- published: 13 Jun 2012
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Haiku (俳句, haikai verse?) listen (help·info) (no separate plural form) is a very short form of Japanese poetry typically characterised by three qualities:
Modern Japanese gendai (現代) haiku are increasingly unlikely to follow the tradition of 17 on or to take nature as their subject, but the use of juxtaposition continues to be honoured in both traditional haiku and gendai. There is a common, although relatively recent, perception that the images juxtaposed must be directly observed everyday objects or occurrences.
In Japanese, haiku are traditionally printed in a single vertical line while haiku in English often appear in three lines to parallel the three phrases of Japanese haiku.
Previously called hokku, haiku was given its current name by the Japanese writer Masaoka Shiki at the end of the 19th century.
In contrast to English verse typically characterized by meter, Japanese verse counts sound units known as "on" or morae. Traditional haiku consist of 17 on, in three phrases of five, seven and five on respectively. Among contemporary poems teikei (定型; fixed form) haiku continue to use the 5-7-5 pattern while jiyuritsu (自由律; free form) haiku do not. One of the examples below illustrates that even the traditional haiku masters were not always constrained by the 5-7-5 pattern.
Actors: Whit Hertford (actor), Chad Everett (actor), James Russo (actor), Ken Del Vecchio (actor), Brooke Lewis (actress), Charles Durning (actor), Michael Madsen (actor), David Carradine (actor), Jack Huang (actor), Ann M. Doria (miscellaneous crew), Mackenzie Firgens (actress), Marc Clebanoff (actor), Marc Clebanoff (producer), Marc Clebanoff (writer), Marc Clebanoff (director),
Plot: A terminally ill crime boss, known only as The Man, hires a hit man named Frank to carry out his own assassination as well as the assassination of The Woman he loves. When The Woman turns out to be Frank's long lost lover, he turns against The Man becoming the target himself.
Keywords: one-word-title, throat-slitting