Poetry Form - The Haiga

Related pages:
Books of Poetry Form. Alphabetic list of poetry forms and related topics. How to Write Poetry.
Essays on how to write specific forms:
Haibun. Haiga. Haiku. Hay(na)ku. Rengay. Renku. Tanka. Tan-renga.
Concrete. Fib. Ghazal. Lai. Pantoum. Prose poem. Rondeau. Rubáiyát.
Sestina. Skaldic verse. Sonnet. Terza rima. Triolet. Tritina. Villanelle.

Las formas de la poesía en Español:
El Poema Concreto.

Haiku by Shiki. Haiku by J. Zimmerman.

Books of Poetry Form. New Latest books read.
New Learning to read Japanese.

Check How to Learn Japanese.

The Haiga Form
by J. Zimmerman

Form. Examples: Linda Papanicolaou's haiga site.

Form

haiga [haikai painting]
Traditionally this is a painting executed in the haikai spirit. Often it is in a spontaneous, rough, and abstract style. To it is added or juxtaposed a hokku [Japanese "opening verse" for a linked poem] or an independent poem, a haiku. Less commonly a poem that is not in such a form can be used.

Whether you start with the poem or with the art, remember that the intention is to make a whole greater than the parts: the art does not illustrate the poem; the poem does not describe the picture.
If you start with the painting, compose the poem to avoid mentioning what is in the painting. Let yourself be drawn into the painting first. Then step back from the experience of the painting, allowing yourself a larger perspective. Then write the poem.
If you start with the poem, compose the painting to avoid illustrating what is in the poem.
Revise the poem as needed before writing its calligraphy on the painting.
Sometimes the artist and the poet are the same person: in that case it is easy for you to redesign and modify both the picture and the poem.
In the interplay between the words and the image that occurs in revision not only might the picture or poem be altered, but an entirely new poem or sketch or painting might be started.
If the haiga is created by two different people, it may be better to begin by having the visual artist offer an image first, and then the poet responds. As always, mutual patience and respect will help the process.
And it may often be better to start with the poem. There is hopefully delight in the process, no matter which appears first.

Thanks to the poets Patricia J. Machmiller and Beverly Acuff Momoi
for suggestions that have improved the above.

Books on Haiku.

The Essential Haiku: Versions of Basho, Buson, and Issa edited by Robert Hass. The past-poet laureate of the U.S.A has compiled this enthralling collection of his own essays in which he summarizes the lives of three masters and inventors of the haiku tradition in Japan:
Matsuo Basho (1644-94), the ascetic and seeker,
Yosa Buson (1716-83), the artist, and
Kobayashi Issa (1763-1827), the humanist.
He presents their lives, their prose, and 300 of their poems.

The Haiku Seasons: Poetry of the Natural World by William J. Higginson.
Haiku World: An International Poetry Almanac by William J. Higginson, Meagan Calogeras (Editor).

Other Books.

Books on Other Poetry Forms.

[Thanks for visiting.]

	The Essential Haiku: Versions of Basho, Buson, and Issa edited by Robert Hass. The past-poet laureate of the U.S.A has compiled this enthralling collection of his own essays in which he summarizes the lives of three masters and inventors of the haiku tradition in Japan: Matsuo Basho (1644-94), the ascetic and seeker, Yosa Buson (1716-83), the artist, and Kobayashi Issa (1763-1827), the humanist. He presents their lives, their prose, and 300 of their poems.
	The Haiku Seasons: Poetry of the Natural World by William J. Higginson.
	Haiku World: An International Poetry Almanac by William J. Higginson, Meagan Calogeras (Editor).