All for the love of Haikus

I love haikus and I think they are just fantastic. Although I love all kind of poetry forms, but my love for haikus has perked up my life extraordinarily. This amazing rendezvous started nearly ten years back when I was writing prolifically on different forums. As a beginner, I wrote haikus for that was the easiest thing to do when you needed to post an article daily as a paid job. I was writing haikus everyday and was loving it. It was the only thing that I was doing as a routine and loving it.

I love haikus in all forms but the ones that celebrate love liberates me. Haiku has an instant appeal and to start with I was mesmerized by its simplicity. Besides, it was never complicated and I could connect to the fervor instantly. It took me a while though to understand, conceive and learn the art of writing haikus. My passion for haikus soon made me pen down..

You may also read:

Collection of my haikus

Breathing poetry

Haikus from yesteryear

For people who are not accustomed, what is haiku?

Haiku is a very popular Japanese form of poetry. Previously called hokku, haiku was given its name by the Japanese writer Masaoka Shiki by the end of the 19th century. It conveys a vivid imagery in 17 syllables, essentially dedicated to the fervor of nature with a seasonal theme. Over the years haiku has evolved and the transition has been very smooth just like the poetry form itself. Haiku can be on any theme as long as it is not complicated and designed to a render precise thought. 

"A haiku poem consists of three lines, with the first and last line having 5 moras, and the middle line having 7. A mora is a sound unit, smilar to a syllable. Since the moras do not translate well into English, it has been adapted and syllables are used as moras." 

The most popular Haiku can be represented as follows:

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This one I wrote sometime back -

Tuesday rain haiku 

Tiny drop trickles

Slurs down my earthy brown cheek

Tickles me, I laugh

And this one is my personal favorite - 

You May Now Kiss the Bride haiku 

Color, pomp, prose, fun
Grandeur, giggles, glitters
Hopes sewn in I do

Haikus are very close to my heart. Although I have many haikus to my credit I still find it extremely challenging to be able to conceive one. My haikus are based on various fervor and are palpable. Sometimes they are overly sentimental, sometimes dark and sometimes funny. But all of them have a common thread - the thread of romance that celebrates nature and love.

Haiku is beautiful and each time I read one I love the form more. For me the appeal is not only in the simplicity but in the vividness, in that of the heart warming story telling. Haiku can be best described in the words of Rabindra Nath Tagore. Tagore expressed it all while describing "what is a short story" when he said 'shesh hoyeo hoilo na shesh' - Finished yet not so. I find this just apt for describing a haiku. Haiku ends before it starts and tells us an endless story.

 

Wrath

My thoughts for the people of Nepal who are braving the earthquake

The deadly shudders

Tears, despair, loss of hope

Rains pelt weeping face

The Nepal Earthquake: Loss of humanity, history and more

 

Be Yourself, Everyone Else is Taken: A Haiku

It was most futile
The river ne'er stops flowing
And I found myself


However hard we try we cannot change the person who doesn't want to. We are left with only two choices. Either we flow with the river or we be passive bystanders, aloof and watch it flow and take its own course. Letting go of our individuality would be something that I rather not see myself doing. I can only be a wise watcher and learn from it. And from the time I started doing it, I found myself. I found myself after long years of living others lives.

This is a tribute to all those fighter people who are just themselves and who have not given up even in the face of adversaries. Kudos...

Photo credit: NG