17 April is National Haiku Poetry Day. It encourages everyone to try their hand at being creative.
Haiku poetry is a form of Japanese poetry that is non-rhyming, and normally consists of three lines with a syllable pattern of 5 – 7 – 5.
Haiku poems are usually inspired by an element of nature, a season, a moment of beauty, an individual experience or event. Sensory language is used to capture a feeling or image, like Richard Wright’s poem, This Other World:
“Whitecaps on the bay:
A broken signboard banging
In the April wind.”
English Haiku does not always follow the strict syllable count found in Japanese Haiku. The typical length of haiku found in English language journals is 10 – 14 syllables versus the 5 – 7 – 5 syllables used in Japanese Haiku.
National Haiku Poetry Day was registered in 2007 by Sari Grandstaff and implemented as a project of the Haiku Foundation in 2012.
Celebrate today by creating your very own Haiku poem! Post your poem on social media using #NationalHaikuPoetryDay.
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