What Is a Haiku and What Isn’t?

By  John J. Dunphy

Godfrey, Ill., haiku poet
 www.johndunphy.com
 
 
to write a haiku
there is a set formula
one has to follow

My dear Aunt Minnie
loves to bake banana pies
for her family.
 
sitting on my porch
i contemplate the full moon
in my wisdom quest
 
What do these three poems have in common?   Some erudite readers who didn’t
sleep through high school English will engage in a bit of syllable counting
and suddenly proclaim, “They’re all haiku!   The first line of each poem
contains five syllables, the second line has seven syllables and the third
line contains five syllables, for a grand total of just seventeen syllables.
That’s the formula for writing haiku, which is a Japanese type of poetry.”

Well, I’ve got news for you, friends.  As far as your high school
introduction to haiku was concerned, you would have been better off catching
a few Z’s like some of your classmates.  Your teacher, regardless of his/her
grasp of Shakespeare and Chaucer, didn’t know beans about haiku.    “Haiku”
example 1, cited above, fails on two counts: (a) it’s wrong about haiku
having a set formula one has to follow and  (b) the poem itself, despite the
5-7-5 syllable count, isn’t even a haiku.

While many early English-language haiku poets indeed wrote in the 5-7-5
style, modern haiku poets have pretty much discarded that format.   We
believe that it tends to make a haiku too wordy and stilted-sounding.   A
genuine haiku is characterized by a freshness and spontaneity that simply
can’t be conveyed by strait-jacketing its expression.

A declarative sentence that has been chopped up into a 5-7-5 format, such as
example 2, is not a haiku!   Does a rambunctious fan who jumps into the
playing field of Busch Stadium during a game automatically become a
Cardinal?  Of course not — No more than a three-line sentence written 5-7-5
automatically qualifies as a haiku.   Pseudo-mysticism, as embodied in
example 3, doesn’t make the cut either.  A haiku should not sound like a
line of dialogue from the old “Kung Fu” TV series.

Real haiku nonetheless usually are written in three lines, and traditionally
deal with nature.

the blood-red dawn
duck hunters crouch
behind a blind
 
cemetery
wind sweeps a floral wreath
into the paupers’ section

dawn
a beachball
leaving with the tide
 
VA hospital
a tree in the courtyard
scarred by lightning
 
 
A senryu is a three-line poem that is similar to a haiku.   Senryu deals
with the foibles of human nature in a humorous or satirical manner.

wet footprints
in a U-turn
on the diving board

school restroom
the English teacher corrects
the misspelled graffiti
 
class reunion
the ex-football team captain’s date
handsome in his tux
 
New Year’s Day
my champagne glass bubbling
with Alka-Seltzer
 
Please note that the preceding senryu are written in three lines, yet
there’s nary a 5-7-5 format in sight.   But check out the following poems.
IRS audit
examiner keeps chuckling
without looking up
 
emergency room
parents tell their child to say
he fell down the stairs
 
during the campaign
even his sign in my yard
leaning to the right
 
her suicide note
she checks the dictionary
for correct spelling
 
There it is - that classical 5-7-5 style that I’ve been telling you to
erase from your memory banks.  And all four were published in reputable
English-language haiku journals, no less.  So what’s going on here?
 
It is permissable to write a 5-7-5 haiku or senryu, as long as the
spontaneity of the poem isn’t compromised.   Does the poem really work best
when written that way?   Then write it that way.
 
I urge you to check out the web site of the Haiku Society of America at
www.hsa-haiku.org to learn more about haiku.  Frogpond, the official journal
of the Haiku Society of America, and Modern Haiku, the oldest
English-language haiku journal in continuous existence, should be required
reading for anyone seriously interested in haiku.   A plethora of other
haiku periodicals exist that also merit perusual.   Get to know
real haiku by subscribing to journals that publish the stuff.
 
Oh, one last thing.   If you just know that the plural of haiku is haiku -
not haikus — that alone will put you literary light-years ahead of the
general public.
 _____________________________________
 
NOTE: All poems in this essay were written by the author and have been
published in various haiku journals…..except the three examples of
pseudo-haiku, of course.   If you’ve seen “poems” like those in print, you
can rest assured that the periodical’s editor knew as much about haiku as
Ed Wood knew about film-making.

