What is a Haiku?

 Discovering Haiku Poetry

Up until a few months ago, I had never heard of the term "Haiku". When I started writing more poetry and studying it online, I found the word haiku kept popping up. So what does it mean? Essentially it is a form of Japanese poem that consists of only 17 syllabi.  The syllabi are broken down into 3 lines of 5, 7 and 5.  These short poems are traditionally about nature and the seasons. However, you will find that many writers have adapted them to cover a whole host of topics. I prefer to write haikus that broadly keep the tradition of writing about nature. 

What really attracts me to these little snippets of poetry, is how they force the writer to concentrate their ideas into just a few words. For me, this helps me to avoid the temptation to waffle. I have been posting my haikus on Instagram  . Some of these I may come back to at a later date and expand the ideas into longer poems. If you would like to read or post haikus on Instagram, there are many hashtags you can follow, such as #haiku #naturehaiku #dailyhaiku #haikucommunity #haikusofinstagram etc. I would recommend giving them a go, they are a great way to get into poetry writing. What do you think about haikus, have you given them a try, let us know in the comments below.