TROIKU, A new form of haiku

TROIKU, a new form of haiku (an abstract of one of the Carpe Diem Previews)

I have created a new haiku form 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) 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 breastcollar 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 kilometres 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
frogs jumped 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 seperated lines of the 'sleigh'.
In this example you have to write a new haiku with 'old pond', 'frogs jumped in' and 'sound of water'. Let's give it a try heh ...


The 'sleigh':

old pond
frogs jumped in
sound of water

The horses:

Horse one:

old pond -
the scent of the Lotus
overwhelmes me

Horse two:

frogs jumped 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. For closure I will give the 'lay out' as I love to use; this 'lay out' looks somewhat like a troika:

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 orange on November 5th.


When I was writing this another thought came in mind. Maybe two or three sleighs' and six or nine horses? Wouldn't that be something?





23 comments:

  1. This is a very interesting idea and one I shall have to try. I think it is also a cool way to do writing exercises, starting poems with lines from other poems by self or other. One of my favorite poems by former Poet Laureate of the United States Billy Collins is called "Litany" and it all started with a quote. You can see him perform it on YouTube, and a link to the poem itself is here http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/litany/

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  2. Hello, Kristjaan,
    beautiful idea, but you didn't open for links. Here's my idea for a troiku:
    http://rheumatologe.blogspot.de/2013/05/carpe-diem-haiku-troiku.html
    PS. I had a week full of meeting and five days of work being put into four week days. So I'm just recouperating and trying get get into pace again to write more regularly.

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  3. Awesome Kristjaan,

    I loved this idea, since this is totally new I wrote a small piece about it on my blog so people can read about the style.
    while writing this piece a few things came to my mind like :

    1) In style one since there is one sleigh it's OK to have three connecting threads from three lines, however what should be the connecting thread for two sleighs and three sleigh Troiku.
    2) I know you do not like to adhere to the standard 5-7-5 syllable count rule :-)
    I followed and discovered it cannot be through out since the sleigh is 5-7-5, horses would be 5-7-5, 7-5-7 0r 7-5-5 or 5-5-7 and the last horse stays 5-7-5.

    I would really appreciate if you can read the write up on http://writing-haiku.blogspot.in/2013/07/troiku-new-form-of-haiku.html and let me know what you think.

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  4. Clarification to be sure I understand ... I think :)
    Write one Haiku, and from each line of the Haiku, expand with another Haiku per line of the original?

    Very impressive!!

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    1. That's OK ... to write a troiku, you make a new haiku with every seperated line of the 'base'-haiku.

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  5. This was great fun, thanks: http://consciouscacophony.wordpress.com/2013/12/22/carpe-diems-troiku-master-of-deception/

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    1. Thank you CC for this wonderful Troiku ... you can link it to the upcoming freestyle episode which I will publish later on this week. Thank you for trying this new haiku form.

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  6. A mix of cultures, each one adding to the value of its whole - very cool. I have posted a link to this page on my blog.
    Be well

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  7. My first shot at Troiku is here.
    http://johncommunicates.wordpress.com/2014/01/27/my-first-troiku/
    Thank you again for the inspiration

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  8. I am glad to visit and learn a new form. I often combine short forms just for fun.
    A friend of mine says that I also think outside the box...I just say I am a rebel with a poetic leaning. I shall have to keep this form on the back burner though... as I am just a tad occupied with other prompts... though it might just fit into the one I'll be working on today....

    Poetically yours, Jules (JulesPaige)

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  9. While the Troiku is something I would like to work on...
    This haibun came to mind for the prompts I used.
    Enjoy at your leisure.

    http://julesinflashyfiction.wordpress.com/2014/02/03/qweekly-wwp-wordle-5-toadally-gonna-make-it-big/

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  10. Alignment is tricky, but I did my best, please enjoy:
    http://julesgemsandstuff.blogspot.com/2014/02/cd-special-winter-troiku.html

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  11. This sound like fun! I'll have to give it a try.

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    1. It's for sure a fun way to explore haiku ... I love this haiku form a lot, because I invented it myself and had to try it worldwide. Looking forward to your Troiku Dolores.

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    2. I expanded one of my peace haiku in to a Troiku. This could be addictive. http://adasalcove.blogspot.com/2014/12/troiku-peace.html

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  12. Interesting! I will try to write some troiku :)

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  13. Now I have written my first troika - hope it is correctly done :)

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  14. I just realized I have been composing Troiku incorrectly and I really enjoy this form...Getting it right this time:)

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  15. this is like loop poetry for the haiku pretty cool!

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  16. I gave it a go1 lots of fun we should do more of these
    http://mandy91040.blogspot.com/2015/07/carpe-diems-troiku.html

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  17. Hi, Kristjaan! I have thought about the troiku. If the original haiku is ABC, how about a troiku Axx xBx xxC?

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