Haiku – Nature as a poet

Nature often inspires us to paint her in colors that only hearts can see, or write love songs to her in words only our hearts can hear. Moments like these have given the world Monet’s water lilies, William Wordsworth’s daffodils, and many such expressions of love and wonder.

“Haiku” is one such example of a love letter (a short and sweet one) that Japanese poets started writing in the 17^th century. Traditionally, a haiku is a poem (it’s the shortest form of poetry) that consists of three lines of 5, 7, and 5 syllables each.

The Zen of Haiku

The simplicity of a haiku mirrors the simplicity of nature and the minimalism of Zen ideals. It’s a snapshot of a moment in time distilled into seventeen syllables.

This is the English translation by Harry Behn of one of the most well-known haiku by Matsuo Bashō. The stillness and oneness with nature (as represented by the old pond) broken by a moment of awakening (represented by splash)

Nature as a co-writer

Traditionally haiku are rooted in nature and her seasons, and make us co-conspirators with her poetic self, as nature half-writes the haiku before we’ve even put pen to paper. Here’s one inspired by a spring day filled with dandelions.

Windows to the soul

Although deceptively simple, we have found that a haiku can be a portal to deeply connect with ourselves and our innermost feelings, while we connect with an element of nature through simple words.

For example, the haiku above was related to the feeling of “hope” when it was written. The same haiku can, however, evoke a different feeling (for example, “innocence” or “nostalgia”) in the reader, as each haiku allows the reader to enter it in their own way, moment to moment.

Soak in the following lines, and then close your eyes and see what feeling it evokes in you in this moment.

The beauty of a haiku is that we don’t need to be writers or poets to pen our own love letters. 

All it requires is nature, our feeling self, and a moment. And, all three are always there.

How to write a Haiku

1. Take a nature element or an image of it (could be a flower, a fruit, a vegetable, a piece of sky, a handful of earth, an insect, an animal)
2. Be fully aware of the element and soak it in as many senses as you can engage (close your eyes if you feel like)
3. Write down any memories, sensations, feelings that it evokes (e.g., lazy summer afternoons, sweet taste, soft flesh, juices trickling down, innocence, joy, bliss- can you guess which nature element we were thinking of? :))
4. Start putting the words together into three lines, no need to worry about syllables yet
5. Once you have the list of words or the lines, you can use an online tool like writeahaiku to have the 5-7-5 syllable structure.  Remember that a haiku doesn’t rhyme, and is usually written in the present tense
6. And, if inspiration doesn’t strike and you are in the mood for instant magic, you can even try out the haikugenerator that generates a haiku for you based on your choice of few words.

We hope you enjoy writing your haiku and share it with us. 

We would love to feel what you feel in that one precious moment, with nature as your muse and as your co-poet.