Notes from Michael Dylan Welch’s
“Haiku Targets” Workshop

by Mark Danowsky

How was the workshop?

• “Inspirational” is the term that keeps coming to mind.

• One workshop participant described the 3.5-hour workshop as “Riveting!”

• It’s hard not to enjoy being in Michael’s presence and soaking up the vast knowledge he has to offer—especially on the subject of haiku and other Japanese forms.

• I don’t want to give too much away because, if you’re interested in learning more about these areas of study, I highly recommend you seek out working with Michael either in a workshop setting or mentoring relationship.

• In this workshop, we learned about haiku but also Japanese history, culture, language, lit theory, and more.

• We discussed the concept of haiku targets and how “targets are opportunities” whereas “rules are obligations.”

• We learned that haiku is designed to be social.

• Haiku is meant to be shared.

Should haiku be written in 5-7-5?

• Notably, Michael holds the position that if you’re writing 5-7-5, “you’re actually violating the Japanese form, not preserving it, because you’re counting something that they are not counting.” This is because, as Michael explains, in Japanese haiku, they are not counting syllables but rather sounds.

• Michael informs us that, when thinking about English language haiku, 10 to 14 syllables is “roughly equivalent” to the 17 [sounds] in Japanese. If you write in 5-7-5 [syllables], you’re adding “content” and additional heft.

• In Japanese haiku, they present the work in a single vertical line. This is why sometimes you’ll read English-language haiku that are written in one line (though horizontal). Whiptail journal specializes in this.

How long should a haiku be?

• MDW says a haiku should be precisely as long as it needs to be. No longer and no shorter. And that partly it’s a matter of subjective taste. He nods to Levertov on “Organic Form.”

• MDW encourages writing haiku that focus on being “objective instead of subjective.” This leaves space for the reader to bring their own experiences and emotional states to the metaphorical table.

What else?

• A haiku succeeds if it hits its targets.

• Haiku wishes to imply the before and the after.

• A good haiku uses language to imply and “suggests something beyond” the words on the page.

Haiku stances

• Some approach haiku as a mindfulness and awareness practice. That’s a target/choice.

• You can change the facts of the poem.

• What really happened could seem inauthentic on the page. (There’s “the truth” and the poetic truth.)

• “A haiku creates authenticity . . . it doesn’t assume it from its origin.”

• “You still have to make it believable.”

• “You might get a better poem if you change the facts here and there.”

• You are permitted poetic license.

• [see “Haiku Stances” essay]

What else matters a great deal in haiku?

• “The integrity of the line break.”

How to write haiku (and what is required of you, the poet)

• “Write in present tense”

• Avoid titles

• Avoid rhyme

• Don’t make judgments

• Avoid metaphor and simile

• “Write from personal experience or memory”

• “Don’t write about your feelings, write about what caused your feelings”

• You don’t want to be too conscious of the words over the meaning

• You want the words to become invisible (this is a target)

• Awareness

• Open-endedness

• Subjectiveness

• Objective rather than subjective

• Strong images

• Haiku should have two parts (never three parts)

• A good haiku will make you aware of something you’ve forgotten about

• Relatableness matters

• Avoid “mental projections” (do you really know what you’re claiming to know?)

• Michael’s haiku checklist can aid in the revision process.

Planting “haiku seeds”

• Awareness of your surroundings

• Observation

• Witness

• Presence

• Specificity

• You have to quiet your mind to hear the sound

• Pay attention to internal feelings/emotions in response—“trust the image”—don’t spell out the feeling but build the feeling into the haiku

Selected quotes from Michael Dylan Welch

• “Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.” —Mary Oliver
  You’re expressing that moment of awareness. And you’re sharing about it. Validating universal human experience.

• “Pay attention to internal and external aspects of your life.”

• “One of the virtues of haiku is that it makes you pay more attention.”

• “Haiku can be narrative, but you have to value the image.”

• “Don’t write too conceptually.”

• “Discover. Discard. You are trying to find what the poem is really about.”

Closing notes

• Here’s an overview essay [“Becoming a Haiku Poet”] on haiku that Michael encourages checking out.

• Be on the lookout for Michael’s upcoming appearances.

• Michael is available for 1-on-1 mentoring.