Kiss Joy as it Flies: Introduction to Haiku

Haiku: The first line has five syllables; the second has seven, and five syllables in the last line complete the poem. Have you ever written haiku? Every school child writes at least one. It's perfect practice for breaking words into syllables. And in school, perhaps you learned that haiku is Japanese and centers on nature. Yes, this is all true, but it’s like saying, “I’m a homemaker from North Dakota. I have brown hair and brown eyes.” It only skims the surface of who I am. Sometimes the surface is all a person sees. But you have come to this blog for something more. You have come to find beauty in poetry, so let me properly introduce you to the simple, yet lovely, haiku.

Imagine creating a form of poetry that when you write it, you are writing as you would live your religion. You don’t write about religion. You don’t write in praise of your god. You simply write in the way you are instructed to live. That is the relationship between Zen Buddhism and haiku. Basho (1644-1694) is given credit for first creating the haiku. He took longer linked verses that were popular at the time and removed a small portion of it (the 5-7-5). What was left was haiku. It was such a short blunt bit, read in a single breath, that it left no room for metaphors, moralizing, or explaining. All the poet could do was write a flash of enlightenment: what Zen Buddhists call kensho. It was the Zen idea of mindfulness, being aware only of the moment, which set the haiku in present tense. And it was wabi-sabi, natural simplicity, solitude, and the acceptance and appreciation for the aged as part of the cycle of life, which allowed haiku poets to write with understated grace.

The old calendar

fills me with gratitude

like a sutra.

-Buson

Awakened at midnight

 by the sound of the water jar 

cracking from the ice .

-Basho

They spoke no word, 

the host, the guest 

and the white chrysanthemum .

 -Ryota