What Is Haiku—three Lines And 17 Syllables Or Something Else? Comments

I agree. Random tercets are not Haiku. To me, the beauty of Haiku is the contrast between the rigidity of form, and the “gentleness” of the message. I lived in Japan for 20 years and am somewhat familiar with the language. I have to laugh at those who use the differences between English and Japanese “syllables, ” as an excuse to write free form tercets and call them “haiku.” Such poems are utterly without challenge. Haiku are written primarily in Chinese Characters (kanji) which are ideograms. If a picture is worth a thousand words, how many words is an ideogram worth? Many (perhaps most) Japanese words can be written using one of several different kanji. The selection made by the poet often sets the “mood” of the poem (formal, casual, playful, etc.) They also have the option of writing a word in Hiragana, the pre-kanji phonetic Japanese alphabet. Bashō occasionally used Hiragana to add double entandre to his poems. In addition, there are many “cheats” the Japanese use to reach the proper “syllable” count.5-7-5 is worth the effort, hang in there. Haiku type poems that do not have seasonal references, and are more about “human matters” are called Senryū. By-the-way, Boston Literary Magazine’s submissions guidelines states, “We prefer the traditional 5-7-5 format…” You should send your Haiku there for publication.