The Zingara Project

Tag: Haiku

  • Seventeen-Syllable Prompt

    Haiku is a three line poem comprised of seventeen syllables usually distributed as 5-7-5.
    Americanized haiku tend to be much more flexible and may consist of 14-18 syllables with no strict syllable to line distribution.
    That is, form inspires and extends a haiku’s content rather than inhibits or restricts it.

    While haiku traditionally centers on nature and seasons, senryu expounds human nature, particularly character flaws, and uses satire and dark humor as its tone.

    The American sentence, invented by Allen Ginsburg gave us, consist of seventeen syllables but no line breaks.

    Diane Seuss uses the American sentence as the building block for each line of her sonnets.

    For today’s prompt, use seventeen-syllable structures to draft a many-stanzad linked haiku/senryu (or combination of both) or “Seussian Sonnet” built from seventeen-syllable lines.

    For inspiration:

    “January haiku” by Frank Higgins

    Haiku Contest Winners

    “A Modern Sonnet” by Cleopatra Lim

  • Write a Haiku, Win a Prize

    Welcome to Zingara Poet’s first ever poetry contest.

    Crazyhorse Issue 88, Fall 2015
    Crazyhorse Issue 88, Fall 2015

    Here’s how it works.

    Write a haiku, senryu, or a Ginsberg sentence in the comments section below between 8:00 AM Friday, January 22nd and 8:00 AM Sunday, January 24 and I will select one (or maybe two) winner(s) from those submitted sometime Sunday afternoon and announce it here. The winner(s) with receive, via USPS, a free copy of the latest issue of Crazyhorse Literary Journal featuring works from their 2015 contest. (This will require disclosure of a mailing address, which can be sent to me via email at zingarapoet@gmail.com).

    As a reminder, haiku is a short poem that contains three phrases with a 5-7-5 metrical count. Traditionally, haiku capture images of the natural world and is the result of careful observation. A really good haiku conveys emotion through juxtaposition of ideas and a “cutting word.” Here’s an example from Basho:

    On a withered branch
    A crow has alighted:
    Nightfall in autumn.

    A Senryu utilizes the same structure as haiku, but focuses on human nature and psychology. Sometimes written as satire, senryu may use humor, but this is not a requirement.

    The Ginsberg sentence is one that contains seventeen syllables. No line breaks, no particular subject or focus. Just seventeen syllables. That’s it.

    Please share widely, and LET’S HAVE SOME FUN!!

    *One comment/poem per person, please.

    Poems only, please. Links and promotional comments will not be approved.