Haikus

​A snapshot of downtown Ukiah, Mendocino County, California, United States of America. The haiku was not invented here, but it is celebrated here . . . more about that later . . .
 
I hope you enjoy
Haiku as much as I do
And have fun all day
 
Yes, what you have just read is a haiku, as are the following.
 
I don’t have a clue -
How does one write a haiku?
It’s so confusing!
 
I’ll give it a try
So that perhaps by and by
A haiku will come from me
 
Haiku Facts
- Haiku is pronounced as ‘high-koo.’
- A haiku poem has 3 lines.
- Line 1 has 5 syllables.
- Line 2 has 7 syllables.
- Line 3 has 5 syllables.
- It is not necessary for a haiku poem to rhyme or have rhythm.
- Some haikus have titles and some have none.
- The goal of a haiku is to paint a picture in the mind of the reader.
- The haiku poetry form originated in Japan.
 
A carpenter’s son
Left the Woodworkers’ Union
Formed new splinter group
-Guy Ben-Moshe
 
Haikus were originally intended not as an end in themselves, but as a starting point to stimulate classroom discussion on a particular subject.
 
Pandas
 
The black and white bears
Sitting under leafy trees
Eating bamboo shoots
 
by Rebecca Schauer

​Ukiah is haiku spelled backwards. It is a deliberate ‘anagram’ of the word for the form of poetry called ‘haiku.’ Anagrams are made by taking the letters in a word or phrase and rearranging them to spell another word or phrase. Ukiah is the name of a city where an annual haiku festival is held. It is an afternoon devoted to haiku poems. A program of music is followed by a presentation of certificates and awards for the winning haikus. Poets of all ages read their winning poems. A reception with refreshments follows, during which the audience has the opportunity to read through an exhibit of selected poems submitted to the festival. You can learn how to submit haikus online for the next annual Ukiah Haiku Festival at www.ukiahaiku.org. Good luck with your entries!
 
Ukiah
 
Blue sky, clouds, oak trees,
Sunshine almost every day . . .
This is Ukiah
 
by Author Unknown
 
The lemon pickers
And the orchard owners had
A bitter dispute
-Guy Ben-Moshe
 
Monster under bed -
Oh, please don’t eat me tonight
You’ll get tummy-ache
-David Hugh Beaumont (born 1966)
 
Is “Haiku!” the sound made by a sneezing poet?
 
After weeks of watching the roof leak
I fixed it tonight
by moving a single board
-Gary Snyder
 
While the subject of many haikus is nature, as for example, trees, flowers, or breezes, other kinds of subjects can be used. A senryu (pronounced sen-ree-yoo), also known as a ‘human haiku,’ is a haiku poem that has as its subject human nature rather than the natural world. Like a haiku, it is composed of three lines of five, seven, and five syllables.
 
The laundry piles up.
I cannot keep up with it.
Will someone please help me?
-Mrs. Cline
 
Once beyond the gate
I too am a traveler
In the autumn twilight.
-Buson
 
Haikus are easy,
But sometimes they don’t make sense:
Refrigerator!
-Author Unknown
 
Writer of haikus
Will never be said of me
I will dig ditches
-David Hugh Beaumont (born 1966)
 
Now how about you -
Please won’t you write a haiku?
It’s more fun than bugs!
 
Some of the haikus shown in this article tend to be a little on the silly side, perhaps because that is the side of life we often find ourselves on here at Make Fun Of Life! Most haikus, however, are about nature and other serious subjects. Still, creating silly haikus could be a good beginning point, until you have mastered the art of haiku writing. Whatever is begun as play, and is later taken up as a serious endeavor without ever completely losing the element of play, has a good chance of being wildly successful.
 
This haiku poem
Is written about a sneeze -
And ends with, “Atchoo!”
-David Hugh Beaumont (born 1966)
 
And Now One Last Haiku
 
Please share your haikus
With us - we’d love to read them,
And get to know you!
 
by David Hugh Beaumont (born 1966)
 
This is MFOL! . . . life is like a bird that needs two wings to fly, one serious and one silly . . . how many one-winged birds fly in the sky?