Quotes & Sayings About Haiku

Besides, if you want to write something perfect, write a haiku. Anything longer is bound to have a few passages that don't work as well as they might. — Philip Pullman

Knut, this is Jude. Remember I told you about him? He writes poetry." Knut looked my half-Japanese self up and down. "Haiku?" he guessed. "Gesundheit," I muttered sourly. — J.L. Merrow

This book by Dr. Yasuda, while ostensibly about haiku, in reality penetrates deeply into the totality of this living spirit of Japan. It deals with those aspects which have produced and maintained haiku into the present day. The important key to understanding comes with the realization that in Japanese art one strives always for the absolute. Of the absolute there is no question of degree; it is either attained or lost. Most often, to be sure, it is not attained, but it is the constant striving toward and awareness of that high goal which gives strength and vitality to this living aesthetic spirit which has so impressed me in Japan.

(Robert B. Hall, Foreword, p. x) — Kenneth Yasuda

Having examined three thousand haiku poems - two persimmons. — Masaoka Shiki

Most of these editors, as they call themselves, couldn't even effectively edit a haiku. — Frank Black

You only live twice:
Once when you are born
And once when you look death in the face — Ian Fleming

Regarding R. H. Blyth: Blyth's four volume Haiku became especially popular at this time [1950's] because his translations were based on the assumption that the haiku was the poetic expression of Zen. Not surprisingly, his books attracted the attention of the Beat school, most notably writers such as Allen Ginsberg, Gary Snyder and Jack Kerouac, all of whom had a prior interest in Zen. — Reginald Horace Blyth

I do not know the day
my pain will end yet
in the little garden
I had them plant
seeds of autumn flowers — Shiki Masaoka

Every week it's another opportunity to really make that work and figure out how to make it work better. And I love that it's like theater, too, and the audience, and it's so short. It's only 20 minutes. It's like a haiku or something. — Joan Cusack

thinking how soon
all in this world passes
I loved
the yellow roses
that now have scattered — Shiki Masaoka

Wilted or in bloom,
taking or lending daylight,
the world transitions. — Richelle E. Goodrich

Haiku is a way of culling things from the stream of things that rush past the senses. — Michael J. Rosen

Indra Haiku
Diddling Ahala,
Indra, the Thousand-Eyed God,
flecked with vaginas. — Beryl Dov

I preserve my world
in journals so my children
can eat without me — Nikki Skies

Mary and Joseph
huddle snugly together.
They cradle God's son. — Richelle E. Goodrich

I seldom feel trapped by my world. Setting up rules and restrictions is part of the process. It gives your world shape. I always look at these things like haiku: you have to work within certain parameters, but within them, you're completely free. — Richard Kadrey

You think it's a game?
Unintelligible? Ha!
Envision no spoons.

This is serious.
It is a matter of joy
versus emptiness. — Kristen Henderson

Remember technology does not make good work. You can still write a poem on a brown paper bag, and haiku is just as profound as the pyramids. — James Turrell

I usually begin a poem in longhand. I like to sit where I have a nice view, ideally, although I worked on haiku this weekend at an airport. I'm not one to romanticize inspiration. I try to get to the work. — Pat Mora

I often think of my work as visual haiku. It is an attempt to evoke and suggest through as few elements as possible rather than to describe with tremendous detail. — Michael Kenna

I see the beauty
All around me I see it
The polished faces — Nicole Eskuri

...none live less the spark — Kurt Brindley

Reading haiku is as much an art as writing it. The reader needs to pause and listen to the silences, to feel the spaces between the words, and to journey into the depths of many multi-colored worlds. — Harley King

This autumn-
why am I growing old?
bird disappearing among clouds. — Matsuo Basho

Exhale the remnants/Of wounds that steal your freedom./No more prisons. Breathe. — Staci Backauskas

Some believe they can,
Some believe that they cannot.
Both are clearly right — J. Benson

My first publication was a haiku in a children's magazine when I was 9 years old. I received one dollar for it! I gave the check to my dad for Christmas, and he framed it and hung it over his desk. — Linda Sue Park

Death stoops over me.
I'm a problem in chess. He
has the solution. — Tomas Transtromer

No trail to follow
where the teacher has wandered off-
the end of autumn. — Yosa Buson

For the greater good":
the phrase that always precedes
the greatest evil. — Jakub Bozydar Wisniewski

Glittering tinsel,
lights, glass balls, and candy canes
dangle from pine trees. — Richelle E. Goodrich

Zero cavities.
Two abortions. One divorce.
Thirty years on Earth. — Asa Akira

wakened by pain
from a dream of pain
I wipe the sweat
and rose petals
scatter — Shiki Masaoka

Go put on your mask.
Say 'trick-or-treat' in costume.
It's All Hallows Eve. — Richelle E. Goodrich

