Does Haiku Northwest represent any particular type or style of haiku?
Haiku Northwest is the Washington state region of the Haiku Society of America. The HSA welcomes poets writing all styles and approaches to haiku, as does Haiku Northwest. Most of our members focus, in the haiku tradition, on objective sensory imagery that employs a seasonal reference (kigo in Japanese) and a two-part juxtapositional structure (equivalent to a kireji, or cutting word). Because of differences between English and Japanese, we are aware that seventeen syllables in a 5-7-5 pattern in English tends to produce a poem that is longer than a Japanese haiku, and may suffer from padding or chopping to fit a sound that pattern works well in Japanese but not necessarily in English, despite popular belief (the 5-7-5 syllable pattern for haiku in English may be best understood as an urban myth). Thus we tend to focus on haiku as a one-breath seasonal poem whose two parts create energy through implication. If these traditions are unfamiliar to you, we invite you to come to our meeting
