The Joy of Writing: Haiku

It is my firm belief that anyone can write poetry. It is not an art reserved for the learned or the few. Much like painting it can be taught. I want to walk you through a process today much like Bob Ross did in his series, Joy of Painting. We will have colors on our palette much the same comprising nouns, verbs, and adjectives. Follow along, express yourself, and above all, have fun.

The Joy of Writing

It’s a wonderful day to write poetry and today is about haiku. I’m sure you’ve heard a lot about it.  It has to have 5-7-5 syllables or it must be about nature.  These are guidelines at best. Modern haiku can be any combination of three verses under 17 syllables.

Let’s start out and run all the words across the screen that you need to write along.

First off, we have some basic nouns. Let’s make them about nature, though it is not a requirement:

Snow; flower; midnight; moon

Now, that you’ve got those, let’s consider what nature is doing by looking at verbs:

Whisper; sleep; fall; gaze

And finally, I’d like you to imagine how you will describe nature with adjectives:

brilliant; white; effervescent; swift

The first thing you’ll want to do with these nouns is pair them with verbs. Think: how am I like nature? I’ll give examples but you can put them anyway you like.

Sleeping flowers

Whisper Midnight

Falling snow

Remember our adjectives? We haven’t forgotten about them. Take them from the list and pair them up: brilliant, white, effervescent, swift.

Sleeping white flowers

Whisper swift Midnights

Effervescent snow

Feeling confident? There’s one more step. Feel free to change and rearrange verse in any way you see fit. Every line doesn’t necessarily need an adjective.

Whispering moons

Gaze on swift snowfall

Sleeping white flowers

Now, you’re a haiku poet. That’s all there is to it. Let me know how it turned out and be sure and share poems on your blog or in the comment section.

Until next time: stay confident and stay writing!