One of the things that I find most notable about haiku is how western haiku in particular, has changed over time. Traditional Japanese haiku were written with what has been described in English as “word sounds” called onji in Japanese. These are different than English syllables which means that when haiku was first written in English, it had to change to fit the language. Western haiku has continued to change with time. Writers today fit many different subjects into haiku where originally most haiku were written about nature. Many other aspects of haiku have changed, if fact, almost everything about it has changed. Some still write as traditionally as they can while others go way outside the lines. Changes are neither good nor bad; they just simply are what they are. You either like it or you don’t.

I have some preferences when I write haiku that seem to work for me, and which I like to see in other’s work. We probably all do. I like to keep my syllable count as low as I can and still say what is most important to say. I also like to keep the syllable count close from line to line. In other words, I don’t want to have 3 syllables in one line and 7 in the next. When that happens, the whole thing seems to be out of balance to me. The haiku feels like it flows well when the syllable count is close in each line. Here’s an example I wrote this morning about an adventure I had yesterday:

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fuzzy calves

romp in the field

playtime for the young

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A syllable count of three, four, and five, keeps the lines close and it just seems to flow as you read it. Here’s one with four, seven, and four, which doesn’t seem to have that smooth flowing feel:

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thick as syrup

disappointment is swallowed

followed by grief

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I like the one above but the feel of it just doesn’t seem quite right to me. Maybe you’ll find that that doesn’t matter to you, and that’s fine. Each haiku writer needs to be comfortable with what they write.

The most important thing to me about writing haiku is that I’m satisfied with the result. Even if a haiku doesn’t exactly thrill me I will still keep it if overall I feel satisfied about it. If not, I’ll try my best to rework it and still keep the essential aspect of it. If I can’t, then it goes in the trash bin. And believe me, there have been a lot of those!