Five – seven –
five.
That’s
the rule for haiku, a short form of Japanese poetry. Originally written in
Japanese and following the language’s on
(or morae) - a unit in phonology that
determines syllable weight, haiku has been modified and transferred to other
language such as English.
One
haiku consists of 17 on (or similar to syllables in English) and three lines.
The first line has five on, the second line has seven on and the third line has five
on. It can tell about anything, from kitchen utensils to political issues.
My
Media Writing instructor first introduced haiku to me. Although she had discussed
haiku in her previous quarter newswriting class, I’m more involved in haiku
today because she assigned us to create haikus.
At
the beginning, I found it hard to describe a thing in just three lines. It
seemed to me that an object has many things to describe and three line wouldn’t
be enough.
However,
as I try to play with words and narrow down the descriptions, I’m addicted
(literally).
My
mind can’t stop thinking in five-seven-five until now, two hours after I
finished writing my haiku.
Here
are examples of my haiku:
Move from key to
key
E – A – D – G –
B and E
Pick the strings
and sing
Let your pasta
swim
Boiled water and
olive oil
Add sauce, salt
and cheese
Final penalty
Baggio failed
scoring goal
Brazil got
fourth cup
Slices, chunk or dice
Potatoes, tomatoes, meat
Cut them as you like
Haiku
is so fun
Keep
thinking five-seven-five
Why
don't you write too?
