A Guide to Haiku

First published in Woodnotes #2, Summer 1989, page 11. The text was originally written in 1970 and is also available on the author’s website with the following introduction: “Following is a series of questions I made to serve me as a guide in judging haiku. Proceed down the list to determine whether the poem is a haiku. The later questions deal with the merit of the haiku. Only the finest poems will reach #9. Few poems make it past #2.” Read about Anita Virgil.

by Anita Virgil

Anita Virgil has let us reprint the series of questions she has used in judging haiku and determining whether a poem is indeed a haiku, as well as evaluating its merit. In her view only the finest poems attain her point number 9.

Is it one particular event in the present?
Is it a moment in which the poet views with fresh insight or awareness some common occurrence that points up the interrelatedness of man and nature?
Is it objectively presented? Does it allow the reader to experience the emotion, or does it tell the reader (it should not) what to feel?
Does it avoid simile, metaphor, personification, cliches?
Does each word serve a vital function in recreating the poet’s moment of deep response? Have the selection of words, the order in which they are placed, their sound, their tempo, captured the quality of the experience?
If the poem allows for more than one interpretation (through choice of words or punctuation or line breaks), does this add to or detract from the poem?
Has it growth potential? Does it convey more emotion than is experienced at the first reading?
What is the value of what the poem conveys?
Is this one of the few poems that can be said to have universal significance?