Greetings are easy

The forum's sometimes quiet

And I miss people

Alliterative 6 word memoir haiku:

Eventually;
Everything emotional,
Ends in emptiness.

Right chaps now you have mastered the simple form (17 syllables) we can take it up a notch.

It is common for westerners to write what is simply a seventeen syllable sentence, now where there is no problem with this, older (stricter) Haiku schools suggest other forms:

5
7
5

syllables that is.

Also there is the position of an initial idea (5 syllables),
Then an alternative idea (7 syllables),
Then an idea that links the two (5 syllables)

My own favourite poet and master of the form is Santōka M. Taneda (now better known as
Santōka) in the beautiful "Mountain Tasting: Zen Haiku".

The man spent his life wandering around the mountains getting pissed, and writing poetry, a true Dude.

"there were two main streams in the haiku world: one
working in a more or less traditional form using modern
themes, and the other, the shinkeikō, or new-development,
movement, which abandoned the standard 5-7-5 syllable pat-
tern and the obligatory use of a word to indicate the season,
or kigo."

to quote "Mountain Tasting"

But I do defer to Santōka Taneda: Haiku Master

The one thing most people do know about haiku is inaccurate; haiku in English is not a 17 syllable, three-line poem with 5 syllables to the first line, 7 to the second line, and 5 to the third line.  At least, it is not only that.  It is approximately that way in Japanese (although Japanese haiku are written in one line, not three), but in English 10 to 14 syllables more approximates the length of Japanese haiku because the rough Japanese equivalent to syllables, morae, are much shorter.  Of course, the issue is more complicated than this;  here is one of the best, simplest explanations I could find.

The reason I quote Santōka is because he is a none conformist to the strict rules of haiku.

"Real haiku is the soul of poetry. Anything that is not actually present in one's heart is not haiku. The moon glows, flowers bloom, insects cry, water flows. There is no place we cannot find flowers or think of the moon. This is the essence of haiku. Go beyond the restrictions of your era, forget about purpose or meaning, separate yourself from historical limitations?there you will find the essence of true art, religion, and science."
? Santoka Taneda (Mountain Tasting: Haiku and Journals of Santoka Taneda)

One of my own:

WREN MORNING.

WITH THE MORNING PISS,
WRENS ALL ROUND THE BRANCHES,
HOMELESS MUCH LIKE ME.

and for Dudeism

My river of life,
Flowing where it will go,
Brings me here with you.

As a long term Haiku abuser myself one thing I should warn you all about:

Haiku Twitch.

Now you have found the art form people will discover you hiding in corners, or even walking down the street, sitting on buses, muttering away to yourself, manically drumming out syllables and counting, it looks fairly bizarre.

Haiku Twitch.

 

I am addicted
The curse has it's hold on me
Haiku on the bus

I have two black cats

They are my familiars

Luna and Willow

I have two black cats

They are my familiars

Luna and Willow

I have one black cat
one more cat that is orange
Linus and Tucker

Careful Dude it could be an offense under the public indecency act.

The filthy Haiku

Has me firmly in it's grasp

Will they arrest me