Submitted
by TinaL. Thomen
SLM 521:
Telecommunications & The Internet
Fall 2005
~ Updated
Web Dropin
#2
Photo taken from http://www.haikupoetshut.com/haikuphotndx.html
Introduction ~ What
is Haiku Poetry?
Haiku is
one of the most important and well-known forms of traditional Japanese poetry.
Haiku is typically a 17-syllable verse form consisting of three metrical lines of
5, 7, and 5 syllables. (In Japanese, this 5, 7, 5 syllabic custom remains
consistent, but modern English Haiku poets have sometimes varied syllable
lengths,) Today, we will concentrate on
the traditional Japanese pattern, with the syllables arranged in the following manner:
Photo taken from http://www.haikupoetshut.com/haikuphotndx.html
Iron
prehistoric gift
splashing history currents
leaving flakes of rust
By Deborah P. Kolodji, from http://www.iscifistory.com/scifaku/elements/periodichaiku.asp. At this site, science students wrote haiku
poems to help remember the elements of the Periodic Table.
Twinkies
Moist
golden sponge cake.
Creamy white filling of joy.
Boy, I love Twinkies!
By Todd
Stadler, from http://www.twinkiesproject.com/haiku.html.
Information about
Haiku’s Original Poet
~ Meet Master Basho~
Spring morning marvel
lovely nameless little hill
on a sea of mist
As
this poem by Basho illustrates, Haiku appeals to the senses ~ sight, touch,
sound, smell, taste, or sensations like motion. This poem takes the reader to the
fluidity of a specific moment in spring rather than to a static picture of a general
hillside scene. We can use our senses to feel the mist and see the contrasts of
the colorful hilltop resting on a gray fog.
Basho himself shares the Haiku experience:
Go to the pine if you want to
learn about the pine, or to the bamboo if you want to learn about the bamboo.
In doing so, you must leave your preoccupation with yourself. Otherwise you
impose yourself on the object and do not learn. Your poetry issues of its own accord
when you and the object have become one--when you have plunged deep enough into
the object to see something like a hidden glimmering there.” (From http://www.haiku.insouthsea.co.uk/teachbasho_sec2.htm)
~ Haiku Activity ~
[
Using
any image that you choose to observe, write a Haiku in your journal.
"Modesty, gentleness, and simplicity!" it
said. "These are the truly
beautiful things." (Basho)