Hello, Haiku Aficionados!
Do you ever have an idea in your head that forces its way out until you find yourself expressing it on the internet? I’m asking for no reason.
shaved my head and beard
start week with clean energy
of a Buddhist monk
7 Unconnected Thoughts About Haiku
Japanese haiku have 17 on (usually translated as syllables). While most English speakers in school are taught that a haiku must have 17 syllables, most haiku poets and poetry journals prefer free-verse haiku for English haiku, these are usually much shorter than 17 syllables and not always in three lines. For examples of great free-verse haiku, check out
by Kyle G. Jones.I write 17-syllable haiku because I love the challenge that strict line and syllable counts offer. They make writing a haiku feel like a brain teaser. I also write the 5-7-5 haiku, or what some people call formal haiku, because I want to show people how powerful it is to write poetry, and most people are familiar with the 5-7-5 haiku. It’s a form most English speakers are comfortable with.
My favorite English language haiku writer is Richard Wright. Everyone should read his haiku collection, written while he was living in Paris, in exile. Every poem is a beautiful meditation.
The great Japanese haiku masters, Bashō, Buson, Issa, Shiki, Takahama Kyoshi, and Kawahigashi Hekigotō each break the “rules” of haiku from time to time in intriguing ways. Poets are rebels!
Writing haiku is one of the most fulfilling mindfulness practices you can find. To write haiku, you must notice the world around you. To notice the world around you, you must learn to avoid distractions. If you write just one haiku a day, you will start to see changes in your ability to focus and notice in less than a week.
In Japanese, words like haiku do not have a distinct plural form. The plural of haiku is haiku—just like the plural of Pokemon is Pokemon. However, in English, we borrow words from other languages and then subject them to the irregularities of English grammar all the time. I don’t think it’s wrong to make the plural of haiku in English haikus. I’m a creature of habit, and I use haiku without the “s” as the plural. Your mileage may vary.
It’s easy to write a haiku. It’s difficult to write a great haiku. I’ve written more than 3,000 haiku, and I don’t think I’ve written a great one yet. I’m still striving. I have written some good ones, but greatness is elusive.
Artist Note
Here’s my post-haircut/beardcut selfie:
One of my stranger beliefs is that my hair is tied up into my energy. I’m bald, at least on top, and have been for a very long time. It doesn't bother me at all. But I do grow lots of hair on the sides of my head, and that drives me crazy. I don’t want people to think I’m trying to do a combover or something equally ridiculous when the hair on the sides and back of my head grows long.
I also usually have a beard, but sometimes it gets out of control. Because of everything that’s gone on the past two months with our family, my hair and beard were looking downright unkempt. I felt like all that hair was a drain on my energy, so I shaved it all off (K helped me shave my head). Now I feel much lighter!
For months, I have had the bare bones of a long essay about writing haiku in my mind. I keep threatening to write it, but something stops me. It feels pretentious—or perhaps more honestly, I’m afraid nobody would read it. I think it would be at least 5,000 words long. When I start to outline it, I can see how it could easily turn into a small book project instead. I had to get some of the information and thoughts out of my system, so I wrote a fast 7-point list of unconnected haiku thoughts. But the longer work still stalks me. Eventually, I will have to give in, just to get some peace—even if there’s not an audience for it.
Publishing Note
I’m calling these publishing notes instead of commercial notes now because I felt commercial notes sounded like it was a self-promotion section and not a note about the business side of my artistic journey.
and have reminded me in recent months of a platform I used to love years and years ago when I got my first iPad. It's called Flipboard. It bills itself as a social magazine. The platform allows you to curate stuff that you love on the web and people can flip through your posts like pages in a magazine. Since I’m fleeing Twitter, Instagram, Substack Notes, and Flipboard are where I will be hanging out most of the time. I started two of my own magazines on Flipboard. One is just where I share old Weirdo Poetry posts. But the other one is called Lets Make Art1, and it’s where I’m sharing the articles and Substacks that I’m reading and enjoying.I’m hoping Flipboard will be useful to the community we’re building together, a place where we can all help curate interesting things relating to art in the broadest sense.
Even though I used Flipboard a lot back in the day, I’m a newbie again. If you’re on Flipboard, come find me, and we can connect and share cool things there!
Be the weird you want to see in the world!
Cheers,
Jason
I know it should be “Let’s” but the apostrophe made the link awkward. I decided to keep it as “Lets” and am going to pretend it’s artsy.
Cheers, Jason! I'm collecting photography stories on Flipboard. Check it out — FlakPhoto Reads
https://flipboard.com/@flakphoto/flakphoto-reads-69gn3t67z
Flipboard! I’d forgotten about that one. Oh my! I need to embrace the Haiku, thanks for the links with regards to those!