POETRY

What a Haiku is Not

Haiku and Tanka

Photo by Elton Sipp on Unsplash

One of the challenges I’ve set for myself this year is to become more comfortable writing traditional haiku and tanka poetry. Looks easy, but it is much harder than it seems.

What follows are some basic poems depicting what haiku can look like — or not! A fun challenge!

haiku by author

Haiku flirts with life
with delicate images
to evoke nature.

poem/photo by Thalia Dunn

Counting syllables
is but first step in haiku
to set boundaries.

Next comes the ‘kigo”,
words to evoke a season
with merely a hint.

And the natural
world is the star of the poem.
Keep our feelings out.

Tanka/photo by Thalia Dunn

Beauty of haiku
is its painting of nature
using only words;
readers become the artists,
images unfold in minds.