A 17 to 10 ratio

If you haven’t ever read haiku, other than in an elementary classroom where the emphasis tends to be on the faulty 5-7-5 syllabic construction, allow me to recommend a deep dive into this form of Japanese poetry.

Well written haiku is wonderful. One of my students wrote a haiku this week that was simply brilliant. So funny and so full of joy. One of the best three lines of poetry I’ve read all year.

The following, however. is not a great haiku. My wife and I saw this poster in a children’s museum this week, and besides the questionable quality of the writing (I’m honestly not even sure what the poet means), she noted that the poem itself contains 17 syllables (strictly following the bogus 5-7-5 rule) while the poet’s name contains 10 syllables.

Them’s a lot of syllables.

Shouldn’t there be a syllable rule for the name of haiku writers, and shouldn’t the rule be less than 10?