How to Haiku – the Next Level with Maeve O’Sullivan

Course Content

Please note that class will not take place on Monday 6 February and this course will end on Monday 27 February.

Building on the introductory How to Haiku, or another introductory haiku workshop, this course will
explore haiku and related forms in more depth. It will provide an introduction to four forms related
to the haiku: the tanka, the haiga, the monoku and the cherita. It will also explore techniques for
writing more effective haikai by answering these questions: should haiku be punctuated and how do
we best do that? How can we use metaphor in haiku in a meaningful way? What is ‘wabi-sabi’, what
are horizontal and vertical axes in haiku and how do we go about employing these?

Course Outline

Week 1:              Tanka, the 5-line form related to haiku (also/formerly known as Waka).

Week 2:              Syntax & punctuation in haiku, plus the use of definite & indefinite articles.

Week 3:              Monoku (one-line haiku) and the use of spacing. Also cherita (6 lines in 3 stanzas)

Week 4:              Metaphor in haiku: whether to / how to: explicit or implicit?

Week 5:              Haiga, the form which combines haiku and images

Week 6:            ‘Wabi-sabi’, ‘mono no aware’ and horizontal & vertical axes in haiku.

Participants will be expected to produce work during or after the classes in weeks 1, 3 and 5, with
sharing and feedback in the following week’s class.

Course Outcomes

Participants will have a deeper understanding, not just of the advanced techniques for writing more
accomplished haiku and senryu, but of four different forms related to the basic three-line haiku.
They will also develop an ability to read and write these Japanese forms with increased confidence
and proficiency. Suggestions for submissions to relevant haikai journals will also be made.

Maeve O’Sullivan’s poetry and haikai have been widely published, anthologised, awarded and
translated. She is the author of five collections from Alba Publishing, the latest of which is Wasp on
the Prayer Flag (2021). Maeve is a founder member of the Hibernian Poetry Workshop, and is a
member of the Irish Writers’ Centre and the British Haiku Society. She leads workshops and mentors
individuals in haikai, and also writes a range of literary journalism. www.maeveosullivan.com