Haiku: A New Toy

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?