Haiku

Sometime in grade school you were probably taught how to write a haiku. Three lines - first line containing 5 syllables, second line 7 syllables, third line 5 syllables. You may have written a few corny haiku poems and forgotten about haiku. But haiku is one of the great arts of Japan and, if done well, makes for stunning poetry. I've always had a fondness for haiku. I like the tight restrictions. Sometimes your creativity just can't spark with no rules, as in free verse. Sometimes it wants rules, and there are no rules as strict as in haiku.

Beginning of spring -
the perfect simplicity
of a yellow sky

~ Issa

the cardinal's call
drills a row of scarlet holes
in the summer air

~Alfred Marks

a fingernail moon:
all that is left in the sky
after the blizzard

~ Perdita Finn

If you are interested in writing haiku I recommend Seeds from a Birch Tree by Clark Strand.