The Haiku Foundation Forums

Hi Gabi

¿ might you share with us a bit of what you learned teaching kids ?
( & what did they teach you )

... ... ... ... ... & while you're composing a reply, i applaud your comment :

QuoteI found that this is the most important, words follow later ...

by learning to EXPERIENCE haiku
to empty the mind before a haiku can find you ... not the other way round . . .

deserves a toast ... with empty cups !   :D

This opens up a branch for possible further discussion : is it possible for teachers to rely soley on book-learning to teach haiku ?  Or, how do teachers learn to experience haiku so they can teach it to kids ?  ???

( am @nobodhi ... who are you ? )

Question : do you wish to arrange haiku so one might "follow" another ... in series ? (as in 'solo renku') ...  OR, do you wish to arrrange haiku so each is independent and completely new & fresh ?
(This is sort of like asking energy if it's a particle, or a wave ... when it's really a wavicle.)  You can compose constellations that create an entire sky ... ... or ...

( the sky's the limit )


Question : looking through your haiku, do you find repetitions ?  If so, then take some time to review, collate, & cull.   (Me, I think there are 13-14 "kinds" of haiku i TEND to write ... )    Since haiku aren't as bulky as novels, you can write 1000s and tens of 1000s, then pick out ones that you feel are your gems ... 

Question : do you find thematic elements around which you could arrange "sets" ?  Examples : turning points in your life, places you've visited, seasons of the year, etc

Question : unlike as in twitter, you have complete control as to how your work would look on a page ... have you considered that too ?

Question : have you asked your haiku how they want to be organized ?

:)

for the 1st time in many years, the nobel committee conferred its prize for literature upon a poet : thomas transtromer

here's a suite of his haiku ( rather gendai ¿ no ? )
http://www.samizdateditions.com/issue3/transtromer1.html

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( ¿ is there any way to embed a link within text ? )

Jane Hirshfield recently became one of the first authors for Amazon to feature in their new series of original content, Singles. The series features works too long for short story and too short for novel length.  She sent them a lecture on Basho, which they retitled as Heart of Haiku.  Guess what ?  It sold 7,000 copies in its first month... ( Jane has stated she has reason to believe much of the popularity is for haiku, rather than her own name ... ) ...

And for those who say haiku unfamiliar to the masses, now Target has dunked into the pond
http://blog.seattlepi.com/bookpatrol/2011/05/09/target-brings-haiku-to-the-masses/ ... I'm not saying they're 100% savvy ... just that you can't say the word haiku ain't Greek to them ...

thank you, Alan.  I've been keenly admiring of your work for many years & this recent slice is very nourishing, indeed ! As Sun Ra sang, " space IS the place " ...

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Confession :  I don't blog. And my motto with the Internet is the Jewel Thief's Motto : (Three G's) ...  "get in , get the jewels, get out."  I'm more of a twitterer. ...  ♫♩♪♬♩ ...

However, I think forums are the best part of the Internet.  ( Thank you, Haiku Foundation ! )

Anyways, I broke form this morning ...  and  blogged! Here's what happened.  See, every week RedRoom.com. gives its members a topic, (with a  prize). This week, it's "If you were poet laureate ... " So I took the opportunity to sound off about haiku in education.
Here's my blog ———————————
http://goo.gl/4hIHG

One thing I touched on, of possible interest, here, for further discussion, is  how to persuade teachers to adopt haiku into their curriculum.  Here's an excerpt :

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Quote
... [ Kids are ] so much closer, already -- & they're our future. [ Haiku ] could teach them so much more than counting syllable (silly bells) — in fact, offering a whole Swiss Army knife of multiple skill sets, such as

    • critical thinking — by learning to READ haiku
    • creative writing — by learning to COMPOSE haiku *
    • mindfulness — by learning to EXPERIENCE haiku ( for "mindfulness" ok to substitute "emotional intelligence" )
    • empiricism — by learning to OBSERVE without judgment from the direct evidence of the senses
    • letting the heart dance — an under-emphasized essential to life

* writing could include senryu, for empathy; haibun, for journalling — plus also be coupled with ink brush / photography / photoshop for haiga ...

I'd also include literary translation for kids — as is already being fostered at Center for Art In Translation's http://catranslation.org/poetry-inside-out Poetry Inside Out .  This could include not only haiku from Japan and other nations — but with kids learning to translate haiku by themselves and their classmates.

Please let me know what you think. Thank you.

I've found these too online

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The Haiku : What It Is & How To Write It by Sherry Salant [ Grades 10 – 12 ]
http://www.slideshare.net/guestd3d7159/the-haikufinaljan11

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Haiku at Pete's Power Point Station (pppst)
http://languagearts.pppst.com/haiku.html 
[ the stereotype graphic I ain't too happy about, but ——  anyways ... ]
I haven't gone thru all his links yet, but note the one for EdSitement, at National Endowment of the Humanities [ NEH ] doesn't connect anymore to haiku, so I googled and came up with two there [ no author(s) listed, other than the anonymous product of  taxpayers' money ] :

The World of Haiku
http://edsitement.neh.gov/lesson-plan/world-haiku 
in this lesson, students explore the traditions and conventions of haiku, comparing this classic form of Japanese poetry to a related genre of Japanese visual art and composing haiku of their own. 
                      &
Can You Haiku ?
http://edsitement.neh.gov/lesson-plan/can-you-haiku
Haiku show us the world in a water drop, providing a tiny lens through which to glimpse the miracle and mystery of life. Combining close observation with a moment of reflection, this simple yet highly sophisticated form of poetry can help sharpen students' response to language and enhance their powers of self-expression. In this lesson, students learn the rules and conventions of haiku, study examples by Japanese masters, and create haiku of their own.
—— each of these with

• Guiding Questions
  
• Learning Objectives
  
  • Preparation Instructions
    
  • Lesson Activities and
    
    • Extending the Lesson
  
  

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  ¿ what else ?
  
