Also known as the "Hokku", this verse form has been practiced by Japanese poets for hundreds of years. It originated from "Tanka", a poem of five lines often written by two people jousting in a literary game. One would write three lines and the other responding with two lines capping them. The three line starting verse, the "Hokku", became popular as a separate form and was later referred to as "Haiku". There are only seventeen syllables in the entire Haiku poem. The first and last lines contain five syllables and the middle line contains seven. When translating these wonderful allegories into English, the proper syllabic order is inevitably lost.
May 2008
Old snow is melting
Now the huts unfreezing too
Free all the children
Issa
April 2008
Icicles and water
Old differences dissolved...
Drip down together
Teishitsu
March 2008
Eleven brave knights
Canter through the whirling snow
Not one bends his neck
February 2008
This snowy morning
The black crow I hate so much...
But he's beautiful!
Basho
January 2008
Ah! I intended
Never never to grow old
Listen: New Year's bell!
Joku
December 2007
Buddha on the hill
From your holy nose indeed
Hangs an icicle
Issa
November 2007
Dry cheerful cricket
Chirping, keeps the autumn gay...
Contemptuous of frost
Basho
October 2007
For morning-glories
I can forsee grave danger...
Single-stick practice
Chora
September 2007
Stupid hot melons…
Rolling like fat idiots
Out from leafy shade!
Kyora
August 2007
Good friend grasshopper
Will you play the caretaker
for my little grave?
Issa
July 2007
Dewdrop, let me cleanse
In your brief sweet waters…
These dark hands of life
Basho
June 2007
By that fallen house
The pear tree stands full-blooming...
An ancient battle site
Shiki
May 2007
Ah me! I am one
Who spends his little breakfast
Morning-glory gazing
Basho (1644 - 1694)
April 2007
"Locked in
a staring contest
with a frog!"
Kobayashi Issa (1763 - 1827)
