Haiku

Write some or all of these poems on the board, preferably before class.

This quietness
The shrilling of cicadas
Stabs into the rock

Bashō

From the plum tree bloom
Is fragrance floating upward?
There’s a halo round the moon

Buson

Squatting motionless
The sun-tanned child and the toad
Stare at each other

Issa

A sudden shower
And I am riding naked
On a naked horse

Issa

First, explain to your students that although the Japanese haiku involves an exact 5/7/5 syllable count for the three lines, translation may vary this because the Japanese syllable count and the English syllable count aren’t quite the same thing. There are some American haiku that don’t follow the 5/7/5 at all, though they do have most of the other characteristics of haiku. Next, mention that the poems are hundreds of years old. Bring out by questioning what runs through each haiku––for instance a connection with nature, generally via a seasonal image. But advise the class not to restrict themselves this way (“We can be a little freer, since we are not Old Masters in Japan”).

Haiku use concrete details to ground us in a specific moment, which seems to release a feeling or meaning. In other words, the meaning is subtle, and increases with familiarity. One good technique is to distribute pictures for the class to base their poems on. This may strengthen the power of the written images.

Write a haiku of your own on the board (and maybe discuss it a bit) or write some with the students. Have them call out lines or ideas or changes.

Read a few student poems to the class.

Ask them to write one or more haiku, with the sense that it’s best to concentrate on one good one.

Collect and read aloud.

Later, have a revision session––emphasizing cutting things down to the central image, as well as the value of originality and surprise, whatever is appropriate to the given poem.

See also: Haibun

(This group of poems is by students in a social studies class who were looking at pictures from South American.)

The orchestra plays
rhythm of butterflies or
deer bounding over fences.

Curtis Peterson (6th grade)

Gigantic turtles
cross the open forest
gazing at the stars.

Jennifer Coles (6th grade)

The mist is rising
because of the water falling
over Angel Falls

Jeremy Bolander (6th grade)

Cathedral bells
ringing in the rhythm to the 
stillness outside.

Suzanna Edgar (6th grade)

Long streams of silk pour
our of weaver’s loom on a
blazing summer day.

Andrea Blood (6th grade)

Night is when
a parked car turns
scary to you.

Chris Folkman (junior high)

(The next group of poems followed a study of animals.)

The fox is so sly
and oh so brightly colored
after the rainstorm

Heather Hatch (5th grade)

Rhinos charging rocks
with two horns on their noses
birds riding on their backs

Dustin Charlesworth (5th grade)

Can't think of a thing
I want to say on paper,
sitting on branches.

Shara Sullivan (7th grade)

A tired leopard
hanging in a shady tree
dreaming happily

Matt Lee (5th grade)

The clock on the wall
ticked like a giant drum
then paced, clock-wise

Josh Martin (7th grade)

A car hits black ice
Leaning to one side it flips
Water swallows it.

Justin Kohl (12th grade)