Welcome to my adventures and experiments in creativity. Where writing is like running: sometimes I know where I'm going, and sometimes I see where the mood takes me.


Sunday 12 August 2012

Everybody Was Haiku Writing


The English language has not been kind to the haiku. While the format is set in stone in its Japanese homeland – albeit a stone that is beginning to suffer from a certain amount of weathering – almost anything goes in the Western world. The Wikipedia article on the subject is frankly bewildering – a monoku, anybody? How about a cirku instead?

I am not, and do not seek to become, a haiku scholar. When I decided to try writing a couple of examples, there were two guidelines I wanted to abide by. First, three lines of 5, 7 and 5 syllables each. There are alternatives, but this feels closest to the tradition of 5, 7 and 5 on in Japanese poems (on not being the same as syllables).

Wikipedia: Some translators of Japanese poetry have noted that about 12 syllables in English approximate the duration of 17 Japanese on.

Secondly, to maintain a theme of nature, but with a bit of a twist. It is not necessarily the case that haiku must be written about nature, but it is popularly considered that they are. More than ever, modern haiku do not fit with this supposed tradition but I thought it would be fun to try and play with it a little.

So it was that I attempted to contrast the fundamental wonder of the natural world with the trivialities and ‘take things for granted’ attitude of middle class life. What follows are the collated efforts of my last couple of week’s poetry writing. Hopefully some of them will make you chuckle – that is my only, relatively lowbrow, aim. Some of them don’t necessarily fit with the self-imposed guidelines; some of them don’t work at all, I’m sure.

Irritations

Innocent, carefree
Children burst with life and soul
Cans of Monster drunk

Soaring high above
Call of nature to answer
Car washed this morning

Sleepy morning eyes
Toothpaste, face cream, side by side
Scent of mint awakes

Genetics dictate
Attraction on the inside
Lying Lynx bastards

Cave paintings and grunts
Language, expression evolves!
Now ‘meeting’ is ‘mtg’

Issues

Global poverty
Dictator-led oppression
Bad e-mail grammar

Best local produce
Diet of global cuisine
Krispy Kreme doughnuts

Good Transport Links

Internal combustion
Freedom road broadens the mind
Infernal road noise

Raw tuna for lunch
Electronic wonderland
Akihabara

Outdoors

Windswept mountaintops
Scaling heights of endurance
Scaring me shitless

Atop misty moors
Battling the elements
Check in on Facebook

Lost in wilderness
Despite compass in pocket
Relied on iPhone

Wide eyes and sore legs
Capture nature’s masterpiece
Battery just died

Pride

Heights of performance
All athletic disciplines
Olympic glory

Donation of blood
Oh, noble humanity!
Free biscuit after

Observations

Expectations rise
Under grey Manchester rain
‘The Dark Knight Rises’

Blue puffer jacket
Shades, tracksuit, ironing board
Gentleman of Stoke