A couple of readers had small nits to pick. One caller said I should have explained more about the railroads  - and thought the topic should be a series!

This reader commenting by e-mail has a point I thought I might share. I asked whether I could post his note here. I’ll save my response for comment after this note.

Over-all, I greatly enjoyed your interview with Harper Barnes.  His book re: the race riots in 1917 East St. Louis is something all Americans should know about.  It is also a sad chapter about intolerance, irrational fear and racial hatred. However, in the last Q & A of the interview you were quoted as saying,
“we’re a country built on the backs of slaves and cheap labor.”  Of course,
that is part of history or almost any nation’s history.  However, the
impression left by your comments for the uninformed could greatly mislead them.  Our nation was, mostly built, by hard-working people of all races and colors as carpenters, farmers, electricians, plumbers, nurses, teachers, bankers, food workers, housewives, husbands, milkmen, mail carriers and countless other people living in a great, yet, imperfect society.  Name a society which has righted it’s wrongs more openly than the United States of America.All the best,Tim Kelley

Bargen has a new book coming out, “Theban Traffic.” He says “Thebes” can easily be seen as a town in the Midwest, although he ties it to Greece and Egypt. Bargen became Missouri’s first official poetry advocate in January, recommended by the Missouri Center for the Book and appointed by Gov. Matt Blunt.

 By Walter Bargen

I think I was surprised and therefore not prepared for the amount of attention that the appointment as the first poet laureate of Missouri garnered - not only the attention but the requests for appearances.  

My goal was and is to be as accomdating as possible, and I’ve tried my best to not say no, but I have had to suggest different dates for appearances that are much further away then the date originally requested.  I now know that I need to pace myself in terms of accepting appearances.

  Here is an example of one day in April, National Poetry Month, that got out of control for me, and I must admit that it’s my fault for trying to fit too much into that one day in part because of the high cost of travel and not wanting to disappoint people who would like the poet laureate to appear at their venue/school. 

 I left my house at 5:30 a.m. in order to arrive at a middle school in St. Louis at 8:20, where I was scheduled to share some poems and talk a little about poetry to two groups of 50 students.  At 10:30 there was a car waiting to take me to the KWMU radio station for an hour-long interview at 11 pm.  The interveiw included Kris Kleindeinst, owner of Left Bank Books, and Mark Tiedemann, president of the Missouri Center for the Book. 

About 12:15, I appeared for a television interview.  After that I was driven back to my car in Kirkwood, then had to make my way downtown for a 3:30 p.m. meeting with the Missouri Arts Council staff.  At 6 p.m., there was a reception at the St. Louis Central Library and at 7 p.m. I gave a reading of my work. 

About 9 p.m. I drove home, which took a little over two hours.  The next morning I  went to work. Two evenings later I read at a nearby library and the day after that made a short appearance at another school.  Perhaps that explains why I need to pace my fun. 
 
I can’t believe how much demand there continues to be for the poet laureate.  It makes me feel that, at least in part, I am fulfilling the role that was envisioned for the poet laureate, that of helping bring a public focus on literature and poetry, specifically.
 
Walter Bargen, June 2008

I met Leif Enger, the author of “So Brave, Young and Handsome,”  June 11, at the St. Louis County Library and listened to him read a few pages from his book. After the reading he took questions from the audience.  The space was limited in the Authors Nook of the Library but I’m guessing that there were more than 60 persons present at the reading and signing, with an audience of predominantly women.

The author is very personable and pleasant and Enger is blessed with a good speaking voice.  He told us that he has all his life been enamored with cowboys and the West and that the title of his book came from the song: “The Cowboy’s Lament.” 

                          “We beat the drum slowly and played the fife lowly,

                            And bitterly wept as we bore him along;

                            For we all loved our comrade, so brave, young, and handsome;

                            We all loved our comrade, although he’d done wrong.*”

 Enger said that when he was 6 or 7 years old and didn’t want to go to sleep his parents gave him a choice that he could go to sleep listening to a record of Mozart or one of the Norman Luboff Choir (Songs of the West) and that he always choose the Norman Luboff Choir record because the song “The Cowboy’s Lament” was there and he loved it and never tired of listening to it.  And he brought to his adult life his love of the west and cowboys.

