The Hoosic River Watershed Association invites everyone in our communities to celebrate our river by writing haiku inspired by the river and its surroundings. We will hang all the haiku for a week on the suspension bridge in back of TOURISTS, 915 State Road, North Adams, MA, on May 25th. The event will include music, refreshments, and readings.
In preparation for this project, we are offering two workshops for the general public:
- Monday, April 15, 7:30-8:30pm, MOSAIC, 49 Main Street, North Adams, MA
- Wednesday, April 17, 6:00-7:00pm, Milne Library, 1095 Main Street, Williamstown, MA
Register for either of these free workshops HERE.
Write your haiku on paper about two-and-a-half inches by eight inches. Illustrations welcome. You can leave poems at the North Adams or Milne libraries or mail them or drop them off at the HooRWA office. Hoosic River Watershed Association, 906 Main Street, PO Box 667, Williamstown, MA 01267
Please submit your poems at one of these sites no later than May 15. This will leave us time to laminate the haiku so they will hold up to the weather. After the event, we will put a collection of the poems in both libraries.
This program is supported by HooRWA, TOURISTS, and by a grant from the Cultural Council of Northern Berkshire, a local agency which is supported by the Mass Cultural Council, a state agency.
What Makes a Haiku?
The haiku is a traditional form of Japanese poetry. Its intent is to capture the powerful emotional reaction or insight that a poet has had, usually to some scene in nature. In a sense, the poem attempts a kind of Zen perception where we see the deeper reality of a scene without having it falsely colored by our own emotions, memories, and associations. For people writing for the HooRWA project, don’t worry about whether you have had a transcendent experience! Just think of a moment when you have had an especially strong reaction to an object or scene along the river or in the watershed.
History
Contemporary haiku have roots in Japan all the way back to the 7th Century. They later developed as “hokku,” the introductory stanza to a longer collaborative poem. Hokku became stand-alone poems and the name changed to “haiku.” During the 17th Century, Matsuo Bashō became a prominent writer, whose haiku set the standard that later poets would follow.
In the mid-20th Century, Harold Henderson and Kenneth Yasuda wrote scholarly books about haiku (respectively An Introduction to Haiku; an Anthology of Poems and Poets from Bashō to Shiki and The Japanese Haiku: Its Essential Nature, History, and Possibilities in English) that were influential in introducing English speakers to the form.
Content
Yasuda notes that haiku focus on “what, where, and when.” The “what,” of course, will be the scene or object that catches your attention. For our project, we hope this will be something in the watershed. In concise language, try to establish the “where.” Finally, traditional haiku would almost always include a “seasonal word” or “kigo” to suggest the “when” of the scene. Yasuda says you don’t need to be too specific, just suggest a “sense of the season.” As haiku attempt to use the most direct, unadorned language possible, they avoid adjectives and adverbs and similes and metaphors. This stripped-down language may seem strange and too simple to those of us who are used to poetry in which figurative language is often central to the meaning of the poem.
Traditional haiku also contain a “kireji” or cutting word, which is pause in the poem, a break in the rhythm but also a change in the content. It may present a juxtaposition or new images that open the poem to expanded or contrasting perceptions. Notice how this haiku by Bashō changes after the word “rest.”
From time to time
The clouds give rest
To the moon-beholders.
Form
Many English speakers write haiku in three lines, the first line being five syllables, the second seven, and the third five. This form tries to replicate the Japanese equivalent of seventeen “on,” a sound division in Japanese that in fact is not quite the equivalent of English syllables. Some scholars think that twelve English syllables would be a truer representation of the Japanese. Here’s famous poem by Bashō translated into the 5-7-5 format:
An old silent pond…
A frog jumps into the pond,
splash! Silence again.
Yasuda strongly advocates the 5-7-5 format in English haiku. He makes the interesting observation that seventeen syllables are about the limit of what we can say in one breath. Furthermore, Yasuda believes the first and third lines should end in a rhyme.
Here’s another Bashō poem presented with Yasuda’s rhyme scheme:
On a withered bough
A crow alone is perching;
Autumn evening now.
This form, with or without rhymes, is fine for the HooRWA project, but don’t feel limited. Many contemporary writers use a less rigid form, often fewer than 17 syllables. Typically, even these modern writers usually use three lines.
Here’s a famous haiku by Ezra Pound. Notice how many of the “rules” discussed above he breaks:
In a Station of the Metro
The apparition of these faces in the crowd:
Petals on a wet, black bough.
Here are three haiku by Robert Moyer, an award-winning contemporary haiku poet:
a thumb and finger
slip into her mouth
the last bite
snowy field
brown furrows follow
a green tractor
footbridge
leaves falling
up
Again, notice the liberties he has taken with traditional haiku. If you would like to see more samples, Moyer’s book of haiku, The Last Bite is in the HooRWA office. This book is beautifully illustrated by two artists. Illustrating haiku has a long tradition in Japan, and HooRWA encourages you add art to your own poems.
Our Own Writers!!
These haiku were written by people just like you for our haiku project in 2018:
River gnaws at ice
like leftover wedding cake—
guests gone home early.
Mountain dragon breathes
stirring autumn river mists.
Crane takes flight, trailing legs.
Ice floes lay dimpling
Sun beams softening, release
Cataracts raging!
In Conclusion . . .
This brief introduction is intended to give you some familiarity with thoughts about haiku over the centuries. As you can tell, there are many contrasting and even contradictory ideas about the form. For the HooRWA project, there is no right way to write a haiku. Just choose the images, sounds, and rhythms that you think will best communicate your response to the scene.