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Haiku contest stirs anger among the poets over too many syllables
Robert Mendick, Chief Reporter29.05.09
Entries for a high-profile haiku competition have been rubbished - for having too many syllables.
The contest was launched last week to find the haiku that best sums up London in the summer.
It was the first poetry competition in which entries could only be submitted via online messaging service Twitter. With hundreds of entries, organisers were delighted.
Except the British Haiku Society has cried foul over the quality and length of the haikus - essentially Japanese poems, three lines long, typically of five, seven and five syllables.
Annie Bachini, the society's president, said: "These entries are not up to standard. They are using far too many adjectives and far too many syllables. They are also too jokey.
"It is a myth that haiku should be written in 17 syllables. Scholars now generally think that 13 to 14 syllables is more of an equivalent to the Japanese."
The haikus are flashed up on a screen at King's Cross station, and hundreds more have been submitted to the Standard. The contest is being judged by Yoko Ono and poet, playwright and novelist Jackie Kay, who applauded some entries as "really lovely".
The competition has been run by Network Rail and arts venue Kings Place. Kings Place director Peter Millican dismissed the criticism: "The purpose of this project was to get more people writing poems, not fewer."
Reader views (6)
Perhaps Peter Millican should listen to people who are experts in this field, for example Annie Bachini.
The term 'haiku' has been debased in recent times by people who don't have a feel for what it means, people who think it's any old poem with 17 syllables. It is not.
The issue is not the number of syllables at all. In the first place, English syllables don't correspond to Japanese sounds (Japanese doesn't have syllables in the exact European sense), and even modern Japanese haijin don't count sounds obsessively any longer (but Annie is correct in saying that 12-15 English syllables are roughly equivalent to the amount of information in 17 Japanese sounds). The issue is the nature of haiku (there is no such thing as 'haikus' - the plural is still haiku). A short poem full of adjectives and similes or explicit emotions or universal philosophical observations described in detail may or may not be beautiful, but it's not a haiku. The essence of a haiku is 'show, don't tell'.
- John Kinory, Steeple Aston, Oxfordshire, England
I'm Playing with worlds
In the the Summer Sizzle Burn
Relax... it's Groovy
By Colin Rice @RiceyC
- Colin Rice, Isleworth, UK
Flow peacefully Thames
past the Tower and gently
wash away the blood.
- Joy Wethered, Seaford, England
Mist veils the rising
sun who shyly hides her face.
Birds twitter shamelessly.
- Joy Wethered, Seaford, England
It's a pity that entry was restricted to commuters.
- Tanja Cilia, Fleur de Lys Malta
As the founder of "With Words" (www.withwords.org.uk) I applaud Yoko Ono for her continously inclusive projects, be it haiku with Kings Place, or public artworks where visitors could add their own thoughts, art, and poetry.
She got people excited about art.
It's true many of the entries weren't haiku as such, so I do agree with Annie Bachini, but I love people getting excited about a poetry competition as well.
As both a twitter (the very name 'haiku' was only coined in the 20th century, and haiku poets have always embraced technology) and on Facebook, I was delighted at how many either took part, or posted their poems on FB or twittered them amongst their contacts.
Alan
- Alan Summers, Bradford on Avon