I’m wondering whether Enger’s selection of the name Glendon Hale came from the surname name of the author of “The Cowboy’s Lament,” Troy Hale?  The use of the name of Charles Siringo was deliberate as Enger needed a strong western character to carry the story and Siringo had the credentials having been a cowboy, Pinkerton’s detective and a writer and because Siringo was dead he could use him as the part of the story he was writing.  Enger mentioned that he thought strong characters or good strong characterization were the most important part of any story and more important than the development of the plot of the story.  Enger mentioned that he tried to use an authentic western voice but he soon understood that he couldn’t write with a true western voice because he was simply a Midwesterner, so he developed the ploy of using Charles Siringo to represent the West as it was in his mind because of Siringo multifaceted life in the west as a cowboy, detective and writer.

Enger mentioned that he selected the title of ”So Brave, Young, and Handsome” before beginning to write the book. Essentially it was his first step in writing the book. Enger spoke at length of the need for a good title of a book and mentioned that the title of his previous book came from a hymn that he heard one Sunday morning while attending his church: “Peace Like a River”  (the movie based on the book and with Billy Bob Thornton, is scheduled to be released next year). 

 It seems that getting the title is an important first step for Enger in his writing process.  Enger begins his writing after breakfast, 8:30 or 9 o’clock in the morning and works until five in the afternoon with a lunch break at noon everyday in the hayloft of a converted horse barn at his place.  He joked about the aroma of the horse manure sifting up through the floor of his studio adding an ambience of essence to the work space.

Enger told us that he writes slowly, he uses a computer for his writing, and looks closely at each word and sentence and tries different word combinations to feel whether the word or words are suitable to use and the sound of the sentence is important to him and he reads what he has written out loud and listens carefully to the sound and the rhythm of the words of the sentence he has written.  So writing is a slow process for Enger but mostly it was a fear of failure that kept him from not publishing another book for seven years.  He wanted the book, he said, to be good or did he say perfect or as good as he could make it?

I was disappointed in “So Brave, Young, and Handsome” because I thought it could have been so much better by better direction or flow and more fleshing out of the characters of the story.  I guess that even in fiction that crime doesn’t pay so Glendon Hale, the old boatwright turned train robber had to eventually pay his societal dues.  

Enger told us that his book “Peace Like a River” was not his first writing endeavor and that he and his older brother, Lin Enger, had written several mystery novels together but unfortunately the books didn’t do well so they decided to stop writing the books.  Lin Enger has just written a book: “An Undiscovered Country” published by Little, Brown and Company (to be released July 3, 2008).

St. Louis, Missouri, June 13, 2008

**”When peace like a river, attendeth my way;

      When sorrows like sea billows roll;

      Whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to say,

      It is well, it is well with my soul.”
 

He signed books until after midnight and the store sold more than 450 copies of “When You Are Engulfed in Flames.”

Left Bank Books has been bringing great authors to St. Louis for years. What many folks may not realize is that it often asks publishers for certain authors to come here. Of course this is a money-making venture: the publisher and author make money and the store makes money.

But it’s nice that readers can meet or hear authors such as Anne Lamott, etc.

Left Bank is a small venue, but over the past decade it has partnered with other sites - schools, libraries, etc. - to host these authors. For Sedaris, only about 150 people fit into the store; the rest were outside. But everyone who wanted to say hello to him after the talk got to. This kind of turnout has become more and more common - people really want to meet popular authors of good books. Sedaris’ book hit the best-seller list immediately and then went No. 1 on amazon.com for a while.

Independent booksellers in general have more ability to attract authors: many authors prefer to support independents.

For chain stores, often these author events are arranged by a corporate headquarters out of town.

So it’s great that St. Louis still has a strong independent bookstore to bring some of these authors here. The city likely would not have quite the variety of authors coming to town if it weren’t for Left Bank.

A lot of schools offer lists. I recently received a press release from St. Louis University. One of its librarians puts together summer reading suggestions based on faculty recommendations:

 Gail Staines, director of University Libraries at Saint Louis University, says the list includes hot new releases as well as lesser-known good reads.

