Writing a Haiku – Use a Picture as Your Writing Prompt

Last updated on April 8th, 2023 at 10:56 am

Writing a Haiku does not seem to be a tough job after you have written a few. However when you want to pack your poem with a particular kind of emotion, you have to toil hard.

What I mean by this is, there are motivational haikus, feel good haikus and haiku poems about nature. And there are more. So, sometimes your words do not fit, and at times you find it difficult to adjust to the haiku format of 5-7-5 syllables.

However, when you let a picture  be your writing prompt for the haiku, you can write it quick and better.

The Script of a Haiku

Every haiku has a script. It may appear as a 5-7-5 tiny poem. Nonetheless, there is a story behind it. Sometimes I prefer writing the script first and then sum it up in a haiku.

The picture at the top can be turned into a number of stories. If you can tell a tale in one way, many others will see the image in their own context. Hence, every time one looks at it, a different story originates.

In what follows, we shall write about the picture four times, each time a different story. Our picture will be our writing prompt. Then we shall apply a haiku format of 5-7-5 over each story. This will give us 4 haikus. Let us understand this haiku maker technique.

Opening photo from PIXABAY

Script 1 – Motivational

Do you think he is a laggard? He has failed in all his endeavors until now. However, this year, 2022, he has promised to put in everything. He has warned everyone not to underestimate him in the coming year because he will change himself completely.

Haiku 1:

I say loud and clear,

Might have I been left behind,

But soon comes my year.

 

Script 2 – Philosophical

In life, you have stints of success and failures, happiness and sorrow and good times and bad ones. In a race too, you can’t always afford to win. Try hard but learn to live with failures at times.

Haiku 2:

Sometimes deep I think

Win or lose – life is a sprint

Birth to death – its stint

 

Script 3 – Philosophical

Each day passes the baton to the next day in the relay race of life. Exactly as in a relay race, the outcomes of a day gone happen to effect the present day. Nonetheless, you have a chance to up your speed and make up for what you missed out yesterday.

Haiku 3:

Here goes the baton,

From one day to another.

Morning starts the race.

 

Script 4 – Feel Good

This is a day when everything is at stake. His toil, his aspirations and his promises – all will be weighed by the outcome of this race. This is the day he has been preparing for. Before the starting pistol fires, he says to himself, “All the stress will end soon after I win.”

Haiku 4: 

Thirteen seconds hence

I shall be the fastest man

Race in mind will end.

Writing a Haiku?

If you just got a shot in the arm and are going to write a haiku soon, do send it to me at

rajeshcpandey@gmail.com

If it appeals to me, I will include it in any of my haiku posts with a link back to your blog or instagram profile or to wherever is your social media habitat.

Though I have tried to produce rhymes in my haikus, generally haikus go without rhymes. If you know how to count syllables, help the new haiku writers. Play  the role of a haiku checker. Else you can learn the syllable counting from this article:

How to Write a Haiku in 7 Simple Steps

My instagram link:

https://www.instagram.com/rajeshcpandey/