(Poem at bottom)

Japanese Haiku poems:

Creating a haiku is harder than you might think. Every word is essential in these little seventeen syllable poems. Written in English, the first line should be five syllables, the second is seven syllables, and the final line ends using five syllables. Traditional Japanese haiku poets count moras versus syllables. Mora beat counts don't translate to syllables exactly, but the idea of counting beats is essentially the same. For example, the word Haiku, when said in English is two syllables (Hai-ku), in Japanese, it's three moras long (Ha-i-ku).

Other Haiku Poem Facts:

-Poem maintains a 5-7-5 syllable structure. (Although, this rule has been broken over recent years.)

-The poem's strict structure doesn't contain metaphors or similes.

-Traditional haikus are about nature, but their theme has expanded over the years to other topics.

-Haikus are typically written in present tense.

-Most haikus don't have titles.

-Haikus don't normally rhyme, but some do.

-The poem's focus is on a brief moment in time.

-This type of poem uses the juxtaposition of images for affect. (For example, a blade of grass expands to the image of an entire forest. A pond, to a single frog.)

For more information on haiku poems, visit: www.poets.org

Writer's note on the poem:

Whew! With all those rules, there's no wonder why I've delayed writing my entry for this month's contest. I somehow even managed to add a few literary devices to my short entry too: alliteration, onomatopoeia, and epizeuxis.

I wanted to twist the traditional haiku nature theme when I came up with the idea for this poem. I was counting the syllables beats for a line I was working on and thought of the first night I met my husband. So I guess if the poem had a title, it might be, Love Beats. The intent was to leave the reader with a feeling of a club with the floor vibrating, the music's heavy beat, the heat of the room and the feeling of the moment. I couldn't help add the boom, boom, sound in the last line. It made me smile with the multiple interpretations a reader might have when they read it. Hopefully, the poem has resonance for you. 

This is my entry for the Wattpad Ambassador's June Poetry Contest (@WP_Poetry).  Enjoy!

Bass beats thrum through floor.

Sweaty crowd moves to rhythm—

Boom, boom! I spy you.