Library assistant Jodie Williams Borgerding selected “Fearless Fourteen” by Janet Evanovich as this year’s “chick-lit” title.  Mary Stephen, director of the Reinert Center for Teaching Excellence, highly recommends Unaccustomed Earth, a series of short stories about daily changes, family relationships and coming of age.
For more, see ttp://libraries.slu.edu/events/summerreads2008/index.html

If you have a summer reading list to share, please send us a link.

Lebanese author Rawi Hage won the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, collecting 100,000 euros ($154,000) in what is billed as the world’s richest prize for a single work of fiction.

Hage was honored during a ceremony in Dublin City Hall for “De Niro’s Game,” a debut novel about two childhood friends who grow into adulthood in war-torn Beirut and must choose between exile abroad or staying in the city and surviving on crime.

The book overcame competition from seven other better-known finalists, including Patrick McCabe’s “Winterwood” and Yasmina Khadra’s “The Attack.”

“I am a fortunate man,” Hage said at the ceremony. “After a long journey of war, displacement and separation, I feel that I am one of the few wanderers who is privileged enough to have been rewarded,” said Hage, who was born in Beirut and lived through nine years of civil war before emigrating to Canada.

The judges described “De Niro’s Game” as “an eloquent, forthright and at times beautifully written first novel.”

“Ringing with insight and authenticity, the novel shows how war can envelop lives,” the panel said in a statement. “It’s a game where there are no winners, just degrees of survival.”

Other finalists included Javier Cercas for “The Speed of Light,” Yasmine Gooneratne for “The Sweet and Simple Kind,” Gail Jones for “Dreams of Speaking,” Sayed Kashua for “Let It Be Morning,” and Andrei Makine for “The Woman Who Waited.”

First awarded in 1996, the IMPAC award is meant to promote excellence in world literature. The contest is managed by Dublin City Libraries and draws on nominations from librarians around the globe. This year’s 137 nominations came from 162 public library systems in 122 cities.

Previous winners include Per Petterson’s “Out Stealing Horses” (2007) and Colm Toibin’s “The Master” (2006).

      Instead of hard cash, people with library fines for overdue books may pay down their fines with canned food, which will go the St. Louis Area Foodbank. The program will run from July 13-26. Each can is worth $1 off the fine and patrons can bring in up to 25 cans. (Take them to any library branch.)

Sounds like a good way to get rid of those old peas, of course, but a more generous soul may want to bring in high-nutrient food such as peanut butter, powdered milk or chili. (I don’t know about some of you, but when I was young I used to feel so guilty about library fines.) What a good way to pay it off - and pay it forward.

For more information, call 314-539-0342.

1. A lot of kids still DO read for fun. According to Publishers Weekly’s report of the Scholastic survey, a majority of children (68%) think it is “extremely” or “very” important to read for pleasure, and “like” or “love” doing so. That apparently is kids overall.  For those 5-8 years old, the percentage who love reading is 82 percent. For children 15-17 years old , 55 percent love reading for fun. So that is still the majority.

2. Most still prefer printed books rather than a computer screen or digital device. According to the survey, two-thirds prefer to read physical books.

3. The majority think reading is important to reach their future goals. Ninety percent of the kids surveyed said they “need to be a strong reader to get into a good college.”

So, what do a lot of kids get stuck doing during the summer: reading books that are somehow required for school. I can see why schools do this: they are afraid the kids won’t read anything at all. But as a parent and a book lover, I still think it’s better if the kids choose books they want to read for fun during the summer - that they don’t even have to write one word of summary during their days off or for a back-to-school essay. I think they should choose what books they want to read , even if it’s not Newbery Award material.

That happens naturally for a lot of kids. But I wonder if the children who don’t naturally pick up a book are somehow deterred from reading what they are naturally drawn toward, whether it’s a Pokeman cheat guide or yet another fantasy with talking animals. 

After I wrote this, I looked again at Scholastic’s survey. Publishers Weekly reports: When children were asked why they do not engage in more pleasure reading, the top answer selected was “I would rather do other things,” followed in frequency by “I have too much schoolwork and homework,” and “I have trouble finding books that I like.” (This third answer was the top response selected in the 2006 survey.) Among all age groups, boys outnumbered girls by 10% in all age categories in stating that they had trouble finding enjoyable books.