Full disclosure: I love writing haiku. I wrote the one featured above under my pen name for a manuscript in progress. My third-grade teacher, Ms. Kathryn Alston, introduced me to the world of haiku; I can’t honestly say I appreciated it then, but I have become a fan of this poetry genre as both an English professor and a yoga enthusiast. Yes, I said yoga! In fact, I have learned that writing haiku aligns with a form of yoga that Tonja Bennett, of Yoga on the Move, delineates as insidious yoga - ”the practice of awareness, a decision-making process my yoga practice” (Interview). I’ll explain :
You remember haiku: the Japanese form of poetry composed of 13 stanzas with alternating 5-7-5-syllabic beats? The key elements of haiku are compression of language, saying a lot in only a few words; imagery, typically nature/seasons; and tone, usually brooding and contemplative. The poem above is my attempt. Notice the syllables - beats - in the first line of each stanza:
I - in - hale - na - ture (5 syllables)
Like the first line in each stanza, the third line in each stanza also should have 5 syllables:
And - whis - pers - se - crets (5 syllables)
I - crave - her - es - sence (5)
She - tastes - like - wa - ter (5)
Interrupting this pattern, the second line of each haiku stanza comprises 7 syllables:
She - wraps - her - arms - a - round - me (7)
She - smells - like - life - a - round - me (7)
She - fills - me - bo - dy - and - soul (7)
In review, each breath marks one beat. Just as our breath is our lifeline, each beat brings life to the poem and gives it compact 13-syllable structure . . .CHECK! What about the other aesthetics? Nature imagery - CHECK!! Contemplative tone? CHECK!!!
Haiku is an exercise in focus, awareness, and intention. I can hear my Yogini saying That’s yoga! As Etheridge Knight, one of my favorite poets, writes in his poem titled “Haiku:”
Making jazz swing in
Seventeen syllables AIN’T
No square poet’s job. (Knight)
Indeed, it ain’t, dear Muse. It requires focus, intention, and breath! As my yogini would say, “That’s the work!” . . . and when you write haiku, you might not even break a sweat!
Write well!
Credits:
Bennett, Tonja. Interview of March 10, 2020.
Knight, Etheridge. “Haiku.” American Poetry Foundation. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/47593/haiku. Accessed 26 January 2022.