Haiku!
 

Since I couldn't sleep last night, I decided to write some Haiku - seemed as productive as anything else at 3am. Now the sun has come up and I get to inflict them on the Cellar. HAH!

Note: a Haiku is a 17 syllable poem 4 lines long, and usually has some reference to nature or time of year.

Four Late Autunn Haiku

The crickets are still,
Silent in the earth,
Waiting.
Winter catches my hair.


Leaves hang, considering
Let go?
Or seize this last day?
An old woman watches.



No moths to the flame.
Hard frost.
I had my chance once,
But my wings were short.



Silence of the sky,
Shattered with stars.
Summer
Covers her green mouth.

like!

I'm interested by your four line format. I thought that Haikus were in a 5 7 5 format, but your 4 line idea allows you other variations on this theme, as the two "orphan" syllables can attach to any of the three 5s, allowing 7 5 5 and 5 5 7 as well as variations on the (5 5 5 2) theme. Or am I just reading them incorrectly?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haiku

interesting that this definition also mentions a "cutting word" -I hadn't learned that before.

here are some more haiku threads:

http://www.cellar.org/showthread.php?t=22900
http://www.cellar.org/showthread.php?t=15718
http://www.cellar.org/showthread.php?t=16098

Behind each Haiku
there is a killing. A mist
of blood in the air.

Thank you, Brianna! Its always nice to get a stamp of approval from a professional! ;)

You are reading them correctly. I have been reading The Essential Haiku by Robert Hass, and following the examples he gives.

The poet Basho wrote in syntax of 5-4-3-5 or else 5-3-4-5. About 30 years after Basho's death, the poet Buson introduced the 5-5-2-5 or the 5-2-5-5 styles which are pretty cool. The 3 line haiku is the most traditional. The ones I have posted here were influenced by the rengu form of Japanese poetry.

Here's a three liner by Basho that I like:

Don't worry spiders,
I keep house
casually.

(I guess a syllable was lost in translation - still nice though)

acCELLARation
Increasing velocity
of defecation

...argh! that wasn't a direct commeny/reply to you, Sam! we just posted at similar times!

thanks, this is all new to me, I like it.

There was once a brown fluffy dog who had a green ear
He jumped and played a lot in the yard and stuff, and would eat discarded foodstuffs
He was cute.

(This is the "new haiku" from the Shaw translation of the Great Ignobligage.)

this is getting more and more interesting...

This is a style of haiku I have named "The Brianna." It's a variant on Bosco and Bunco's variations. It consists of however many syllables, followed by a line of however many syllables, and the last line has to be one word: a common noun.

Beautiful
Wonderful
Girl

;)

LOL @ Shawnee

Made
My
Day!

did she just call you a common noun?