Haiku

ink brushes paper
five and seven syllables;
season of haiku

• A Haiku is a short, three line poem
• The first and last lines are five syllables.
• The middle line is seven syllables.
• Haiku are about a short moment of time.
• Nature or art is usually a part of a haiku's theme.
• Most haiku have a “twisting” word.

Whitecaps on the bay:
A broken signboard banging
In the April wind.
          - Richard Wright

Soft upon the eye
bright-lit sky without Day's sun
Moon, the gentle light
                - Michael

cedar leaf rustles
pond ripples upon the shore
mist moves, wind whispers
               - Michael

First autumn morning
the mirror I stare into
shows my father's face
          - Murakami Kijo

Brainstorming

To write a haiku, you should capture a moment of beauty. Think of something in nature or art. This is the subject you are writing about. Think of some seasonal words (e.g. "snow", "ice", "cold", "Christmas", "winter", "hot", "sun", "grass", "summer", "warm", "butterflies", "flowers", "breeze", "spring", "cool", "leaves", "pumpkins", "autumn") to place the moment in time. Describe your subject, what the subject is doing, what is happening to the subject at that time. Then take all these ideas and set them into phrases. Finally, arrange the lines to fit the syllable structure of the haiku.