject to make it work. But it's possible to stimulate multiple senses, using an economy of words to draw the reader on like a graphic artist can evoke a face or nature scene with just a few quick arcs of a pencil on paper.

UL said...

i will follow the link but hey -there's a gift awaiting you at my space, hope you will like it, i havent been able to come by lately, but wanted to let you know that you are in my thoughts.

Janice Thomson said...

I agree completely with Vincent's thoughts above. To me if I have not experienced what I write then I don't write it. An 'aha' moment will not be so to the reader unless he feels it in the writer's heart.
There are far too many chapbooks of uninspiring writings just for the sake of being able to say one is now a published author.

While I liked your article on haiku I feel it is an art that is not learned overnight by just putting a few short contrasting lines together. Haiku are lines that provide the reader with an instant understanding and exceeding awe for the role nature plays in our lives and in the world.

I also find that too often most of the so-called haiku are actually senryu or short poems focussed on humans rather than nature. Contemporary English haiku has lost much of the structure and essence of the original haiku and for good reason; the difference between the Japanese and English language.

Anonymous said...

well done.

Crafty Green Poet said...

Vincent thanks, sincerity is important you're right. I don't know the books you refer to but generally I don't advocate burning books.

Thanks farfetched.

Thanks UL, I'll pop over and take a look - thanks for thinking of me!

Janice - the article isn't about haiku though, its about what writers of other forms can learn from haiku. It is in no way intended to tell people how to write haiku.

thanks s thomas

Janice Thomson said...

Thank you for your comments and explanations. My apologies Juliet for misinterpreting your article so badly. Upon rereading I realized the mistake I had made.

polona said...

your article sums it up just right... but i also agree with what vincent and janice (although perhaps a bit off-topic)said in this thread.

Crafty Green Poet said...

Polona - thanks, yes I agree with Vincent and Janice, though there was some misinterpretation of what my article was about.

WH said...

A great article, Juliet! Sage advice about important principles of composition.

iamnasra said...

I agree with Janice ..its hard to create a Haiku.. I always say a master of poet who can write haiku filled with emotion, yet bring us face to face to nature ..artistry is the word

Crafty Green Poet said...

Nasra - i don't disagree, but the article isn't about writing haiku.