On the other side of convention, what do we find: liberation, repulsion, excitement, a nervousness, tension, dizziness, relief?
The forms and tropes that we work with, what technologies were they born from?
How many lines of poetry can you fit on an Instagram post? How many lines of poetry can you fit on a Hive post?
What book could have held Dante’s Inferno had he written it in one continuous line from left to right, from beginning to end? How many hours of scrolling would it take to read that single line of text if one were reading it on a smartphone today?
In Japan, haiku is often written as a single line of poetry, a single line that holds three parts.
In the West, haiku is generally written in tercets, three short lines of poetry.
Until last week, I had never heard of single-line (mono-stich) haiku being written in the West.
Until last week, I had never once considered formatting these tiny poems in single lines.
But now that I know they can have a different look and still be accepted as poems, I’m so excited. I feel like a whole new world of play and possibility has been put in front of me.
Please turn your phone sideways to read them as a single line.
And one more time as tercets. Which format do you prefer?
we have known moments without
fear sorrow and pain
the things you’d find hidden
under my cushions
rushing splashing dripping pouring
what sound do you hear
i tell the fallen apple
browning on the ground
a narrow beam of sunlight
cuts through the shadows
a pair of swings waits
and waits some more
never to return
say trees to their leaves
The tercets are immediately preferable, but I love reading poetry in single lines - which I then turn into verse. It's the line breaks for me - they add their own rhythm.
Thank you for commenting.
I’m so used to writing poetry in this short form with line breaks that thinking about and playing with line breaks has become an integral part of writing them. Because of that, it’s really hard for me to leave the tercet format behind.
And, because I wrote these poems with line breaks, I have a really hard time reading them and evaluating them as single line poems.
When I read Japanese haiku, though, and single-line poems by other people, I find myself bouncing around within the single line and making various connections and line breaks of my own, which I really like doing.
Single line poems seem really strange and often awkward to me now, but I want to start exploring them. It’s like suddenly having a new medium or technology to work with.
I think I prefer the tercet; gives me a deeper feeling of reading a poem due to the outlook. Either way, the meaning was properly expressed.
I might just try the Japanese Haiku Mono-stitch thingy.
Thank you for sharing
I can’t quite get away from the tercet either. It just feels right. But the moon-stich is a fun experiment. Give it a try.
Who knew?!
Incredible
Me being me... I seperated them into three lines in my head and read them like that 😬
But I could also read the difference and how the format can change the meaning... quite brilliant, isn't it?! Very beautiful share.
Very beautiful words. As always.
Sending sunshine from the South
Yeah, it’s hard to get away from the things we’ve been trained to do. I think I prefer the three-line structure myself because that’s what I’m accustomed to, but I like the idea of a single-line poem.
Hope all is well with you.
Yep. It's so important to shake things up a bit! So much to learn. So much to see. So much to try... it seems like a waste of life to get stuck on repeating the same things forever :)
I really enjoyed the one line approach because it leaves even more space for interpretation and feeling for the reader.
But my brain also likes order so it tends to sort that out wherever it goes anyway :D Good luck, brain! 😂 I'm trying to become comfortable with the never knowing now
Have a cool day and go big in Japan today 🌸
I am no poet and know nothing about poetry. However, I always respected e. e. cummings for just throwing away all convention and formatting freely.
He definitely threw the public some wild curve balls. 🤣
I really enjoyed this one, but they're all delightful:
I’m glad to hear it. Thank you.
I prefer the tercets over the single line ones but than again it's the mind that plays tricks as in it finds the patterns quicker, it's used to it (notion of familiarity), has a better rhythm if separated properly etc.
No. 1 is my fav 😉
I’m finding that I like the idea of single-line poetry more than the actual finished single-line poetry itself. 🤣
I think it’s the familiarity thing that you printed out.
With single-line poetry, I like the idea that a reader can explore the spaces where words meet and form different line breaks that might alter the meaning, but at the same time, without being told it’s a poem, and without intentionally adding some kind of poetic syntax, what might be beautiful as a tercet might just seem like a boring sentence as a single line.
Isn’t that funny.
For long I've often considered poem to be in three or more lines, I never tried the single line and that makes me prefer the tercets. I like the first verse of the poem that talks about learning from pain and past . Great one
I understand how you feel. I want to embrace the single line poem idea. I like it. But, still, the three line poems are more familiar to me and so I have a hard time not preferring them.
I don't know much about haiku, I believe this haiku are written by highly intelligent people to coin feelings in few verses.
However, I like your poem, we learn from tears
I’m glad you liked them. Thank you for commenting.
You're welcome
I think one line works in Japanese because the sound of the phrases divides it for us in our head. Even haiku that don't follow the 5/7/5 format usually easily divide into at least two "phrases" due to structure or kireji. In English I don't think it works quite as well.
That said, I love experiments. I think haiku as two or four lines work quite well in English. For example, with your first haiku
from tears we learn we have known moments
without fear sorrow and pain
or
from tears we learn
we have known moments
without
fear sorrow and pain
Early translators of haiku, in fact, usually used two or four lines. It wasn't until the 60s that those who insist on controlling things decided that all English haiku must be 3 lines.
English is not Japanese, 5/7/5 mora is not 5/7/5 syllables. I think experimenting with different ways to form haiku is a good thing!
I noticed that when I posted this, on my phone screen the lines naturally broke into two lines, and I liked that.
This is where I got my introduction to the single line haiku. I had a few exchanges with the author Alan Summers, and he directed me to the essay he wrote at the beginning of this PDF.
https://www.callofthepage.org/app/download/33959143/The+Pan+Haiku+Review+inaugural+issue+%28Spring+2023%29+editor+-+Alan+Summers.pdf
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