what if ?

[Darrell]

Just wondering, with the millions of haiku's written over the ages, how do you insure you haven't duplicated another writer's efforts ? It seems like it would be easy to do. I wrote one that came so easy that it seems like it MUST of been done before. I did a internet search useing the words i wrote and can't find a haiku formed from them.....but not all haiku are on the net. Short of reading every page of haiku ever written it seems like its impossible to be sure.
It's been said " there is no such thing as a original thought" can that also hold true in haiku/senyru ?

[John McManus]

Hi Darrell, you are right you do get haiku that are very similar, or should I say haiku that express similar moments and thoughts.

I believe Michael Dylan Welch coined the term 'de ja ku' for such instances of similarity. I would imagine it unlikely to have haiku that are absolutely identical in wordage and presentation.

warmest,
John     

[Don Baird]

Hi,

I've pondered this at length before and as a result created this thread to discuss it in detail:  http://www.thehaikufoundation.org/forum_sm/in-depth-haiku-free-discussion/is-the-clock-ticking-on-haiku/

With the brevity and lack of new words, are we running out of the ability to write new haiku?  Read the link and weigh in.

thanks,

Don

[Darrell]

thank you john and don,
  i followed your link don and enjoyed reading the comments made by so many experts.

[AlanSummers]

Michael Dylan Welch has three articles on haiku that look alike etc... and calls them Déjà-ku:
http://sites.google.com/site/graceguts/essays/some-thoughts-on-deja-ku

Alan