Haiku Writing

You're here because you want to know something about Haiku. I'm writing this because I would like you to appreciate this special poetry and be able to write some yourself. With that understanding I'm going to unfold this the way I plan to present a first lesson in Haiku to several classes of Grade Seven students at my daughter's school.

Here we have the additional advantage that I can link in additional materials from the Internet as we go along. I'm going to make them rather unobtrustive so you can ignore them if you want [rather like footnotes]. When you see this symbol, Ø , know that it is a link somewhere. That one was a link to a page that has more information on the links I'm using.

And please, let me pause here to thank William J. Higginson for writing the book that has helped me get started writing haiku. Thanks so very much! And thanks also for providing the suggestions for teaching haiku on which I am basing these remarks. More about the book later!

Let's not get hidebound by rules right here at the start. I'm going to start by laying out some haiku examples. That way you'll be able to see how they are constructed. I've tried to use a wide variety - Japanese ones of many vintages, ones from around the world, contemporary English ones, and some I have written here in Calgary.

In the class I'll be reading them slowly and carefully. Beforehand I'll tell them the poems are very short - so short they'll miss a whole poem if they miss one word. So, let's read. Allow yourself any type of response. When you're done, follow the pointing hand to the next section.