How to Create a Haiku in English

Published on by Colleen M. Chesebro

I love poetry and believe that if you start writing “good” poetry, it will help you to become a better creative writer. That being said, I also like rules in poetry. There must be some parameters that we follow to create our visual word poems. Otherwise, we are left with words that don’t convey a cohesive feeling or thought.

I’ve had a few questions on how to write the different poetry forms. I thought I would start with the Haiku first because it is one of the most powerful poem structures we have to express deep emotions. The brevity of the structure (5/7/5) causes the poet to choose their words carefully.

Haiku, according to www.edu.pe.ca “…is a Japanese verse in three lines.  Line one has 5 syllables, line 2 has 7 syllables, and line three has 5 syllables. Haiku is a mood poem, and it doesn’t use any metaphors or similes.”

Not using metaphors or similes is important because it is part of writing a Haiku in English. And, believe me, I am guilty of writing this form incorrectly, too.

Ahapoetry.com explains the difference lies in the number of syllables in Japanese compared to English:

“THE LENGTH AND FORM OF ENGLISH HAIKU”

“Today, many bilingual poets and translators in the mainstream North American haiku scene agree that something in the vicinity of 11 English syllables is a suitable approximation of 17 Japanese syllables, in order to convey about the same amount of information as well as the brevity and the fragmented quality found in Japanese haiku. As to the form, some American poets advocate writing in 3-5-3 syllables or 2-3-2 accented beats. While rigid structuring can be accomplished in 5-7-5 haiku with relative ease due to a greater degree of freedom provided by the extra syllables, such structuring in shorter haiku will have the effect of imposing much more stringent rules on English haiku than on Japanese haiku, thereby severely limiting its potential.”

For all sakes and purposes, writing Haiku in the abbreviated forms above just don’t carry the same impact when written in English. For my poetry challenges, we use the 5/7/5 structure.

Most Haiku are written about nature, but not all. A Haiku should share a moment of awareness (Yes! Mindfulness figures here, too) with the reader. When you read a Haiku, it should convey emotions like peace, mystery, sadness, etc. Always include words that provoke emotions in your readers.

DON’T TELL THE READER HOW YOU FEEL – SHOW THE READER HOW YOU FEEL. Here is a PDF of the Guidelines for Writing Haiku.

HOW I WRITE A HAIKU

The best way to write Haiku is to commune with nature. Get up from the computer, put down your phone, and literally go outside and experience the world.

Photography and art are another way to stimulate your creative writing genes. Many times, I like finding a photograph and letting my mind wander over the image. (Pixabay.com is a great place to find inspirational photos that are part of the public domain and free for commercial use with no attribution required).

I write down everything I see in the picture and use my five senses to record my observations.

Let’s take this image below:

Image Credit: Pixabay.com

Here are my observations about the picture:

Sun breaking through dark clouds

A road to nowhere

A fence to hold something in or out

Dark and light contrasts good and evil – shifting perceptions – changing my attitude

Green grasses stretch to infinity – the unknown?

Heavenly intervention? Expanding awareness

Enchanted by the vision of the light breaking through the clouds – looks magical

Next, I am going to select two of my observations that really hit me emotionally in the gut when I look at the image:

Dark and light contrasts good and evil – shifting perceptions

Heavenly intervention? Expanding awareness.

I play with the words and use thesaurus.com. I run my words through the poetry workshop at How Many Syllables to make sure I have the proper count of syllables: 5/7/5.

Here is what I came up with:

Shifting attitudes –

while your consciousness expands,

enchantment appears.

© 2017 Colleen M. Chesebro

There is one more thing I want to bring you attention to. I write my Haiku in English to form two complete sentences:

Shifting attitudes – while your consciousness expands.

While your consciousness expands, enchantment appears.

There are two different things happening in this Haiku. The first two lines are about change, and the very last line lets the reader know that in the midst of change we often find the magic in life. The last line is the pivot. That is where you show an opposite which creates a deeper meaning to your first thoughts.

Ronovan, from RonovanWrites, taught this Haiku writing technique on his blog. Please click the link to visit his blog. He offers a weekly Haiku challenge each Monday if you are interested.

Image credit: Pixabay.com

Spread your writing wings and engage your creative engines by writing some Haiku. Join me every Tuesday on my blog for Poetry Tuesday, where you can share your Haiku, Haibun, or Tanka poetry. Here is a link to this week’s prompt post: Colleen’s Weekly Poetry Challenge #32 – Lead & Save.

Thanks for stopping by… now back to writing Book 2 of The Heart Stone Chronicles: The Meadow Fairy

Universal book link

44 thoughts on “How to Create a Haiku in English”

  1. Thank you Colleen for this very interesting post. I like poetry but not as much as prose. Some time ago, I came across Haiku and Tanka forms of poetry. They are fascinating, the matching of ideas and the number of syllables. I follow Ronovan’s challenges. It is fun 🙂

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  2. Great and clear guidelines Colleen! It is easy to focus on the 5/7/5 rule but forget about the connection of the three lines in creating two sentences that mean something!

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  3. Interesting. Thank you.

    “For all sakes and purposes, writing Haiku in the abbreviated forms above just don’t carry the same impact when written in English.” Not true, however.

    Marie Marshall
    editor
    ‘the zen space’

    Liked by 1 person

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    1. Thanks for your comment. The reference was to the way Japanese translates compared to English. We all write Haiku in English with the 5/7/5 form. I see no reason why you can’t write it how you wish. It’s your choice. For my challenge I prefer to follow the standard.

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    1. Many thanks. That is true, there is plenty of room to interpret the Haiku form into different versions. For my challenge I wanted to stay with the 5/7/5 format as many of us are still students of the form. I hope people will experiment with the true Japanese syllable structure. It’s a great challenge. ❤️ You are the Haiku Princess 👸

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  12. Thanks for sharing how to write this form of poetry. I didn’t know that imagery is not used for haiku. I have recently tried to experiment with this form and found it is fun due to just three lines. 🙂

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  13. Pingback: How to Create a Haiku in English | Colleen Chesebro ~ Fairy Whisperer – Dogeared Lit
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  20. Thanks for this post. I just wrote and posted a haiku and by sheer luck did not put in simile/metaphor. I read once that traditional Haiku almost always use imagery from nature and that many go further, giving hints to a precise time of year. For example, if I wrote one about cherry blossoms, living on the east coast of the U.S. it would be clear that it was mid-April. I find this fascinating, though it’s hard to employ this additional element in such a short structure.

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    1. That is also my understanding. Japanese Haiku is all nature based with special emphasis on the four seasons. I always try to have a bit of nature in my poetry. It feels right and takes us back to our primal beginnings. ❤️

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  21. Pingback: How to Create a Haiku in English | Colleen Chesebro ~ Fairy Whisperer | JoAnn Chateau

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