Carpe Diem Haiku Kai Academy #3 The Troiku, a new kind of haiku-ing

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Recently I started this new "branch" of the Carpe Diem Haiku Kai Family and I love how this new "branch" already find its way to the visitors. Here at the CDHK Academy I will gather the educational posts which I published earlier on Carpe Diem Haiku Kai, a daily haiku meme.

This new post is about Troiku, its a new way of creating haiku and I (Chèvrefeuille) have created / invented it myself. So here is more about Troiku.

TROIKU, a new form of haiku

I love to introduce to you a new haiku form invented / created by your host Chèvrefeuille, the Troiku and I think it's fun, but not an easy form. First I have to tell you something about the source of the name Troiku.

It goes back to 17th century Russia.

A troika (meaning: triplet or trio, as shown above) is a traditional Russian harness driving combination, using three horses abreast, usually pulling a sleigh. It differs from most other three horse combinations in that the horses are harnessed abreast. The middle horse is usually harnessed in a horse collar and shaft bow; the side horses are usually in breast collar harness. The troika is traditionally driven so that the middle horse trots and the side horses canter; the right hand horse will be on the right lead and the left hand horse on the left lead.

The troika was developed in Russia during the 17th century and could reach on full-speed 45-50 kilometers per hour, which was at that time a very high speed on land for vehicles.

OK ... up to the Troiku. Compared with the troika, haiku counts three lines and the troika was driven by three horses. A troika was (mostly) a sleigh and that ... my dear haijin, visitors and travelers is what a troika made a troika.

In the Troiku, the sleigh is the base haiku from which we will start.

E.g. the 'sleigh' of our Troiku is a haiku written by a classical (or modern) haiku poet.

For the introduction of the Troiku I have chosen a haiku by Basho. A very well-known one written by him ... namely 'frog pond'.

furu ike ya   kawazu tobikomu   mizo no oto

old pond
frog jumps in
sound of water

In this Troiku form it's the intention to write three new haiku (the horses of the troika) starting with the separated lines of the 'sleigh'.

In this example you have to write a new haiku with 'old pond', 'frog jumps in' and 'sound of water'. Let's give it a try heh ...

The 'sleigh':

old pond
frog jumps in
sound of water

The horses:

Horse one:

old pond -
the scent of the Lotus
overwhelms me

Horse two:

frog jumps in
the sound of rain far away
thunder and lightning

Horse three:

sound of water
dripping from the gutter
after the hurricane

Nice way of writing haiku isn't it. I love it. I hope you, my dear haijin, do like this new Troiku too. Let's do another one. This time I will use a haiku written by myself. This haiku I published on Carpe Diem on November 5^th, 2012.

The Sleigh:

all day sunrise
what a joy to live in
my orange house

The horses:

Horse  one:

all day sunrise
Mother Nature is confused
the longest day

Horse two:

what a joy to live in
a world full of fantasy
patches of clouds

Horse three:

my orange house
save harbor for my children
till when will it last?

© Chèvrefeuille

It's really a nice way to be creative with that wonderful ancient / classical Japanese poetry form, haiku. A real challenge too I think. Of course in this form you cannot follow the classical rules, because it's more a "free-style" way of haiku crafting.

Namasté

Chèvrefeuille