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Prose haiku

Form
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

A haiku written in continuous prose rather than line-break structure

Detailed Definition
Prose haiku is a minimalist, imagistic paragraph that retains the spirit of haiku—seasonal reference, present-moment awareness, juxtaposition—without line breaks; it distills observation into compact prose, as practiced by writers like Jack Kerouac or contemporary micro-essayists.
Example
Example in poetry:
Prose haiku: "Rain on the roof. The cat stretches, yawns. Distant thunder."—a prose haiku captures the essence of haiku (seasonal reference, juxtaposition) without line breaks.
Additional Notes
Haiku written in prose format rather than three lines. Maintains haiku principles: brevity, moment, season. Tests haiku essence without line breaks. Study Japanese haibun influence.
Also Known As
Prose haiku form Paragraph tercet Block Japanese verse Prose triplet
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