Why Haiku Prose?

Haiku offered me a discipline through which I could attempt to express feelings and thoughts that I was finding hard to get through a traditional essay format. It was a discipline I enjoyed practising while drinking coffee and watching the world go by. Then, I stumbled on Haiku Prose or Haibun.

Haiku is a Japanese style of poetry that is now written and adapted worldwide. In English, a Haiku is normally three non-rhyming lines that present a contrast or contradiction of ideas, feelings, or emotions. In Japanese, a Haiku traditionally has 17 sounds in three lines where the sounds are presented in a 5-7-5 format. In English, the 5-7-5 is not as strict. The sounds in Japanese don't equate to syllables in English.

Haiku offered me a discipline through which I could attempt to express feelings and thoughts that I was finding hard to get through a traditional essay format. It was a discipline that I enjoyed practicing while drinking coffee and watching the world go by. Then, I stumbled on Haiku Prose or Haibun.

Haibun is a short prose piece accompanied by a Haiku. This was useful because my Haiku was starting from a place of judgment, not aesthetics. So, I started writing short prose to accompany the Haiku. The prose expanded on the thoughts or observations that led me to write the Haiku.

I have tried to be brief in the prose (not always successfully). I don’t explain the connection between the Haiku and the prose. Traditionally, it is up to the reader to make the connection. I have tried to keep the prose as an objective representation of my observations, but I do start from a place of judgment about the topic, so I’m not sure how successful that can be.

Finally, the topics are diverse. I didn’t limit my Haiku to my usual subjects. Instead, I went where my observations took me. This is a part of the site that will continue to grow.

I have no talent or aspiration to become a master of Haiku. The discipline and difference of the Haiku Prose approach helped me, so I will persist to see where it leads.

I read the following books to learn more about Haiku.

W.J. Higginson and P. Hater, The Haiku Handbook: How to Write, Teach, and Appreciate Haiku, 2013.

Basho, On Love and Barley - Haiku of Basho, 1985.

Jack Kerouac, Book of Haikus, 2004.

This was a helpful and interesting website: https://www.graceguts.com/essays