‘And you, flesh and bone’

March 10, 2014 The haiku itself is traditionally a short and specifically structured poem, there are several key elements to its form: it generally consists of seventeen on (often translated as syllables although somewhat different), contains a seasonal reference (known as kigo), and uses ‘cutting’ elements in its punctuation and style, often through juxtaposition of images. Not all haikus and poets adhere strictly to this style: there are also free-form haikus, and the topics are more varied in contemporary poets’ works. Haiku has also been combined with other art forms, most notably Haiga painting (俳画), which has a centuries-old tradition of its own. Matsuo Bashō himself is known to have painted alongside his poems; although usually executed in pen and ink, there is no fixed style to Haiga.
 
Haiku has also found its way into Western poetic tradition, as more and more poets pick up on the form. One of the first Europeans to write a haiku was, purportedly, the Dutchman Hendrik Doeff (1704-1837), who was a commissioner in Japan. The haiku was gradually brought west around the turn of the twentieth century. However, Doeff wrote in Japanese, while most non-Japanese haiku poets choose to write in English. The English haiku is less strict in its rules, and is mainly focussed on condensed imagery in few words. Many forms of ‘pseudo haiku’ have developed, which make the most of a loose interpretation of the original form and create new kinds of poetry, like ‘Scifaiku’ – exactly what it sounds like: Science Fiction poetry.
 
From the more traditional Japanese haikus to Irish poet Gabriel Rosenstock’s ‘Haiku’, poets around the world have taken to this poetic form and made it their own. Meira Delmar’s ‘10 Winged Haikus’ evokes the quiet grace of birds in flight, while Les Murray’s ‘I Wrote A Little Haiku’ takes an entirely different twist. A last example of truly free form haikus is ‘Nectar’s Root as Far as its Resonance Reaches’.
 
There are also contemporary poets who have adapted the Haiga, returning to the combination of haiku and the visual arts. One very public example of this is John Morse, an American artist who has filled the streets of New York and Atlanta with illustrated and stylised haikus. Sometimes harsh and often humorous, the NYC road-safety haikus remind cyclists, pedestrians, and drivers alike of the dangers of the road, in a manner more memorable than the usual government commercials. His Atlanta poetry takes on a slightly different note: mimicking the posters and advertisements peppered throughout the city, these verses reflect on how people interact with those posters and with each other.
 
The haiku has been picked up by many a poet, blogger, newspaper and artist. Haiku’s can be found in every corner of the internet – be it in social media updates or on The New York Times’ website – and many other corners of our lives, streets, and sometimes school bathrooms. Its power, brevity, and the ease with which anyone can adopt it, have made haiku an appealing and enduring form of poetry.  


Interesting links for further reading
John Morse’s photos of Atlanta haikus
John Morse’s studio website
NYC Department of Transportation on ‘curbside haiku’.
Japanese haiku on Wikipedia
A brief history of haiku on a literary resource
English-language haiku on Wikipedia
Independent journal (of) ‘Modern Haiku’
English-language haiku publication ‘Daily Haiku’
‘Daily Haiga’, an edited journal of haiga works
Visual journal of Haiga
 A piece on Haiga in Simply Haiku, a quarterly journal of Japanese short-form poetry
New York City haiku page on Tumblr