Southern Haiku

Every morning, Alan, a writer friend of mine, creates a haiku then tweets it on twitter. I've been thinking a lot about his writing habit and am going to try and follow his example, at least a couple of days a week.

This morning I contemplated the New Year as I dozed in bed, refusing to arise. In my murky quasi-dreams, I created my first southern haiku. Actually, that was yesterday. Today's haiku was actually pretty OK - no southern in it at all.

Let's step back a minute. What is haiku? According to Wikpedia, Haiku is a form of Japanese poetry, consisting of 17 Japanese on (a phonetic unit identical to the mora), in three metrical phrases of 5, 7, and 5 on respectively[1], and typically containing a kigo, or seasonal reference. In Japanese, haiku are traditionally printed in a single vertical line, while haiku in English usually appear in three lines, to equate to the Japanese haiku's three metrical phrases[2]. Previously called hokku, it was given its current name by the Japanese writer Masaoka Shiki at the end of the 19th century.

OK, back to southern haiku. The difference between haiku and southern haiku is the pronunciation of several typically single syllable words spoken in a southern dialect. This is a typical southern haiku:

Cold wind bends the trees,

we cuddle inside our home,

fire blazing hot.

Notice the use of the word FIRE. In southernese, is pronounced FA-YER, or FAR. I've selected the former pronunciation to use in this haiku, thus transforming it into a two syllable word and maintaining the five syllable form.

I have to admit it affords me much greater flexibility in my creation.

HA HA HA. Happy New Year!!