  ( btw, is anyone here a  teacher ? ...  ... parent ? ... .... ... ...  kid ? ...)
  
  

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j a c k p o t !

ありがとう

Welcome.  :D  This free area is open to air topics and themes, issues and plans, as to teaching kids haiku. 

Here are just some possible areas for discussion

    * How can we best teach kids haiku
    * What's already being taught that could use  improvement, and how
    * What lesson plans work -- and don't
    * How to fit teaching material for different age groups
    * Do we consider gender class & race and if so how
    * For ESL, can kids learn to translate their own and others' haiku
    * How to sell The Powers That Be (TPTB) on including haiku as curricula
    * What skill sets do haiku instill & foster
    * How can we teach by including seeing and doing as well as hearing
    * How much time can we allot in a semester for haiku
    * Can haiku be taught to kids online
    * What if there were a national day of haiku for kids — what then
    * Are any state or local poet laureates amenable to haiku for kids
    * How to establish and maintain haiku contests for kids
    * With older students, can haiku be included as a slam category
    * What can kids teach us  ( trees are nourished by their leaves )
    *


Ara toto
aoba wakaba
hi no hikari

QuoteAh, how glorious !
green leaves, young leaves
glittering in the sunlight

— Basho

[ translation by Robert Aitken Roshi ]

by 'restrained language' i was referring to diction  ¿ yea ? ...

as to your question as to aim of haiku, perhaps you might please elaborate a bit on the question for me to hear it better

¿ ( may depend on how we spell spell ) ?

no doubt there are shamanic roots in haiku ...  ... 'tho i find its restrained  language of plainspeech and shibumi (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shibui) often astringent & dry ... as in a haijin's self-portrait

Quote
from behind he looks a bit cold

rather than incantory, vatic, etc

¿ ( may depend on the trance-laytion ) ?

thank you, gabi, don, alan, and david.

oops! i just noticed there already is a buddhist haiku thread here.  i sure didn't mean to balkanize the discussion ... please forgive my seeing the world as if a frog seeing sky thru the bottom of a well ... and am mulling over don's sense of things from the other thread; will reply there to what he said there, rather than here, if that's not confusing.

if by religion, david, we mean something connecting an individual to a greater whole in which we're embedded, or providing a deep meaning to life, and providing guidelines for conscious conduct (ethics), then buddhism certainly fits the bill.  but it doesn't bring first cause into its picture  (BYO) nor creator deity ; nor the two-fer (two-for-one) of immortal soul & heaven ; etc.  plus, shakyamuni buddha opposed priestly caste.   nor is there anything to convert to, so one can be an atheist, a benedictine, a hassid, or a sufi and still practice buddhism.   

( interesting that miriam webster incoporates personal as well as institutional practice ; but isn't the definition circular, tautological, self-referential by defining religion in terms of what's religious ... a personal set or institutionalized system of religious attitudes, beliefs, and practices.      like defining haiku by saying it's the practice of writing haiku ... what is it ?

Colin, and all who've responded ——— I think it's the great 'open secret' of, say, the past 15–20 years now, that people have been lifting religion up from the Saturday or sunday pews & finding in their daily lives ways of making it real for themselves : altar, prayer, meditation, haiku, etc.    People often call themselves 'spiritual but not religious'; a recent name is Contemplative Practices movement.*  In poetry, that somehow coincided with the most popular poet in America for nearly a decade being a sufi mystic named Rumi. We can mark the popularity of haiku anthologies by Cor Van den Heuvel and Robert Hass as being rather parallel.  And Mary Oliver.

Buddhism fits in, here, as a religion of no religion.

As for Christian spirituality & haiku, UU minister  Margaret McGee recently published The Sacred Art: A Spiritual Practice in Three Lines.**  Haiku by catholic priest  Raymond Roseliep certainly comes to mind, as well. ***

¿ yes ?

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* http://www.patheos.com/Resources/Additional-Resources/Future-of-Contemplative-Practice-in-America-Buddhism-in-the-West.html
** http://www.margaretdmcgee.com
*** http://terebess.hu/english/usa/roseliep.html

Here are some prompts to open conversation.

• Is haiku an expression of Buddhism — or is Buddhism an adjunct of haiku ?
  
  
• Is Buddhism a religion ?
  
  
  • When we say Buddhism, many typically think of Zen, but what about Pure Land (Issa, comes to mind, for example), as well as Theravada ("mindfulness"), Vajrayana (Tibetan), etc ?
    
    
  • Is the pause (kireji) within a haiku an expression of sunyata, blank essence — with the vivid imagery on either side instances of suchness (tathata) ?
    
    
    • This month, Encounter on ABC radio, Australia features a streaming audio ( & trancescript ) of a mix on "Buddhist poetry" http://www.abc.net.au/rn/encounter/, starting off with haiku ... ¿ take a listen — anything worth discussing ?
      
      
      • This month, Kindle kicks off its "Singles" series (99¢) with a range of titles, including Jane Hirshfield's text on Basho ... The Heart of Haiku http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11861721-the-heart-of-haiku ... ¿ anyone read it yet ?
        
        
        •   Koan : What is haiku ?
          
        
        
        Me, I came to the Way, and haiku, both, when I was 11,  & the 2 have been inextricably intertwined ever since.   Call it creative awareness.  Lately, I've been hosting Haiku Corner http://community.tricycle.com/group/tricyclecommunitypoetryclub/forum/topics/haiku-corner for Tricycle: The Buddhist Review —  everyone's warmly welcome — Buddhists and non-  ( without nonBuddhists there wouldn't be Buddhists ) ...