While looking through an older class blog I set up a few years ago for an eighth grade English class I taught, I came across a number of different poetic formats that we had worked with. I figured it was time to revisit them and give a few a try... first up is a twist on an old favorite, the hay(na)ku .The hay(na)ku is fairly modern poetic tercet (three-line) form where the first line consists of one word, the second line of two words, and the third line of three words. Pronounced "hay-nah-koo," this form was "invented" by poet Eileen Tabios and was officially inaugurated on the Web on June 2003. Since then, the form (a variation of a haiku) has spread through the Web to poets all over the world.
Here's some easy-to-follow criteria for what a poem needs to have to be considered a hay(na)ku: First, the purpose of the form (a tercet: 3 lines) is to concisely capture a specific moment or feeling in time. Each tercet will include a total of six words; one in the first line, two in the second, and three in the third line. Remember, there is no restriction on syllables, stresses or rhyme. Easy enough, and without the (occasionally challenging) necessity of maintaining a strict syllable count, slightly easier to write than a traditional haiku.
Here are a few examples, this first from Spring 2007 and a second from today:
1Why not give this simple, quirky form it a try yourself?
Lost,
off course—
trail flashes lie.
2
Sunshine
warms cheek.
Summer is here!
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