Herein, I attempt to explain why the heck I often write and post two or more (sometimes more!) Haiku/Senyru poems on one day, and give them silly numerical names…

WHAT’s in a Name (or Number) of a Poem?

WHAT is a Multi-Ku?  I often post more than one haiku/senyru in a single post, on the same day. The additional poems are alternate versions, variations on the same topic, and/or the same words in different arrangements. In my usual, daft, silly way, I chose to dub my multi-posts of thematically-related poems “Multi-Kus” and went as far as giving each poem in a series its own, ascending, numeric-name, adapted from Greek and Latin prefixes, as follows:

• Haiku / Senyru – this is the main one, my fave, selected, chosen as the “Title of the Post” for that day, displayed in big, bold letters above the post image (the Uniku or Monoku?)…
• Twoku / Duoku, Diku, or Biku
• Threeku / Triku, Triaku, or Trioku
• Fourku / Tetraku or Quadriku

Then I switch to the old prefixes, because the English ones sound a bit silly:

• Pentaku / Fiveku or Quintaku
• Hexaku / Sixku or Sexaku
• Septaku /Sevenku or Heptaku
• Octoku / Eightku or Octaku…you get the idea…  🙂

Only ONCE have I posted more than eight (8 = Octoku) poems posted on a single day, in an outpouring of rage and sadness, but I simply numbered them on that day, and will do the same if I ever again exceed the eight/8/Octoku level in a future Multi-Ku post…

WHY So Many Poems in One Post? 

Why do I write so many versions and post so many of them? Is it just haiku-clutter, verbosity, or a compulsion caused by too much coffee? Can multiple short poems on the same topic expand on, explore or enhance the topic meaningfully? Does my writing and posting multiple Haiku/Senyru defeat the purpose, dilute the essence, and/or bollocks the brevity of these short-poem forms? Or am I out of control and unable to restrict myself to just ONE?  Not sure if there is one answer — maybe there are multiple correct answers?! 🙂

HOW Haiku & Senyru are Written

Writing haiku/senryū is generally, traditionally, historically, a process of observing people, places, things and events, and describing them in a brief, structured, poetic form, using several elements of content, to capture the essence, and reveal something deeper about the subject. You can find information about classic forms, syllables, and elements of haiku here, and about my approach to haiku here.

HOW Haikumages Was Born

In 2010, I was inspired, when an intelligent, educated, articulate, clever old friend from high school started posting regular haiku Facebook status updates, after which I tried a few, then more and more. Soon, my friend and I were responding to each other’s posts in verse, and finally — full of ideas, artistic excitement, and joy of creation — I decided to do more with my haiku and senryū! By then, I had spent some time studying the forms and history a little, so I contemplated starting a blog, and dreamed of eventually, maybe publishing a book (or two).

At the time, spurred on by the evolution of digital photography, and social media, I was posting my photographs to various platforms and feeds. I reveled in captioning my photographs in interesting, unusual ways and words. Then, one day, while reviewing the archive of my photographs on Tumblr, it hit me — my photo captions were remarkably similar to the form and content of haiku & senryū short poems! Somehow, without artifice or conscious plan, I had been writing poetry all along (sort of)…

As a lifetime lover of photography (my own and others), I am continually observing and capturing the people, places, things and events around me. Over the years, capturing and creating images through various lenses and devices, I would write captions for the images, which I eventually realized were essentially short poems!

The parallels were almost comically obvious — a haiku is a glimpse, an observation — a moment captured, just like a photograph!  And many of the best photographs are not captured randomly, but are of a chosen subject, a point of view, composed, crafted, and assembled like words into one or more short stories, just like a haiku or senryū poem! So, a photograph is like a haiku is like a caption is like a senryū is like a photograph is like a caption is…they’re the same, but different, and beautiful together. Perhaps a combination of the two — a haiku and an image — could add another dimension? I thought I’d give that a try, and Haikumages was born… 

Silly Question: if a photograph is worth a thousand words (as they say), then what is the combination of a photograph with a haiku or senyru worth?

Silly Answer: either 11 or 17 syllables (unless you’re writing free form), but a photographic image and one or more haiku or senryū combined in a Haikumage, is priceless!  🙂

HOW The Haikook Writes & Posts

A few of the haiku and senryū I write almost write themselves –- they come flying out of my mind fully-formed, well-worded, in syllabic near-perfection (3-5-3 or 5-7-5). But that’s only a very few of them. The rest are written in one of two modes:

1. As a single poem, using words carefully (obsessively?) chosen, and lovingly (passionately?) arranged, crafted into a final form and cadence, which feels right enough to post (but is sometimes re-written after posting)…or…
2. A pile of poems, written down furiously as ideas, variations, and related topics brainstorm through me, after which I re-write, edit, tweak, fiddle, and re-craft all or some of them, until they feel right enough to post, then cull out the less post-worthy poems, and select the better/best versions to post (but one or more may STILL be re-written after posting)…

Again…WHY So Many Poems & Multi-Kus?

In either mode of writing, there are usually myriad thoughts, feelings, observations and ideas going through my head, which don’t get written down–that’s my personal creative process.  Some of the many other ideas and variations are worth writing down, and some of those feel right to post together, perhaps giving a little more depth and dimension to the theme, topic or idea I’m playing with…and maybe it’s just fun for me to occasionally (or when I can’t stop myself) post more than one at a time?!

And, I suppose there’s another, lesser motivation behind my Multi-Ku posts!  From time-to-time, I’d like my readers to let me know which haiku/senyru they like better or best of all!   Do you like the one I selected for the main/title of the post, or do you prefer one of the Multi-Kus in the body of the post?  LET ME KNOW!