Haiku Snow

like a black sculpture

the winter tree skeleton

outlined in the snow

Over the past few weeks the United Kingdom has experienced the heaviest snowfall in thirty years.  It's the most snow I've ever seen!  The guidelines for this type of poetry explain that each Haiku must contain a kigo, a season word which indicates which season the Haiku is set. For example cherry blossoms indicate spring, snow winter etc. I felt it was a perfect opportunity to allow some haiku to emerge.  I hope you enjoy these and better still, are inspired to write some of your own.

Guidelines for Writing Haiku

• Haiku poems consist of 5, 7, 5 syllables in three lines.
• The cutting divides the Haiku in two parts with a certain imaginative distance between the two sections. Line one and two should be different images. Line three brings the two images together.
• Each Haiku must contain a kigo, a season word which indicates which season the Haiku is set. For example cherry blossoms indicate spring, snow winter etc. The season word isn’t always that obvious.
• Try to write a haiku only about what actually happens to you.

• Write when you have been deeply moved. Keep it honest, simple, clear and modest.
• Try not to explain, it should need no explanation. Try not to express feelings in words, let the concrete action speak for itself.

Rule One - Read Them Slowly!  It's Like Eating Chocolate

Savour every word and every line. Reading verse can be like eating chocolate - so much more pleasurable when you allow it slowly to melt inside of you, so much less rewarding when you snap off big chunks and bolt them whole, all but untasted. In our age, one of the glories of poetry is that it remains an art that demonstrates the virtues and pleasures of taking your time. You can never read a poem too slowly, but you can certainly read one too fast.

Read out loud. Among the pleasures of poetry is the sheer physical, sensual, textural, tactile pleasure of feeling the words on your lips, tongue, teeth and vocal chords.

Rule Two - Don't Look for Meaning

Never worry about ‘meaning’ when you are reading poems. Just as the reading of each poem takes time, so a relationship with the whole art of poetry itself takes time. Observation of Rule One will allow meaning to emerge at its own pace.

black and white fields

the colour has been sucked out

all covered in snow

scavenging starling

eating scraps at the station

no food in the snow

its all behind me

can’t feel that part anymore

sitting on the bench

never been so cold

trudging across the tundra

going to the shops

bmw

rear wheel drive no good for snow

it gets me nowhere

igloos in the snow

so bored with building snowmen

creation abounds

it’s whiter than them

as they walk and search for food

sheep outlined by snow

white sheep aren’t so white

against the blanketed snow

easy to see them

a smooth tablecloth

replaces colour with white

that’s my back garden

Flurry of white spray

as the tree unburdens snow

picturesque landing

sitting on the train

watching the white fields go by

haiku come to mind

pigeons on the roof

huddling together for warmth

with nowhere to go

frozen like statues

nowhere to go in the snow

hugging the rooftops