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Originally Posted by jersea

almost a haiku, but you are off one syllable in line two. You have 6, should be seven.

I often have this conversation with people who probably are not familiar with the fact that not all English speakers are American, or in fact speak American English.

I will paste here a reply to someone I replied to earlier about this poem.

Originally Posted by hillwalker
It's only really a haiku if you count 'poems' as bi-syllabic and 'emptying' as tri-syllabic. Some might not.

Some might. It must be my Black Country accent.

Haiku (haiki?) are originally Japanese anyway & Japanese as a language uses far more than syllable counts, in the composition of haiku or senryu, compared to speakers of other languages, particularly Aryan Indo-European tongues.

Many Asiatic languages as a whole have far more pronounced morae, which in some Asiatic languages also determines stress or timing in their phonetic structure, so to quibble about syllable (whether the onset, nucleus or coda parts) counts in this context, (Haiku in English) is essentially a bit meaningless.

Quote: Originally Posted by hillwalker
Your second example is definitely missing one syllable in the middle line (possibly two if 'flowering' is considered bi-syllabic).
What fun!

No it isn't. To me, anyway, 'umbrellas' has four distinct syllabic sounds & I would pronounce it as something like "um-ba-rell-erz". Although I would be tempted to call the labial 'ba' a mora as it is for me, essentially a partially sounded labial 'b' preceding a schwa (notwithstanding that the initial schwa in the word is the 'U') & which then re-emphasises the postalveolar consonant 'ell' in the plural noun umbrellas.

Also 'flowering' has three distinct syllables to my Midlands ears. In fact, words like 'road', 'toad' & 'load' can have two syllables in Midland English. Well, if it was good enough for Shakespeare (a fellow Midlander) it's good enough for me LOL!

I wonder if the Japanese have as many debates about what constitutes a haiku as English speakers do?

That may clarify my position a bit ... *wink*

almost a haiku, but you are off one syllable in line two. You have 6, should be seven.

Yeah, I'm looking on the bright side!

Hey, Red,
When winter's gone, spring's coming. Keep moving on

Thanks guys.

very pretty

A beatiful poem, I love weeping willows

Thanks. I thought it worked out well.

I love it!

Thanks. I saw them yesterday, they have all disappeared today.

I adore watching flocks of birds do this in the fall. You have captured the essence of that beauty so wonderfully.

Thanks, it did kinda work in a haiku didn't it?

A big word but a strong (and wise) thought.

Sweet little poem.

Also known as Groaty Dick (or Grorty)

What's Groaty pudding? Round here we have, Black peas, parkin and black toffee on plot night.

Thanks Dark Muse & Virgil. I was thinking of a kind of heartbeat rhythm when I wrote this.

I like this too Red. I've been into this short phrasing myself lately.

I loved this. Quite haunting

You certainly caught his 'cocky' persona; what a lively, sprightly portrait and tribute!