For the first in our #CreativeUtah Challenges, a partnership with Utah Arts Festival, we're asking you to write a haiku. It's the very short, traditional Japanese poem with a particular structure: usually (but not always) 3 lines - 5 syllables, 7 syllables, 5 syllables. We sat down with Jackie Osherow, Utah poet and distinguished professor of English at the University of Utah. She doesn't write haiku herself, but she's a fan. We asked her to read some classic examples and talk about what the masters have to say about the form.
Email your haiku to radiowest@kuer.org. We'll share them on our Facebook page, or you can share them across social media with the hashtag #CreativeUtah.
Poems selected from Robert Hass' The Essential Haiku: Versions of Basho, Buson, & Issa [Indiebound|Amazon]
Jackie Osherow's latest book is called Ultimatum from Paradise: Poems [Indiebound|Amazon]
