One of the more encouraging developments of the past year and a half has been the number of us who, instead of turning to drink, have been turning to haiku.
Haiku hashtags have been popping up on social media since the start of the pandemic. It turns out that 17 syllables in that classic five-seven-five formation are just what we need when we’re trying to express how we feel about these unsettling times.
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and the rest have proved to be the perfect medium for this short-form poetry. Of course, the quality is mixed. Some of the hashtags attract efforts that are less ‘narrow road to deep north’ than ‘quick jab to left arm’.
But the same could be said of any open-entry poetry competition. Those who spend a little time reading, for example, the staff haiku page on the website for Duke University Hospital, North Carolina, will be rewarded with poems that are poignant, profound and sometimes just plain sad. This was the contribution from the hospital chaplain, Ashley Acken:
Holds up the iPad. Family says goodbye from screen. Prayers. Last breaths taken
National Public Radio’s open invi-tational asked people to focus on social distancing and listener Jesse Glucksman responded with a haiku that described his daily commute:
Sniffling and sneezing My head floats, my mind fogs over Promise it’s a cold
The rediscovery of the charms of haiku, tanka, katauta etc. is not just an American phenomenon. The British Haiku Society has reported an increase in membership. The editor of the short poetry journal Hedgerow, Caroline Skanne, says this is a definite moment. ‘Many people have been turning to haiku in lockdown and I’ve received a significantly increased number of submissions for Hedgerow.
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