Letmeoutletme
outletmeoutletmeout.
Wait--let me back in!
...
Letmeinletme
inletmeinletmein.
Wait--let me back out! — Lee Wardlaw

Artemis grit her teeth. "I need a favor. I have some hunting to do, alone. I need you to take my companions to Camp Half-Blood."
"Sure Sis!" then he raised his hands in a "stop everything" gesture. "I feel a haiku comIng on."
The Hunters all groaned. Apparently they'd met Apollo before.
He cleared his throat and held up one hand dramatically.
"Green grass breaks through snow.
Artemis pleads for my help.
I am so awesome. — Rick Riordan

Determined, I rise
and face the dawn with resolve.
This time I will win. — Richelle E. Goodrich

Beth from accounting
is just sitting in her car
eating spaghetti. — Ryan Mecum

I stumble and fall.
I weep and struggle to rise.
My mom feels it all. — Richelle E. Goodrich

It's hard to write haiku. I write long, silly Indian poems. — Jack Kerouac

two feet tall,
the crimson-budded roses,
their young thorns
tender in
the soft spring rain — Shiki Masaoka

Dreams like a podcast,
Downloading truth in my ears.
They tell me cool stuff."
"Apollo?" I guess, because I figured nobody else could make a haiku that bad.
He put his finger to his lips. "I'm incognito. Call me Fred."
"A god named Fred? — Rick Riordan

Tidal waves surge forward,
And in their wake, Stale water is replenished.
(Haiku from Chapter Thirty, SHADOWWATER) — Wendy Shreve

I recently got into Haiku in Japan and I just think it's fantastic. Obviously, when you get rid of a whole section of illusion in your mind you're left with great precision. — John Lennon

An idea sparked in the 1960s, a thought experiment, an amusing haiku, is now a thing of metal and glass. — Janna Levin

The haiku lets meaning float; the aphorism pins it down. — Mason Cooley

forge forever on
tho' dark death rewards us all
forge forever on — Kurt Brindley

If I had the knack
I'd sing like
Cherry flakes falling — Matsuo Basho

Yoko [Ono] was showing me some of these Haiku in the original. The difference between them and Long fellow is immense. Instead of a long flowery poem the Haiku would say 'Yellow flower in white bowl on wooden table' which gives you the whole picture. — John Lennon

Haiku Christmas Story

New light in the sky
announces a sacred birth.
Shine brightly young star.

Hallelujah song
carries on a gentle wind,
heralding a king.

Shepherds lift their heads,
not to gaze at a new light
but to hear angels.

"Unto you is born
in the city of David
a Savior for all."

Born on straw at night
under low stable rafters,
Baby Jesus cried.

Sheep and goats and cows
gather 'round a manger bed
to awe at a babe.

Wise men come to see
a child of greater wisdom
and honor divine.

Rare and precious gifts,
gold and myrrh and frankincense,
to offer a king.

Mary and Joseph
huddle snugly together.
They cradle God's son.

On this wise He came,
the Son of God to the earth.
A humble wonder. — Richelle E. Goodrich

Going comando.
Shaved my pussy just in case.
I should trip and fall. — Asa Akira

Blank pages are cruel
Pure torture in white or beige
But how else to start — A.A. Patawaran

Lay down your roots now,
let them wrap tight around mine,
sink deep in the soil. — Tyler Knott Gregson

A story is a story is a story. The only difference is in the techniques you bring to bear. There are always limitations on what you can and can't do. But I enjoy that. Just like when you write a sonnet or haiku, there are rules you have to abide by. And to me, playing within the rules is the fun part. It keeps the brain fresh. — J. Michael Straczynski

A violinist fiddled.
With strings resined for winter.
Summer's light splintered. — H.S. Crow

I knew I loved you
when 'home' went from being a place
to being a person. — Eric Micha'el Leventhal

And so I was left with a mantra, a sort of haiku version of our relationship: I don't regret one day I spent with him, nor did I leave a moment too soon. — Padma Lakshmi

Until today, it really pissed me off that I'd become this totally centered Zen Master and nobody had noticed. Still, I'm doing the little FAX thing. I write little HAIKU things and FAX them around to everyone. When I pass people in the hall at work, I get totally ZEN right in everyone's hostile little FACE. — Chuck Palahniuk

Compliments land as
soft and gentle on my ears
as a butterfly. — Richelle E. Goodrich

Just keep waking up,
dragging yourself out of bed.
It will get better. — Tyler Knott Gregson

If this were real life,
Ed would have looked at her neck-
bite, dead, burp, credits. — Ryan Mecum

The moon is my fear.
The sun is my heart afire.
The stars, my love songs. — Richelle E. Goodrich

