KIMO

WHAT IS A KIMO?

A Kimo poem is the Israeli version of Haiku which felt the need for more syllables in its lines. The Kimo poem is written based on a frozen image, like a picture in a camera. Movement is highly unusual in a Kimo poem. A Kimo poem has 10 syllables in the first line, 7 in the second and 6 in the last line. This makes it different from the typical Haiku of Japan.

HOW TO WRITE A KIMO?

~The basic thing in Kimo is the format which resembles Haiku. A Haiku has a seasonal reference and Kimo doesn’t.

~It also mostly is about a frozen image, a still. So we should remember to have one picture that has no movement and get inspired from that.

EXAMPLE OF A KIMO:

BIG BEN

                                           ~Avaanthikha Narayan

Towering towards the skies with all might

tapering to one point

beautiful and alone.

The Kimo above is a poem on the very famous Big Ben. It described the Big Ben as a tall structure and follows the rules of Kimo: syllable count and frozen image.

TIPS TO WRITE A KIMO:

1. Do not make the syllable count too forced and try to say a lot in just three lines. If you have a lot of content, write a Kimo chain, which is a series of Kimos as a single poem.

2. Make the title catchy and do not have a line of the imo as title since Kimo is already short and having the same title would not give much essence. 

3. Include poetic devices precisely and in a neat way. Do not overload the poem with poetic devices.

Now that you know how to pen a beautiful Kimo poem, go do one right now!

~Avaanthikha Narayan

Team PoeTree FoRest