Pirate Haiku: Twisted Haiku, #1

By Jason McBride

Taking Haiku Places It Was Never Meant To Go

A Warped and Twisted Take on Pirates

If you love short 17-syllable poems about nature and the sublime this book is not for you. But, if you enjoy dark humor and have an affinity for pirates, you need this book. This collection of over 400 poems delves into every aspect of what it means to be a pirate.

The book is divided into ten chapters, each with a different pirate theme.

The haiku in this book are funny, dark, and occasionally in bad taste. But, they are never boring.

Author Jason McBride prides himself on being able to write haiku on just about any topic. In this first book of the Twisted Haiku Series, he takes the ancient Japanese poetry form and throws out the rulebook. Each haiku still has the familiar 5-7-5 syllable pattern, but these poems are anything but traditional.

If you want to read haiku about torture, gunpowder, the dangers of snoring on a pirate ship, and much more, you can now get Pirate Haiku for less than a cup of coffee.

What Are You Waiting For? Get Your Copy Right Now!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Weirdo Poetry
• Release date: Sep 23, 2019
• ISBN: 9781393297383

Book preview

Introduction

Some people take poetry very seriously.

I am not one of those people. If you are a haiku nerd like me, or if you are curious about what Weirdo Poetry is all about, you might enjoy this introduction. But, if that all sounds dull—feel free to skip ahead and read my actual poems. They are dark, twisted, funny, and sometimes disturbing—but they’re never boring.

If you are interested in the art of haiku or want an explanation for why I write such strange things, read ahead.

Haiku evolved in Japan from longer forms of poetry over 300 years ago. Haiku focused on nature and the sublime. Traditionally a haiku has 17 on (often translated as syllables).

However, a Japanese on is different from an English syllable. Haiku were created to be poems you could speak with a single breath. That is tough to do in English.

When haiku came to the West, it was the three lines of five beats or syllables, seven beats, and five beats that caught on. This is how I write my haiku. Many modern poets abandon this form altogether. They write micro-poems that are simply three short lines.

For me, the 17-syllable structure is essential. It forces me to confine my expression. It makes me more creative. Trying to make the 17-syllables work is fun. It’s like a puzzle.

Generally, haiku do not rhyme. Most of my haiku do not rhyme, but sometimes I find a rhyme adds an element of whimsy to a particular story.

The three-line structure of haiku is perfect for telling short stories. This is the real reason I write haiku. I love to tell stories.

You can create an intriguing haiku about almost any subject. With haiku, I can drill down to the essential elements of a story. This book is a collection of the haiku-stories I have written about pirates. They are arranged into ten different themes.

In addition to the more than 400 pirate haiku in this collection, there are also a few other types of poems. You will find nonets, hourglass poems, and tanka.

A nonet is a nine-line poem where the first line has nine-syllables, the second line has