A Haiku is a Japanese poem that is written out differently than normal poems. Very specifically, there are three lines with the first line having 5 syllables, the second line having 7 syllables, and the final line having 5 syllables. 17 syllables total.
The art form began in the 1600's. The most famous haiku is from Matsuo Basho, "Old Pond".
In English, it reads:
"old pond
frog leaps in
water's sound"
Granted, that's the English translation of the original. In Japanese, the number of syllables work for the haiku.
Some of these short poems can be pretty. Many times, they don't make a lot of sense, presumably because of the syllable constraints. It's like the Twitter of poetry, you're kept to a short character count.
Also many times, the short little poems come off as a tad pretentious.. When they work, though, they're pretty and full of imagery and word play,
After explaining the layout to my sons, they went to write their very own haiku.
Here's what we ended up with.
1. There is a toilet.
Your butt is on the toilet.
Your butt is pooping.
2. Daddy is a turd.
So is Luke, Leroy, and Ken.
They are also butts.
Ahh, the elegant poetry of 10 year old boys!
Of course, I'm daddy. Luke is the brother of the son that wrote the second one. Leroy is one of our dogs. Last, Ken is the kids' uncle. No one was safe!
A fun activity. An educational experience.
And, poetry that could one day lead my boys to becoming poet laureates...
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