Haikupons

Yesterday’s Rhymes With Orange:

haiku + coupon = haikupon

These are haikus in English, a development of the Japanese poetic form. In Japanese, the form (in its strictest variant) has three lines, of 5, 7, and 5 moras (or morae); the mora is a unit of phonological weight, such that a long syllable has two of them and a short syllable one. In English, the form has lines of 5, 7, and 5 syllables.

There is some flexibility in the form, but Hilary Price’s coupon haikus are all strictly 5 – 7 – 5. On the other hand, they lack season words, and if they compare two images, the comparisons are too subtle for me. But they are compressed, even elliptical.

Haikus in English are often comical or whimsical rather than imagistic — as in this case.

4 Responses to “Haikupons”

  1. Jan Freeman Says:

    NYT today has a fun story on haiku traffic-warning signs. And I hope you have a copy of “Haikus for Jews”:

    Left the door open
    for the Prophet Elijah.
    Now the cat is gone.

  2. IzzyCohen Says:

    The Jewish Shema prayer is a 5-7-5 syllable haiku in Hebrew:
    SHe-Ma YiS-Ra-eL Hear O Israel
    A-Do-Noi eL-o-Hay-Noo The Lord thy G-d
    A-Do-Noi e-kHaD The Lord is One.

Leave a Reply


%d bloggers like this: