Modern Day Japanese Haiku

Besides painting and writing fiction, another of my passions is poetry... especially raw, free verse, without rhyming. However, I just love writing haikus! Traditional Japanese Haiku, pronounced high-koo, or, some language connoisseur of accents actually pronounce it, 'ha-ku', is a short poem of seventeen syllables in three lines of five, seven, five, usually inspired by the observation of the natural world. Modern Day Japanese Haiku has kept close to the structure and essence of a traditional haiku but in some of the haiku poems, stray away from the natural world as its main subject. Modern Day Japanese Haiku, give meaning to the insignificant and the mundanities of everyday life which provokes an emotional reaction. Of the one-hundred-and-seventy-two or so haikus in this amazing and tantalizing poetry book, some are thought provoking, comical, sensual, erotic, silly... a few mind-blowing.

Here are a few below for you to sample and enjoy.

Inflated by love

Deflated by rejection

Heart's fluctuation.

He and I are one,

the other face of the mask-

Standing back to back.