This short prompt was added for the busy end-of-year time. Write one or more winter, year-end haiku
It saddens me that haiku is a form that is treated very lightly in America. It is often relegated to classrooms for younger children and seen as an "easy" form for starting out.
It is the rare Poet (with books and paid readings) that will share haiku with an audience.
I also think American readers/audiences will often treat ten haiku like snacks to be gobbled up in handfuls without much chewing or savoring the taste.
Traditionally (in English) haiku are 3 lines:
first line, 5 syllables,
second line, 7 syllables
third line, 5 syllables
In Japanese, haiku also has three parts, but can be written as one line. And instead of counting syllables, the Japanese count sounds.
Haiku is "required" to suggest a single season. It might be directly, by using a word like snow or ice for winter, or indirectly, by tone or imagery.
For sample haiku and good background information on the form, see The Essential Haiku: Versions of Basho, Buson, & Issa,
For more on this prompt and others, visit the Poets Online blog.
