International Haiku Poetry Day 2022: When words create magic
The International Haiku Poetry Day is observed every year on April 17 to make people aware of Haiku. Haiku is basically a Japanese form of poetry that consists of three lines and follows a 5-7-5 syllable pattern. The day was registered by Sari Grandstaff in 2007 and was started as a project of the Haiku Foundation in 2012.
History of the day
Initially, Haiku was known as Hokku and served as the opening to the Japanese form of poetry called Rengu. Japanese poet Masaoka Shiki was one of the first Haiku Masters and wrote almost 20,000 stanzas. Hokku was renamed Haiku in the late 1800s when Shiki started writing them as independent of Rengu. Masters Matsuo Basho and Uejima Onitsura also helped it earn a space.
How to write Haiku poems?
Besides Japan, Haiku has become popular in over 50 countries around the world. Haiku appeared in the English language in the early to mid-1900s. Dutch commissioner Hendrik Doeff was the first Westerner to have written Haiku. While Japanese Haikus have 17 syllables in total, English Haikus have different syllables ranging from 10-14. Haikus usually do not rhyme and can repeat words or sounds.
How to celebrate the day?
On this day, you can create some short beautiful stanzas with 5-7-5 syllables. You can read some Haiku poems by authors like Matsuo Basho, Peter Washington, and Robert Hass among others. You can learn the original art of Haiku online on various social media apps. Even better, enroll to learn Japanese and then start writing Haiku in the original language.
Some interesting facts about Haiku
Haiku is a great exercise to get your creativity going. It stimulates the problem-solving part of your brain to help the creative juices flow. Haiku is written in a single line in Japanese and in three lines in the English language. To achieve maximum impact in fewer words, poets count each word. Haiku is also great at stimulating critical thinking.
