An introduction to Haiku # 4 - Humour

What is a haiku?

So far, we have covered the following criteria:

Rhymes are not a rule for defining what is and what isn’t a haiku.

Nature seems to be a defining topic for haiku, since poems related to humanity are categorized nowadays as senryu (though it is important to notice that even Basho and Issa had haiku about the human condition rather than nature).

The 5-7-5 syllable is also not a defining rule. Syllables in the English language have no correspondent in Japanese, and none of the great haiku masters were strict about “syllables” for considering what is a haiku.

There is another myth we must deconstruct: the problem of humour.

According to many sources, haiku should not contain humor. It is supposed to be a serious poem about nature. You will find this in many guidelines for haiku submissions.

Well, what if we told you that the 俳 of haiku (the “hai”) means comical/unusual?

Lots of haiku from the great masters contain humour. The pun is one of the haiku techniques described by Jane Reichhold in her book about the work of Basho. Kobayashi Issa also wrote a lot of humorous haiku.

If you decide to submit haiku for our magazine, don’t shy away from humorous poems. Don’t shy away from anything. That is the whole point of writing poetry.

Anything can happen under seven lines.