in reply to A "strict"ly formatted poem.

five/seven/five good
But the thing is, syllables
do not make haiku

first impressions, scenes
these are what haiku describes
fleeting images

haiku needs kigo
like cherry blossoms for spring
or snow in winter

a good effort, though
Perl, after all, has been called
write-only language

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Re^2: A "strict"ly formatted poem.
by LassiLantar (Monk) on Jul 28, 2004 at 23:31 UTC
    True =). I don't mean to oversimplify the form, which, although I love to read good examples of, I'm not very good at writing. I've never had a writing teacher who told me much about haiku more than what everybody knows, so I'll admit that I'm pretty ignorant on the subject. What is kigo?

    Peace!
    LassiLantar

      Kigo is a word suggesting the season the scene is taking place in. Sometimes it's obvious, as in this haiku from Basho:

      The first soft snow!
      Enough to bend the leaves
      Of the jonquil low.

      Sometimes not so obvious (Basho again):

      In the cicada's cry
      No sign can foretell
      How soon it must die.

      And sometimes it's downright obtuse (once more, Basho):

      No blossoms and no moon,
      and he is drinking sake
      all alone!

      Of course, these haiku have the correct number of syllables in Japanese, but not necessarily in English.