The Rolling Haiku

Original Post: 23 May 2012
Posted Here: 4 December 2017

The haiku is a Japanese form of poetry. It consists of three lines of 5, 7, and 5 syllables, normally contains a season-word, and is divided into two sections. Since American English and Japanese have many differences, English haikus often ignore some of these requirements.

I mentioned in I Don’t Like Soup that I’m not much for writing structured poetry. When I write it, my poetry is more-or-less free verse and usually comes to me nearly whole. I make an exception for haikus. Like poetry in general, haikus are good practice for communicating concisely. And, to me, writing haikus is fun.

At the April meeting of our writers group, our Peerless Leader suggested a prompt for our next meeting. Write something (anything, please!) that uses the five words: May, bee(s), iced tea, frog(s), and tire(s). Prose, poetry, fiction, nonfiction—just write something. Since I’ve been trying to make some progress with my novel, The Centaurian Bud Vase, I didn’t want to spend too much time on this diversion. So on the 15-minute ride home after the meeting I mulled over the assignment and, after getting home, I jotted down a few lines, counted syllables, rewrote and recounted. This is what I came up with:

Bees sip sweet iced tea
May flowers bloom profusely
Frogs tire of singing

In Down the Rushy Glenn, Chapter 9 of my novel, The Centaurian Bud Vase, I needed an “ancient” poem to convince the juvenile Guardians of Ramunus that Pierre was someone that they should assist. Something of iambic pentameter or that ilk was out of the question. I just could not do it. A limerick (which I sometimes write) seemed too frivolous and a haiku was definitely too short. But how about a poem made up of several haikus? Or how about something like that, but a new poetic form? I invented the Rolling Haiku.

The Rolling Haiku consists of five stanzas. The first is 3 lines in the traditional syllable format described above (5-7-5). The second 3-line stanza “rolls” the pattern by one line (7-5-5). The third 3-line stanza rolls by one more line (5-5-7). The fourth stanza rolls one more line, back to the original syllable pattern (5-7-5). The fifth stanza consists of five lines of seven syllables.

The Rolling Haiku written for Chapter 9 is:

The Golden Age fades
Into the ageless Darkness
Ramunus resting.

Pure of heart and white as snow
The winged goddess
Hiding the treasures.

Up Airy Mountain
Fortune finds six skinks
Selected by Dalia.

One of royal blood
Silver scales and pure of heart
Comes to free them all.

When the key opens the lock
Robe, sword, crown are found within
Then returned to Ramunus
Lighting Waxonian skies
For the Golden Age once more.

Keep reading/keep writing – Jack