Hello and Happy New Year! I’m so glad you’re here to kick off a fresh chapter of writing poetry with me. To celebrate the season, I’ve been looking into my collection of photo prompts on Poetry Pop and found two beautiful, wintry scenes that really spoke to me. I ended up turning them into a couple Haiga (haiku + art) to share with you today!
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A while ago we explored creating Haiga using paint blots (read the post here). Often called Zen Art, Haiga (hi-gah) combines Haiku and drawings on the same page. The poetry and the images work together to strengthen one another. A swipe of paint on paper feels much like the brush stroke the masters used. Today we will create more paint blot haiga—with a twist!
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Often called Zen Art, Haiga (hi-gah) combines Haiku and drawings on the same page. The poetry and the images work together to strengthen one another. Japanese poets often created Haiga in ink with simple brush strokes. In my book, How Do You Haiku? A Step-by-Step Guide with Templates, we explore Haiga through paint blots. A swipe of paint on paper feels much like the brush stroke the masters used. This project is fun for the whole family or classroom! Enjoy!
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Haiku is about “seeing”—about paying attention to a moment in nature and capturing that moment, like a snapshot, on paper with words (before it disappears). Famous Japanese poet, Matsuo Basho (1644-1694), said that to write haiku you need to have the eyes and heart of a child. Seeing the world one snapshot at a time will help you connect with nature and make your haiku stronger. Haiku is one of my favorite forms, but I’ve never had a journal dedicated to it until recently.
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