Writing Haiku: A Beginner's Guide to Composing Japanese Poetry - Includes Tanka, Renga, Haiga, Senryu and Haibun

194 Pages·2022·5.693 MB·English

by  Bruce Ross

WRITING
HAIKU


WRITING
HA I KU
ABeginner’sGuidetoComposing
JapaneseHaikuPoetry
Bruce Ross
TUTTLE Publishing
Tokyo Rutland, Vermont Singapore

Contents
Foreword to the Second Edition 9
Introduction 11
Looking at Nature: Haiku 21
Telling a Joke: Senryu 45
Telling a Story: Haibun 67
Expressing Your Feelings: Tanka 91
Drawing a Picture: Haiga 109
Creating with Others: Renga 127
Appendix A: Further Notes on Haiku Form 155
Appendix B: Taking a Walk: Ginko 161
Appendix C: Further Notes on Haiku Aesthetics 163
Further Readings 171
Permissions 181
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To my friends in the world haiku community
A thousand bows to you.
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank my students at Writers & Books, Rochester,
New York; Writers at Champlain Mill, Winooski, Vermont; the
Institute on Japan of the University of Vermont; the Doll-Anstadt
Gallery, Burlington, Vermont; and the Japan-America Society of
Vermont. Also, the comembers of the Haiku Poets of Upstate New
York and the Burlington Haiku Group. And, finally, those haiku po-
ets met in activities sponsored by Haiku Canada, the Haiku Society
of America, the Boston Haiku Society, the Kaji Aso Studio, Boston,
Massachusetts, and Haiku North America. Thanks for assistance
are due to Francine Porad, John Stevenson, and Tomiko Hayashi.
Thanks also are due to my editor, Jan Johnson, for nudging me in
the right direction. Lastly, and most importantly, Astrid Calypso
Miriam Andreescu, my wife; Murray David Ross, my brother; and
Tom Clausen, my friend, well deserve very special thanks.

Forewordtothe
SecondEdition
It has been nineteen years since I published the first edition of
this book. Since then, there have been two major changes in the
haiku world. The first major change is a worldwide interest and
production of haiku in other languages. For example, here is an
award-winning haiku from Goran Gatalica from Croatia, including
the original version in Croatian.
spring pilgrimage—
first cherry blossoms
in mother’s sandals
proljetno hodočašće—
prvi cvjetovi trešnje
u majčinim sandalama
The second major change began in the United States, and represents
a change in phrasing and word choice, perhaps resulting from com-
puter and smartphone use.
However, the haiku form is timeless. Each individual haiku poet
has the ability to experience their own so-called haiku moment that
is a poetic insight.
I originally wrote this book as an easy-to-understand guide to
writing haiku and related forms for a young readership. My pub-
lisher, Tuttle, wanted a revised edition of the book, but since haiku
is timeless, I have left the body of the book intact.
Bruce Ross, Hampden, Maine 2021
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