I’ve decided that if I’m going to continue with this project, I might as well make it a bit more instructive, not to mention a bit more interesting for myself. The trouble with something as open as “a poem a day” is that it doesn’t really focus the mind on producing your best work.
So I’m going to use a variety of different verse forms. Last week I posted a Fibonacci poem, a relatively modern form with a syllable count based on the Fibonacci sequence 0,1,1,2,3,5,8.
Fibs (as they are commonly known) exemplify a form of verse that doesn’t rhyme – doesn’t need to anyway. Some people will claim that if it doesn’t rhyme then it isn’t a poem, ignoring the fact that for the majority of the world and for the majority of history, rhyme has been only one small aspect of one small section of poetry. Perhaps the most well-known form of syllable-count poems is the Haiku. A Japanese form it doesn’t really adapt perfectly to English though many people have produced some very fine English Haiku.
The simple Haiku rules are that they should be three lines long with five syllables in the first and third lines and seven in the second. Of course, as with most things, I think you will find it’s more complicated than that. Traditional Haiku is related to nature, is often about a single season, has an audible pause (or in Japanese a “cutting word”) which breaks it into two thematically related sections (Usually, but not always, at the end of line one or two).
English haiku sometimes breaks any and all of the above rules.
So, let’s have some haiku. (Caution: just because I understand the rules, it doesn’t mean I am any good at the form.)
So I’m going to use a variety of different verse forms. Last week I posted a Fibonacci poem, a relatively modern form with a syllable count based on the Fibonacci sequence 0,1,1,2,3,5,8.
Fibs (as they are commonly known) exemplify a form of verse that doesn’t rhyme – doesn’t need to anyway. Some people will claim that if it doesn’t rhyme then it isn’t a poem, ignoring the fact that for the majority of the world and for the majority of history, rhyme has been only one small aspect of one small section of poetry. Perhaps the most well-known form of syllable-count poems is the Haiku. A Japanese form it doesn’t really adapt perfectly to English though many people have produced some very fine English Haiku.
The simple Haiku rules are that they should be three lines long with five syllables in the first and third lines and seven in the second. Of course, as with most things, I think you will find it’s more complicated than that. Traditional Haiku is related to nature, is often about a single season, has an audible pause (or in Japanese a “cutting word”) which breaks it into two thematically related sections (Usually, but not always, at the end of line one or two).
English haiku sometimes breaks any and all of the above rules.
So, let’s have some haiku. (Caution: just because I understand the rules, it doesn’t mean I am any good at the form.)
.
My year
as old leaves wither
new life fills the colleges:
chasing the future
snow, ice and blizzards:
keep faith through the darkest hours
the sun will return
blossoms returning
and new worlds lie before you:
this is your future
the hills of Harrow
are overgrown with children:
foreign summer sounds
as old leaves wither
new life fills the colleges:
chasing the future
snow, ice and blizzards:
keep faith through the darkest hours
the sun will return
blossoms returning
and new worlds lie before you:
this is your future
the hills of Harrow
are overgrown with children:
foreign summer sounds
1 comment:
my year begins with
august month of life
to rest in summers light
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