Haiku is a form of poetry with strict rules about the number of syllables per line. It has a number of roots and variations but traditional haiku as we know it today originated in Japan. A haiku poem written using the commonly accepted standard should have three lines, the first containing five syllables, the second seven, and the third five again. It is probable that this number of syllables was chosen as being roughly the same time as one single breath.

But haiku is much more than just fitting words into the syllable rules. In order to be a true haiku, the poem must bring light and life to a situation. ‘Five-seven-five, in seventeen syllables, the haiku must capture the fullness of a human experience’. (1)

I became interested in haiku poetry through my work in Peace Studies. John Paul Lederach, a key peace practitioner, recommends using haiku in conflict situations. The idea is that if you can summarise an event in a way which can be understood, which brings light and life to the situation, and in the space it takes to breathe out, you can find the essence. As John Paul Lederach says, ‘the key to complexity is finding the elegant beauty of simplicity’.

The Japanese haiku master Bashó said ‘he who creates three to five haiku poems in a lifetime is a haiku poet. He who attains to ten, is a haiku master’. It takes skill and practice to find the words to capture something’s essence. But if you try, you may find all kinds of situations begin to become easier for you. John Paul Lederach uses haiku specifically to try to capture the essence of a conflict or difficult situation. You can do this with any of your own difficult situations at home, whether it is an argument with your partner, a stressful time at work, or a traumatic event in your life. If you take the time to try to ‘see picture better’ as Jack Kerouac put it, you may find the situation can become easier to deal with.

I do not pretend to be a haiku poet but I will share one example of a haiku which I made when I was having a difficult morning with my son.

Breakfast and clothes on

Took two hours and many screams

Time to take a breath.

If you would like to talk about poetry, learn more about using haiku as a communication tool, or share some of your own poems, please feel free to book a class with me. 
Picture by TANAKA Juuyoh (田中十洋)