How to Write a Haiku

Get up and walk outside. Take a moment to look around. What little details do you notice right now, that you miss everyday because you are in a hurry rushing here or there? Find a special moment, feeling or image with in nature. Close your eyes and picture it. Think - how do you feel? What is important about this image - the details? Is there a secret or a surprising detail about the image? Does it have a story to tell?

Traditional Japanese Haiku poetry is composed of 17 units divided into three parts (5 syllables, 7 syllables, 5 syllables). Japanese Haiku poets write their poems in one line; however, in English Haiku each part is written on a separate line. It is important to divide the three parts to allow the reader time to form an image in their mind.

An English Haiku looks like this:

Five Syllables

Seven Syllables

Five Syllables

Something to think about before you start writing, Haiku poems should include the following:

• Focus on nature or a natural occurrence
• Includes a seasonal word (like snow) that indicates what time of year it is
• The poem should have a natural division: First part of the image, Second part of the image and Third the surprise relationship about the two parts
• Haiku poets describe the details of the natural image that causes emotion rather than saying the actual emotion
• Remember Sensory Language to help in writing a Haiku (smell, sight, hearing, touch, taste)

Start Writing:

1. Find an image of nature that inspires you.
2. Do not worry about counting syllables yet - just start writing.
3. Write the first two lines about your image of nature.
4. Write the third line with a surprise or intriguing point of view - it should be completely different from the first two lines.
5. Look over what you wrote. Does the combination of the lines create a visual in the readers mind that has a surprise ending?
6. Rewrite the poem in Haiku format (5 syllables, 7 syllables, 5 syllables). Experiment with words that create imagery and enhance feeling.
7. Don't be afraid to try new ideas and perspectives. Read your Haiku aloud to yourself - how does it sound? Does it use sensory language and create a surprising moment?

Examples of "Winter Haiku" poems by Charles de Lint

November 29

Ridiculous:

another blizzard; the world

goes quietly white

December 18

Moonlight casts a pale

blue light on the snow, winter

perfect, cold and brisk

December 26

The bare limbs of the

trees shiver in the wind and

speak in semaphore