sherlock60 | Mrs. Hudson's Poetry Page: The Lion's Mane

Welcome once again to my poetry page!

I hope each week you will read Dr. Watson’s delightful narrative (though this week, we once again have an offering from Mr. Holmes) and then be inspired to write a poem related to it in some way. All forms of poetry are permitted, and further down the page there is a selection you might like to consider using over the coming weeks.

This week my featured form is the haiku.

Shadow Poetry gives this “popular” definition:

Haiku (also called nature or seasonal haiku) is an unrhymed Japanese verse consisting of three unrhymed lines of five, seven, and five syllables (5, 7, 5) or 17 syllables in all. Haiku is usually written in the present tense and focuses on nature (seasons).

It does then give a link to a more detailed description. In essence, when writing in English, you can use 17 syllables or less.

An ideal haiku should be short/long/short - but that depends on the haiku itself. There is nothing wrong with 5/7/5, if that is what you want to write.

Haiku is generally not written in one long run on sentence. It is generally written in two parts. You have a fragment on the first or the last line, then you have the body of the haiku.

Here is my example poem, recalling my emotions on Mr. Holmes finally moving out:

The wild season ends
Strange—Mr. Holmes never seemed
the retiring type

As always, this is simply something to consider for the future. Any form of poetry is welcome this week—and every week! Here are a few suggestions for you:

221B verselet, abecedarian poetry, acrostic poetry, alexandrine, ballad, beeswing, blackout poetry, blues stanza, bref double, Burns stanza, call and response, chastushka, cinquain, circular poetry, clerihew, colour poems, concrete poetry, Cornish verse, curtal sonnet, diamante, doggerel, double dactyl, ekphrasis, elegiac couplet, elegiac stanza, elfje, englyn, epigram, epitaph, epulaeryu, Etheree, fable, found poetry, ghazal, haiku, Italian sonnet, jueju, kennings poem, lanturne, limerick, lyric poetry, mathnawī, mini-monoverse, palindrome poetry, pantoum, Parallelismus Membrorum, poem cycle, quintilla, renga, riddle, rime couée, Schüttelreim, sedoka, septet, sestina, sonnet, tanka, tercet, terza rima, tongue twister poetry, triangular triplet, triolet, Tyburn, villanelle

Please leave all your poems inspired by The Lion’s Mane in the comments on this post. I look forward to seeing them!

Warm regards,

Mrs. Hudson