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History of Haiku
(Post 1)
Ask anyone to tell you one think they know about haiku and they’ll probably tell you:
“It’s a poem written in 3 lines and 17 syllables
5 syllables in the first line, 7 in the second line, and 5 in the third line” (“575Haiku”)
~
But unfortunately this:
1/ Hasn’t actually been true for most of the time people have been writing English language haiku
2/ Isn’t true for most people who write haiku in English today, and publish them in Journals dedicated to haiku, such as Frogpond, Modern Haiku (and many others)
3/ Is based on an almost complete misunderstanding of what Japanese haiku poems are like
~
So, how did #575Haiku become so fixed in minds of so many people?
Probably because most people first learn about haiku from a teacher at school, and many teachers think of haiku as just “a great way to teach kids about counting syllables”, and (maybe?) not much more
~
Over the next few days I’ll write some more posts that expand on these ideas a little further
And hopefully show that while haiku can be the simple fun poems we often see posted under the #575prompts tag
Haiku can also be
a
whole
lot
more
#Haiku #FreeHaiku #Poetry #17Syllables #HistoryOfHaiku @freehaiku