How to Write haiQu

It's like haiku or senryu, only different...

This page is a work in progress because writing haiku is an art, not a science, and there are kazillions of rules about them, and just as many reason to ignore them all.

As you will see below, Twitter was the primary source of inspiration for haiQu. As far as I'm concerned, Twitter is dead. Hence my referring to it in the past tense below.

The Gist of haiQu

haiQu are composed of three lines of appropriated short phrases. The practice began on Twitter, as "Twitter haiQu," but it is acceptable to collect language from any online source (with some exceptions listed below). Social media is the ideal hunting ground.

Each line in a haiQu must be from a different source.

haiQu loosely follows the 5-7-5 syllable pattern of traditional haiku, but the operative word here is loosely. The best haiQu, if not exactly 5-7-5, adhere to some variation of short-long-shot, or even short-short-short. Here is a 5-7-5 example:

Sisyphus deranged
ouroborous hourglass
as the crow roosters

Just as with traditional haiku, it is acceptable to sometimes compose haiQu in a single line.

pineapple colander alien guts a crypto chud

A Key Difference

Traditional haiku often, if not always, can be read as a cohesive unit, meaning that at least two, and sometimes all three, lines read as a sentence (or partial sentence). Here's one from Matsuo Bashō which reads as a single sentence:

No one travels
Along this way but I,
This autumn evening.

Keep in mind, though, that this haiku has been translated from its original Japanese, which raises a question. Can haiku ever be written outside of its origin language? Frankly, the purist in me doubts it. But I reject the concept of purity in general, so here we are.

Here's another from Bashō that reads as two sentences, with the link between them implied, rather than explicit:

Lightning
shatters the darkness―
the night heron's shriek.

As these two show, haiku attempts to create a somewhat cohesive image. The effect— or at least the intention—is to create what many call an, "Aha! moment," in the reader. The heart of haiku is therefore focused on the communication through written images as a means of creating a shared experience. The final image of a haiku is more important than the language itself. If this were not the case, it would be near impossible to translate haiku. This is where haiQu differs from haiku the most.

haiQu is focused more on language itself than creating a a single image, or a juxtaposition of images. To understand, we need to talk about how haiQu came to be. More specifically, we need to talk about where haiQu came to be: Twitter.

haiQu is focused more on language itself than creating a a single image, or a juxtaposition of images

Twitterspeak

From a language perspective, Twitter was a very weird space (maybe from every perspective). The strict limits on character counts (which was at first 140, then later expanded to 280) resulted in a people taking a lot of liberties in their use of English. Early on, when the character limit was 140, the result was the formation of the acronyms we all know and use: LOL, OMG, TTYL, ICYMI, TIL, and so on.

(Twitter was international, but haiQu was born under English.)

If I had started Twitter haiQu back then, I certainly would have used many of these acronyms in haiQu. But the constraint of characters also resulted in other kinds of creative shortening of language. Examples:

"guilt for having created something with AI," becomes, "AI use guilt."

"a fascination with technology," becomes, "technicalia."

"a short-term relationship of convenience," becomes, "a situationship."

These practices of improvised communication created an environment that thrived on wordplay. The result was a culture not unlike the arena of Hip Hop where rappers created entirely new ways of making rhymes, often bending or twisting the meaning of words.

Language is alive, and always changing.

But There's More To It

As public as Twitter appeared to be, it was comprised of thousands of micro-communities, many of whom use internal slang or jargon. Many times, while just browsing my timeline, I would see unusual phrases:

haunted by orbs, sushi terrorism, ocean nerd, dragon cock dildo, stochastic parrots, GPS-wearing opossums, hormones pipeline, non-binary umbrellas, a dazzle of zebras…

This isn’t surprising. The Twitter timeline looks like what you’d get if you transcribed thousands of real-time conversations from thousands of disparate cultures into a single, overlapping and intertwined thread. It’s unnerving and intimidating, and it can take a long time to figure out how to make sense of any of it. Most people didn't. Twitter, despite having a huge impact on our culture, was always one of the smallest of all social media networks.

The challenge is to recognize the unique language of online culture in the wild as it occurs.

As a poet who likes to appropriate material, Twitter was a treasure trove. I have always appropriated language. I collect quotes, phrases, aphorisms, names, and interesting words so that I can repurpose them in some fashion in my work.

Put simply, every time I come across an interesting phrase (in this context), I put it on a list. To compose haiQu, I take three random distinct phrases from the list and put them together so they resemble a traditional haiku in form, even if not in content or function.

Haiku has a lot of rules and conventions and I ignore all of them when composing haiQu. I aim for a semantically interesting arrangement of words and alliteration that results in a surrealistic micro-poem.

lesbian vampire nun
egg laying
blood on the dew

The Point of It

Unlike haiku, haiQu is less interested a single image or moment, than it is in bewildering the reader with a different kind of "Aha moment." By focusing on language instead of a cohesive image, the aim is to capture and reflect how online culture influences language and vice versa.

If one were to cheat at making haiQu, one could find a lot of material on urbandictionary.com, but that would be missing the point. The challenge is to recognize the unique language of online culture in the wild, as it occurs. The best phrases are those being used in attempt to communicate something.

There's an essence to haiQu that's hard to convey. For this reason, I offer the following list of proscribed sources of phrases.

• poetry
• song lyrics
• titles of books, song, poetry, etc.
• proper names
• social media handles

Caveat

There are always exceptions to every rule. Haiku itself comes with innumerable rules and guidelines that each poet has to choose how to engage with, or whether to engage at all. I recently composed a haiQu that, for the first time, uses the real name of a real person. I can't explain exactly why this seemed appropriate (pun intended), but in the moment, it just felt right:

eyes, skin, or planets
algorithm fed parrots
Moon Unit Zappa

(Moon Unit Zappa is the daughter of Frank Zappa.)

Help Me Out Here

As I said above, all of this is in the formative stages. I want to write a little more about how the individual lines of haiQu might link or relate to each other (or not).

And I'm open to feedback. Is any of this making sense or obtuse? Do you spot anything that might be inconsistent or contradictory? Better yet, are you interested in giving it a whirl?