One famous Japanese haiku illustrates the state that Sid managed to discover in himself. It is one that Joseph Goldstein has long used to describe the unique attentional posture of bare attention: The old pond. A frog jumps in. Plop!2 Like so much else in Japanese art, the poem expresses the Buddhist emphasis on naked attention to the often overlooked details of everyday life. Yet, there is another level at which the poem may be read. Just as in the parable of the raft, the waters of the pond can represent the mind and the emotions. The frog jumping in becomes a thought or feeling arising in the mind or body, while "Plop!" represents the reverberations of that thought or feeling, unelaborated by the forces of reactivity. The entire poem comes to evoke the state of bare attention in its utter simplicity. — Mark Epstein

Anyone can talk,
but to listen is a gift,
we should all exchange — J. Benson

He cleared his throat and held up one hand dramatically.
"Green grass breaks through snow.
Artemis pleads for my help.
I am so cool."
He grinned at us, waiting for applause.
"That last line was four syllables." Artemis said.
Apollo frowned. "Was it?"
"Yes. What about I am so bigheaded?"
"No, no, that's six syllable, hhhm." He started muttering to himself.
Zoe Nightshade turned to us. "Lord Apollo has been going through this haiku phase ever since he visited Japan. Tis not as bad as the time he visited Limerick. If I'd had to hear one more poem that started with, There once was a godess from Sparta-"
"I've got it!" Apollo announced. "I am so awesome. That's five syllables!" He bowed, looking very pleased with himself. — Rick Riordan

Come come! Come Out!
From bogs old frogs command the dark
and look...the stars — Kikaku

Meaning lies as much in the mind of the reader as in the Haiku. — Douglas Hofstadter

Reading haiku is like viewing a photograph or a painting. A haiku is a moment of time, isolated, and held up for viewing. — Harley King

Your tummy, soft as
warm dough. I knead and knead, then
bake it with a nap. — Lee Wardlaw

Used to be goddy Now uptown feeling shoddy Bah, haiku don't rhyme — Rick Riordan

A whiff of fresh mint
that tastes like strawberry pie.
Your kisses tempt me. — Richelle E. Goodrich

Such a little child
To send to be a priestling ...
Icy poverty — Shiki

To me, photography is not just a visual art, but something closer to poetry - or at least to some poetry, such as the haiku. — Frank Horvat

Sorry about the
squishy in your shoe. Must've
been something I ate. — Lee Wardlaw

O snail
Climb Mount Fuji
But slowly, slowly! — Kobayashi Issa

The good things aren't a movie. There isn't enough to make a reel. The good things are a poem, barely longer than a haiku. There — Cheryl Strayed

He utilizes
form for a striking lecture;
young poets shiver

inexperience,
but thaw over their own work,
fertilize magic. — Kristen Henderson

Hi! My little hut
Is newly-thatched I see ...
Blue morning-glories — Kobayashi Issa

The behavior of the pigeon
is beyond reproach,
but the mountain cuckoo? — Yosa Buson

To sleep on our thoughts,
Is better than to lose sleep
over rash actions — J. Benson

Ceaseless.
Almost too much for this small frame.
You make me part of the sky. — Andrea Portes

A finger beckons.
My choice is to turn away.
It is a mistake. — Richelle E. Goodrich

All Heaven and Earth
Flowered white obliterate...
Snow...unceasing snow — Basho Matsuo

NEW HAIKU
One breathy vowel
mists the glass warming window
panes crystalled with snow
Robin Glasser — Robin Glasser

Moon woke me up
nine times
- still just 4 a.m. — Basho Matsuo

I write for pages,
get lost in the mezzanine
hidden from stages. — Kristen Henderson

stronger than mountains.
a place where my heart
feels the safest-
underneath his shirt. — Sanober Khan

haiku moment: that moment of absolute intensity when the poet's grasp of his intuition is complete, so that the image lives its own life. Such — Kenneth Yasuda

You are so lucky
that I cannot remember
how to use doorknobs. — Ryan Mecum

Life without challenge
is life denied any chance
for one to achieve. — J. Benson

The author of haiku should be absent, and only the haiku present. — Anne Bancroft

When you are composing a verse, let there not be a hair's breadth separating your mind from what you write. Quickly say what is in your mind; never hesitate a moment. — Robert Hass

Haiku sounds like I'm Saying hi to someone named Ku. Hi, Ku. Hello. — Ellen DeGeneres

I exaggerate
There is a lie in my truth
Look! My soul is blue — A.A. Patawaran

Describe plum-blossoms?
Better than my verses ... white
Wordless Butterflies — Reikan

I tried to speak your poems
but I could not!
The weeping of the gods
fell upon my ears. — Shiki Masaoka

A weeping grey sky
descends on my umbrella-
Bright daffodils dance. — A.K. White

Soldiers falling fast
Battle of white and scarlet
Blossoms on the ground — David Kudler

Haiku is not a shriek, a howl, a sigh, or a yawn; rather, it is the deep breath of life. — Santoka Taneda

Summer grasses,
All that remains
Of soldiers' dreams — Matsuo Basho