Haiku provide a transformational effect through vagueness that reveal deep metaphors between words. A haiku is a traditional Japanese poem that consists of of three phrases composed of 17 morae, usually in a 5-7-5 pattern.

Moraes do not exists in English. They are somewhere between a syllable and a phoneme. In English a word is made up of syllables, and a syllable is made up of sounds or phonemes. CAT has one syllable, but three phonemes /k/ /a/ /t/. Though in Western Haiku the use of a morae has become synonymous with three lines of 5-7-5 syllables respectively.

In reality it should be 5,7,5 sounds, but that is hard to do semantically in Phonetic languages. So we use syllables and you can break the rules in any poetic format.

Take this example:

new pen
footprint in snow
to read

That follows a more traditional 5-7-5 sound pattern, but what would be different in the haiku if we used syllable counts:

New pen dances
leaving footprints in snow
Ink no one will see

What Matters more than Syllables?

In Haiku the sound count is secondary. More important are the concepts of Kigo, Kire, and Ma.

Kigo

Kigo is an allusion to season. They are usually subtle. Like mentioning a Cherry blossom for spring or a hat for winter. In fact a collection of haiku usually gets organized by season

Kire

Kire is a cut phrase. It adds distance. There is no English translation for Kire or Kireji. In Haiku the Kire is often used as the middle verse to make a cut between the Season and the metaphor.

Ma

The final element of the Haiku is the Japanese aesthetic of Ma. Which refers to the space between. Haiku are sparse poems full of deep metaphor. The meaning is found between words. The Kire creates Ma between the other two lines.

Let’s re-examine the example above

New pen dances
leaving footprints in snow
Ink no one will see

The footprints in the snow have nothing, but everything to do with a pen writing words nobody will read. It provides a hard cut for the metaphor.

Haiku as Metaphor

Too often in American Haiku we treat them more as “limericks” and try to use the Kire as a witty joke or Ka, at the end of the third line. A turn to the whimsical rather than inward reflection. The opposite of Ma

Yes haiku uses imagery, emotional appeal, sound, and figurative language. It is a poem. Yet it also strives for deeper hidden meanings. Usually a haiku includes a concrete image drawn from nature that gets connected to a feeling. Think of a haiku as feelings found in nature. In haiku this imagery get expressed in the minimum through the aesthetic of Ma.

In Haiku we use an “absolute” metaphor rather than expressive metaphors open to interpretation. This connects the concrete with universal truths such as cycles in a season

Tips for New Writers

Forget about the 5-7-5 syllable count for now. Too many new writers fixate on counting word parts and forget about sounds.

Focus on the absolute metaphor. Decide what your poem is about. Choose something concrete. Then describe that thing as a season. Next focus on how you can “cut” that idea to bring a universal truth to your absolute metaphor.

Let’s take shoes for example. We could say

untied sneakers sit
Leaves fall on puddles untouched
Cracked shoe laces bare

Or we could use Daffodils

Many Daffodils
Mothers embrace falling tears
A Petal Slips

In both examples we have an absolute metaphor describing shoes or flowers. There is an allusion to season, but the allusion gets cut by a distancing element.

Give Haiku a try.