Jim Gordon is a great writer of great Haikus (is that the plural?) on topics theological. There is something mildly addictive about this very disciplined form of poetry, originating in Japan I believe, that works on a 5x7x5 syllable pattern. No need for rhymes, just clearly focussed ideas.
With advent rapidly approaching, I thought I'd type 'Advent Haiku' into Google to see what popped up. Here are some good ones, from www.simpleliving.org - as far as I know no permission is needed to quote them; if I've inadvertently breached copyright please forgive me. There are lots of others out there, but most seem to need permission, so I can't reproduce them :-(.
An Advent Haiku
by Leona Wieland
based on Isaiah 2:4
"No more wars," He says,
But we are selfish in deed
With wants gone a wry.
Advent Haiku
by Cathy Brechtelsbauer
based on Hebrews 10:5-10
Christ takes no pleasure
In off'rings and rituals,
‘Til we DO God’s will.
Advent Haiku #14
by Cathy Brechtelsbauer
What then should we do?
How can we be satisfied
with only one coat?
Based on Luke 3:7-18 The Proclamation of John the Baptist - for the 3rd week of Advent (Cycle C), vv.10-11 And the crowds asked John, “What then should we do?” He replied, “Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none; and whoever has food must do likewise.”
So, does anyone want to offer one? It needn't be based on a Biblical text, here's a Haiku Advent prayer I just cobbled together...
Advent God, we pray
Lighten our darkness once more:
Come, speak, send and bless
Comments
Advent Haiku 1
Prepare the way! Snow
glints obstructively, frozen
in our ways. Spades bite.
Advent Haiku 2
Jingle, bells, jingle!
All the way he’s coming. Wait !
All the way he is.
Advent Haiku 3
Unto us a child!
But not yet. Forty days of
purpose intervene.
(N.B. Some poetic licence in the last offering! Lent and Advent were both seasons of repentance and fasting, and forty days always has been a bit imprecise, even now purposefulness has become the trend) (Mary of course had to wait many more days than forty, so her first advent season was the longest).
Laugh out loud funny -
Oh what fun it is to read
Your Haikus this night!
Advent seems to be a particuarly tricky thing to define in numbers of days, and even why we do it! Whereas we all know Mary, dressed in a blue gown, conceived on the 25th March and bang on midnight of 25th December, presto, the baby appeared. I really can't see your problem ;-)
Ahem,
Oh come all ye faithful
and ye less so too,
come ye to Meadow Hell.
Damn it! let me try again.
In the bleak mid-May
(The wise men got there later)
He probably cried.
pregnant pause expect
the child be born soon one morn,
He's the king elect
I missed the 5x7x5 rule, here's a retry on my disqualified (and now punchline ruined) effort.
Come all ye faithful
and ye less so too, come ye
bow in Meadow Hell.
Thanks for your patience.
also, i realise i'm possibly pushing my luck here, but isn't the plural of haiku simply haiku?
Andy these are GREAT! I love the 6x7x6 offering - both versions thereof.
Keep 'em coming!
Has anyone else spotted that 'Frosty the Snowman' has a haiku-like structure? 5x7x5x7x5
So is this perhaps a Chiastic Haiku?
Frosty the snowman
never did know the plural
form of a haiku.
***
Neither did Rudolph
the red-nosed reindeer, so he
always said haikus.
***
Chiasm - a problem
for purists. Two syllables?
Or should it be three?