Poetry is not dead! (Or, why I love a good Haiku)

For anyone who hasn’t yet had the experience, the discovery of the world of poetry is joyful.  Poems are the simplest to read yet are often the most difficult things to write well.  Reading really good poetry is a bit like visiting The Taj Mahal – the inherent balance and perfection of the form renders you instantly at peace and leaves you wanting more.

There are many types of poetry.  Obviously Shakespeare left a formidable legacy of both poetry and plays, but the Great Bard’s style may not flow with yours!  Ted Hughes, John Donne, Sylvia Plath, T.S. Eliot, et al. are of course the mainstay poets of secondary schools the world over.  But some of our greatest contemporary musicians are poets as well – think Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Jewel, Neil Finn, Sting, Nick Cave, P.J. Harvey, Mazzy Star, among others.  Some have even published books of poetry, such as Jewel, whose book of poetry, A Night Without Armour, was hugely successful. 

“Long before I wrote my first song, words formed as poems in my journals; and poetry drives my song writing today.”  Jewel, from A Night Without Armor

Making a foray into poetry via Japan rather than medieval England, may provide ongoing inspiration for Girlo writers.  Enter the “Haiku”.

A Haiku is a classic, traditional form of Japanese poem.

In the Haiku, the parameters are fixed.  It is a standard, one-size-fits-all poem. That’s because artistic freedom is often paradoxically found within strict parameters! On the one hand this forces you to be selective in your choices but, on the other, curiously allows for the most creative response.  With its spare form it is surely the most elegant of poems.

The Haiku relies on three lines containing 17 syllables.  There is a fixed number of beats per line – 5, 7, 5 – to make the 17 syllables.  An example, by one of the masters of the form, Akutagawa Ryunosuke (1892-1927), is:

Sick and feverish (5 syllables)
Glimpse of cherry blossoms (7)
Still shivering (5)

Or this one by Murakami Kijo (1865-1938):

The moment two bubbles are united, they both vanish
A lotus blooms

You could create these all day!’

“I passed over some sort of barrier when I began to write … But there’s more to it than setting a poem to music because lyrics are special poems.  They have to be part of the music”.  Judy Collins, quoted in Respect, The Book of Women, quotes from Rolling Stone magazine.

But poetry is a world unto itself.  Some people prefer to write theirs as rhyming prose, some simply like the more random, spare approach.  As an example of the latter approach, Dorothy Porter’s poetry is both challenging and inspiring.

Of course, if you have it within you to write poetry as beautiful as that of the 14^th century Sufi poet Rumi, then you are truly blessed with a gift.  For the rest of us who aspire to write poetry without quite the same talent or dedication, the following holds true: good poems are rare and bad poetry is everywhere!

In poetry, the general rule is that there aren’t many rules.  You can pretty much do your own thing – especially in the confines of your own journal.  Be brave and above all, enjoy the process.

In your light, I learn how to love.
In your beauty, how to make poems.

You dance inside my chest, where no one sees you,
But sometimes I do, and that sight becomes this art.

Rumi, from The Essential Rumi (translated by Coleman Barks with John Moyne).

For those who would like to understand the celebrity worship the serious poet used to enjoy in history, you might enjoy Jane Campion’s film Bright Star, starring the radiant Abbie Cornish as the muse of the great English poet, John Keats.

After all, poetry is romance.

Photographer: Anthea Paul