What is it with Haiku? The whole 5-7-5 structure just doesn't ring true with me at all. I mean, I get that it is enigmatic, but it just seems like it's enigmatic purely by virtue of not having any other redeeming quality.
As a (sparsely) published poet, I find most English Haiku not particularly inspiring. There may be an aesthetic quality in Japanese Haiku that does not happen when using other languages, or there just may be a large body of bad Japanese Haiku that non-native speakers never learn about.
I believe that the reasons that attract mediocre poets to Haiku are:
* They follow a formula that is easy to understand and reproduce.
* They are short.
So it's reasonably easy to produce something that fits the form, and mediocre poets will leave it at that and not reflect on whether the result is any good.
In general, I think beginning poets prefer somewhat more formal poetry, but even a Sonnet takes a bit of effort, and something like a Villanelle or a Sestina gets quite hard already.
Comparing what is described in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haiku with what I usually read in "Haiku'ified" content (such as these error messages), it doesn't surprise me that I also found most Haikus largely pointless. On top of the 17 syllables aspect, "good" Haikus seem to involve:
- Some form of contrast, tension or juxtaposition (see "cutting word").
- Your mind having to "color in" the scene around the written words (see "metonym"), leaving you with deeper imagery.
- Importantly, they are not just a dull sentence condensed to 17 syllables with line breaks added.
But I'm probably as far from an expert on this as you could be. I just wanted to share my realization that most Haikus you encounter on the internet are probably missing key elements compared to "real" poetic ones, thus making the format seem bland.
This reminds me how some Russian poets in the year 2000 decided that as a replacement to the elements of Haiku lost during an adaptation they need to create a new dimension to it, and so Huiku (Хуйку, from the Russian swear word хуй (dick)) was made which additionally requires first letters of every line to combine into a Russian cursing.
Сижу один под кустом,
Рот открыл в изумленье.
Удивительно лес красив.
Which literally translates into "I am sitting alone under a bush, My mouth is open in awe. The forest is amazingly beautiful." and first letters of each line combine into "сру" which means "I am shitting".
May be similar idea can be used for English. Sadly English has way less three letter swear words than Russian.
I believe that the reasons that attract mediocre poets to Haiku are:
* They follow a formula that is easy to understand and reproduce.
* They are short.
So it's reasonably easy to produce something that fits the form, and mediocre poets will leave it at that and not reflect on whether the result is any good.
In general, I think beginning poets prefer somewhat more formal poetry, but even a Sonnet takes a bit of effort, and something like a Villanelle or a Sestina gets quite hard already.