[How to Read Haiku]
Reading haiku is a fun skill and like any skill, it develops and improves over time as you practice it. If you put more time in, you will get more out of reading haiku. If you skim haiku, you will miss the point (there is always a point).
What is haiku? English haiku are typically written as three liners in a 'short - long - short' pattern (they need not be only 5 - 7 - 5). English haiku are sometimes written as one long line these days. Haiku have to contain an element of surprise, a turning, a connection, or an ambiguity. Some haiku have more than one of these elements.
Don't skim read haiku. They are short but densely packed. Go back and reread haiku to explore the ambiguities and surprises. You will often find more on a second or third read. Read the words and be in the scene but don't confuse the words for the scene. The words point to something and what they point to is where the fun of haiku is! (Good memes work in a similar fashion. The fun is in what is being pointed to, not a literal interpretation.) Don't interpret haiku; they are not a literal writing form. Poetry never is literal. Don't overthink haiku! Explore haiku!
That said, let's pull apart one that I wrote last year. This haiku follows a 5 - 7 - 5 old-school syllable pattern.
yellow leaves fall through
ripples in the sky and clouds
bubble up a duck
Here I have ripples in the sky, but ripples are associated with water... hmm. The leaves are yellow, so it's fall. The association with water ripples and leaves falling through the sky but water? Hmm... are the leaves falling through sky and cloud ripples, falling through water ripples, making ripples? All of the above! As you wish! Next I have the ripples in the sky and clouds but are the ripples the clouds rippling or the (implied pond/water) rippling the sky and the clouds? All of the above! As you wish! Lastly, the rippling sky and clouds (reflected in the water?) bubble up a duck. The duck surfaces after the bubbles.
This haiku is intentionally ambiguous and the lines run together. It can be read as:
- yellow leaves fall — through ripples — in the sky and clouds — bubble up a duck
- yellow leaves fall through ripples — in the sky and clouds bubble up a duck
- yellow leaves fall through ripples in the sky — and clouds bubble up a duck
... those are just three ways to break it down (there are more) and the reader is meant to explore all of it as they read and reread the haiku.
My intention when writing this was:
yellow leaves fall through ripples in the sky and clouds bubble up a duck
I have a fondness for ambiguity in haiku and running the lines together in unusual ways. Every haiku writer has their favourite ways to write. Play, just like kids do; that is the key to reading (and writing) haiku.
Here is a literal description of what was happening that inspired this haiku: I was crossing a bridge at a park near my house, the yellow autumn leaves were falling from the trees, there were wavy bands of clouds in the sky and ripples in the pond reflecting it all. Suddenly some bubbles popped up through the ripples, followed by a duck!
I'll end this with a haiku about writing haiku (with the help of a cat).
writing
and scratching out
the cat yawns
— Sacred Peak (Dale)
sacredpeak.ink
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