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Permalink Reply by Stormerne Hunt 6 hours ago

Good questions michiko. Yes my haiku does follow 5-7-5. It is a personal preference. While I enjoy 3 line poems that are not 5-7-5, I do not write them and call them haiku. (Others are perfectly entitled to do so!) I choose to follow 5-7-5, and usually I will use some natural reference, even if not a full kigo. The kireji cutting will range from obvious to very subtle.

Most importantly, unlike many modern western poets, I choose to describe "what is" in a haiku rather than how I feel about it. That allows a common vocabulary between writer and readers and means that the poem is less likely to stray into self-indulgence. (I dislike many of the poems labeled haiku on Twitter because of that self-indulgence.) In my view the emotion belongs in the reader, since (because of my natural equanimity) I will only very rarely share the emotion of the writer.

I also think it's much harder for me to write good haiku than it is for me to write good gogyohka. My haiku here this time is not very good, I know! Gogyohka seems to be quicker and easier for me to write and achieve a good result. Nevertheless, I do find writing haiku a good discipline, because forcing the syllable structure means that I naturally revisit and refine the images.