Give us your greatest 17 syllables on masculinity.
In Japan, the haiku is a serious and ancient art form. It’s prized for its ability to juxtapose images and ideas in order to cut at truths from perspectives that prose cannot. The most famous representative of this tradition is Matsuo Bashō (1644-1694). Here’s a sample of his work:
The old pond:
A frog jumps in,—
The sound of the water.
To use haiku as an English teaching tool, and to convert it into the rules of our own language, the Japanese haiku (as we most often use it in the States) has been simplified to meet the following two rules:
(1) Must be three lines
(2) Must contain a 5-7-5 syllable structure
So, technically, this could be a haiku:
Give us your greatest
seventeen syllables on
masculinity
Potential topics are limited only by your creativity but can include: personal stories, defining manhood, what masculinity is or isn’t, media’s representation of men, how men are changing, what makes a good man?
Ready to submit? Here’s how:
(1) Go to Gravatar.com, upload a headshot and a brief bio.
(2) Send the email address you used, the bio, and the haiku to Cameron Conaway at:
–Photo: funkandjazz/Flickr
An old silent pond, Into the pond a frog jumps, Splash! Silence again
For a 5-7-5 example, another reading I have seen of the Haiku you cite is An old silent pond Into the pond a frog jumps Splash! Silence again