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Celebrate International Haiku Day With Basho’s Poetry
A look at Matsuo Basho’s collection of haiku poems in ‘The Narrow Road To The Deep North and Other Travel Sketches’
Read Matsuo Basho
Create your own poetry.
On this day of Spring!
It’s April 17th, when we celebrate International Haiku Day worldwide because this form of ancient Japanese poetry is that awesome. If you are nerdy about poetry, then I expect your social feeds to be full of haiku memes, forwards, and jokes. On this day, haiku gets a lot of love in the world.
So, What’s A Haiku?
For those who are not familiar, haiku is a traditional form of Japanese poetry. A haiku poem follows a three-line with five-seven-five syllable structure. In the traditional Japanese way, they also count the sounds with the syllables.
This makes haiku poem a very short affair and while it may seem restrictive, writing poetry within this structure is considered a creative and problem-solving exercise for the brain.
Brevity doesn’t hold back haiku from being an elegant, evocative way of expressing beauty. In fact, haiku is well known for capturing the essence of changing seasons and nature.
