- Write three short lines. Edit all superfluous words. Pare the lines down to their verb and noun roots. Question whether the adjectives and adverbs are necessary. Do you need every article (“a” or “the”)?
- The essence of Haiku is not descriptive; instead, it presents the reader with a series of images that, when connected with the reader’s imagination, yield a wealth of associations, visions, and emotions.
- A cutting word is the break in a line such as the hyphen before the word mountain that occurred when this poet saw a mountain castle rather than the moon in the sky.
- Looking for the moon
In a lonely autumn sky
- mountain castle lights - Keep the poem simple; try not to distract the reader with simile, metaphor or rhyme, unless it is necessary to convey the image you see.
- Requirements
- 3-short lines
- 17 syllables: 5 in the first line, 7 in the second, 5 in the third
- You will write two haiku this morning. Start by choosing two phrases / sentences from your reading over the weekend. Those words will appear in your haiku, mixed in with your own words.
- Post your haiku into the document for your class, and be sure to include your name
We'll have a chance for everyone to read one of their poems aloud. We'll also save some time to discuss what we notice in these poems. Lots of them were about fear and its many forms we've seen in the book up to this point.
