Floodmark: The Haiku: a Nugget of Poetical Imagery

HELLO, PEOPLE OF FLOODMARK!

For today's Form post, we'll be chatting about.....

HAIKU.

We'll cover everything from the haikus you wrote in elementary school to humorous haikus on bathrooms stalls. Such as my all-time favorite haiku (below):

Anonymous bathroom stall poet, you're my haiku hero.

The haiku seems pretty straightforward. And, it is. That's the beauty of it---it really is that easy to write one. I'll prove it. I asked my friends to give me some words. Any words. We had: lily, bed, twinkle lights, carrot, and chair. They also took on the challenge and wrote a few, too, because gosh-darn-it, Haikus are the party poetry form.

What we came up with:

Note: mine are outrageous and dirty. On purpose. Because it makes me laugh. I once wrote haikus for people at a college party and I texted them their haiku. Looking for icebreakers? Take a page out of my socially awkward book. At the very least, you'll have a page worth of disturbing haikus and 15 new numbers. <----not a lie.

Lily

Unfold my silky

alabaster petals to

find a golden pool.

Bed

I squish my face in

your so soft pillowed skin like

wet cotton candy.

Twinkle Lights

Little nuggets of

dead firefly meat light up

my room so nicely.

Carrot

Oh my fair orange

lady. Longer than you're wide---

dreams in shafts of light.

Chair

You are as warm as

my butt, and twice as roomy.

Let me sit on you.

And here are their (much more normal and appropriate and beautiful) haikus! I should say beforehand that neither of the writers of the first three featured haikus are poets, they just both tolerate me. Or maybe they ARE poets and they didn't even know it?! Food for thought. Just so you know this post isn't rigged or anything. Poetry is actually fun, so HA! Anyway, here is the work of C.W., A.W., and your very own editor, Emily! Enjoy:

Music

Music is peaceful.

Flute sounds in the starry night,

soft drumming floats by.

-C.W.

Orchid

The orchid blooms bright.

The smell of ginger and sea salt.

Yeah, that's my bedroom.

-C.W.

YouTube

YouTube consumes me.

One click turns to one hour.

Apparently Kid.

-A.W.

Word: Bloom

[Untitled]

a quiet smolder;

you bloom in the light of the

fading shadows' sighs.

-Emily

Word: Lamp

[Untitled]

by the lamp's light I

see you, sprawled like the pages

of an ancient song

-Emily

Aren't they awesome? Haikus are fun. I think the best part is, demonstrated by the above haikus, you can either be funny, lovely, poetic, modern, or some combination of all of those. This is a form that lets you showcase one intense image---and it's up to you to figure out how you want to do so. At times, I trod awkward, run-away! kinds of paths, while Emily and C.W. chose beautiful, flowering woodland paths. A.W., congrats, you're just normal. With the exception of your apparent Youtube addiction to some child named "Apparently Kid"'s videos. But hey, you do you---we love you for it.

Ready to write your own haiku?

Let's go over the basics, just in case your elementary school teacher seriously dropped with ball all those years ago. Or, maybe you just need a refresher. Either way:

Even though traditional haikus focus on the natural world, yours doesn't necessarily have to. Feel free to be experimental and use whatever images you want. My haikus are humorous 90% of the time because I think they're more surprising that way---but that's with my own work. I have also written traditional haikus because I find them graceful and lovely. So what I'm saying is: do what you feel and don't be hampered by what's traditional if that's tripping you up.

PROMPT TIME!

Since the majority of this post is about my favorite (invented) haiku prompt, that's what we'll do. I'm going to give you four words. Write a haiku for all four. You can do what I did and make those words the title, or you can do what Emily did and write the words into the poem.

Here they are:

1. Pizza

2. Branch

3. Elephant

4. Bubble

As always, feel free to share your creations in our comments below! We'd love to see what you come up with. If you've created a haiku that could only be beamed down by god intro your brain, feel free to email it to us to be featured in our Featured Friday posts! (Our contact page has all that information.)

Before you leave, here's some more haiku inspiration: