poetry writing haiku

Haiku Poems: How to Write a Haiku

Sean Glatch  |  January 18, 2024  |  4 Comments

Haiku poems are short poems that use brevity and close observation, as well as natural imagery, to find powerful insight. Combining the restraint of short-form poetry with centuries of tradition, haiku poems are a popular form for poets both classic and contemporary, both Western and Eastern. The haiku poetry tradition is rich with history, and while many poets know about the 5-7-5 rule, they don’t know all the requirements of the haiku format—much less how to write a haiku poem.

This article looks at the history, poetics, and possibilities of haiku poems. We draw comparisons between Japanese haiku and Western/contemporary haiku poetry, with plenty of haiku examples and analysis. Finally, we make distinctions between the haiku form and the senryū, a similar Japanese form.

What is a haiku poem? How do you format it? Let’s dive into how to write a haiku poem, and first, we’ll examine the form’s long and complex history.

A Brief History of Haiku Poetry

Haiku vs. senryū, how many syllables in a haiku poem, classic vs. contemporary haiku poems, terminology of haiku poems, haiku examples, tips on how to write a haiku poem, where to submit haiku poetry, what is a haiku poem.

Haiku poems are short-form poems that originated in the 17th century, Japan. Traditionally, the poetry form requires the poet to arrange 17 syllables into three lines of 5, 7, and 5 syllables, respectively. Classical Japanese haiku requires the poem to use natural imagery; poems that don’t dwell on nature are called senryū.

What is a haiku poem?: a short-form poem from 17th century Japan that uses natural imagery.

Here’s an example of a haiku, from Modern Haiku’s Summer 2020 journal, from former U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins :

Although the classical form has strict requirements, contemporary haiku poems can be far more impressionistic and unconstrained. Let’s take a brief look at the history of haiku poetry, before turning to the rules of the haiku format.

Japanese haiku poetry evolved from several poetic traditions. Previous to the invention of the form, Japanese poets wrote waka, a form of poetry that followed a 5-7-5-7-7 syllabic format. Waka was primarily written by people of higher status, and often required countless hours of studying and crafting poetry—hours which were unavailable to the common folk.

Eventually, Japanese commoners produced their own modified form of waka, called renga (linked verse). In a renga poem, two or more poets take turns writing lines, linking those lines together in a waka. This tradition arose in dominance from the 13th to the 16th centuries, and poets like Sogi helped popularize this verse across the Japanese islands. In the 17th century, waka inspired a different form of linked verse, called haikai.

Starting in the 14th century, many linked verse poems were preceded by a hokku, or “first verse.” A hokku was a poem written in 5-7-5 which often introduced or summarized the themes of the linked poem.

Hokku eventually broke off to become its own form, the haiku. This official split did not occur until the Meiji Restoration in 1868, which opened Japan up to many countries where it had previously refused to trade or share its culture. Technically, most haiku poems preceding the Meiji Restoration are simply hokku, though some poets, like Bashō, are retrospectively considered haiku poets, as Bashō himself freed the hokku from always introducing linked verse.

The introduction of haiku poetry to the West was at first unsuccessful. However, in the 20th century, the Imagist Ezra Pound and the Jazz poet James Emanuel, alongside many French and Spanish poets, helped introduce the form to contemporary literary society. The Beat poets were similarly entranced with haiku poetry. Jack Kerouac often wrote haiku poems such as these. Allan Ginsberg, Philip Whalen, and Gary Snyder, among many other Beats, additionally stoked a certain mid-century haiku fanaticism. However, as we’ll point out later in the article, the haiku poetry of the Beat Generation was noticeably different from the more formulaic poetry of Classical Japan.

An important distinction is the difference between haiku and senryū. Senryū and haiku poems rely on the same format (described below), but differ in subject matter.

Haiku poetry dwells on nature, usually imparting wisdom about life and existence through observations of the natural world. (An exception to this is gendai , which refers to contemporary Japanese pieces that differ in values and topics from classical poetry.)

Haiku poetry dwells on nature, usually imparting wisdom about life and existence through observations of the natural world. Senryū poems dwell on the follies of human nature.

By contrast, senryū poems dwell on the follies of human nature. A senryū might make fun of certain human behaviors or limitations, and the tone of a senryū is usually humorous, cynical, or even satirical .

Additionally, senryū does not have a kireji or kigo , both of which are defined below.

Haiku Format

Traditional Japanese haiku poems are written in three lines. The first and the third lines have 5 syllables, while the second line has 7. If you’ve heard of the form before, you’re probably familiar with the haiku 5-7-5 rule. As we will discuss in a bit, contemporary examples do not have the same syllabic requirements, but most are still written in three lines.

Proper haiku poetry has three elements: a reference to nature ( kigo ), two juxtaposed images, and a kireji , or “cutting word” which marks a transition in the verse and pulls the poem together.

Proper haiku poetry has three elements: a reference to nature ( kigo ), two juxtaposed images, and a kireji , or “cutting word” which marks a transition in the verse and pulls the poem together. An individual image occupies lines 1 and 2, with the third line containing the kireji .

See this in action in the below poem, by Bashō:

The image in the first line is the old silent pond; the image in the second line is the frog jumping. The frog, also, is the “nature word” in the poem: frogs are traditional symbols of the springtime, and what’s lost in translation here is that the poem represents the passing of seasons, from the “old, silent” winter to the sudden arrival of spring. “Splash!” is the kireji , signifying the suddenness of seasonal transition.

Note: some English poems use punctuation, like the em dash (—), as the kireji .

If you want to learn how to write a haiku poem, practice juxtaposing simple, natural images against each other, using the final line to surprise the reader and pull the poem together.

The conventional haiku structure requires poets to write 17 syllables in 3 lines: 5, 7, and 5 again. However, as we’re about to explore, this syllabic requirement does not apply to contemporary English verse. Far more important is the philosophy of writing haiku.

Note: In the Japanese tradition, haiku poetry contained 17 on . (Linguists also refer to on as morae .) On , or onji , are slightly different from syllables, in that an on counts any variation in sound as a separate phonetic unit. This distinction is mostly irrelevant to English speakers, as we use a different set of vowel sounds than Japanese speakers use. None of this information is related to how to write a haiku poem in English, but if it interests you, you can learn more about morae here .

Classical Japanese haiku requires strict adherence to 17 on . This syllabic constraint does not apply to contemporary English haiku. Rather, the standard length for a modern day poem is that it should be spoken “in a single breath.”

The standard length for a modern day poem is that it should be spoken “in a single breath.”

What does this mean? If you read any of the haiku examples in this article out loud, you should be able to do so without inhaling twice or losing your breath.

As you write a haiku, don’t worry too much about syllables (though certainly keep your poem short). Rather, focus on the fundamentals: natural observation, the juxtaposition of images, and the use of surprising language that imparts on the reader an “aha!” moment. If it’s too wordy, you can omit needless words in revision.

Use this section as a reference for the various components and terms related to haiku poems.

• Gendai— Literally “contemporary,” a gendai haiku encompasses modern values and often dwells on themes of politics, urbanity, modern life, and war. These poems do not use kigo , and they sometimes include similes and metaphors , which a traditional piece lacks.
• Haibun —A specialized type of verse popularized by Bashō. A haibun includes a prose poem and a haiku, each of which draw upon natural observations with a high level of imagery and description. The haiku and the prose poem are related, but one does not explain the other, and the narrative jump between the two is not linear.
• Hokku —The opening 3 lines of a linked verse poem. Its form precedes the modern day haiku.
• Kigo —The “nature word” of a poem. Kigo words are usually seasonal. The word “autumn” is an obvious example, but so is the word “pomegranate,” which is traditionally harvested in, and thus signifies, autumn.
• Kireji —The “cutting word” of a poem, surprising the reader and tying together the juxtaposed images.
• On —A phonetic unit in the Japanese language. A Japanese haiku counts on , whereas an English poem counts syllables.
• Renga —A linked verse poem written by multiple authors, often preceded by a hokku.
• Saijiki —A list of kigo organized by seasonal terms, which poets can reference as they construct their haiku poems.
• Senryū —A humorous poem which utilizes the haiku format, but dwells on man’s foibles.
• Waka —A traditional linked verse poem in classical Japanese literature, usually written by a poet of higher status.

Writers of traditional haiku poems can reference this saijiki for seasonal kigo words.

The following haiku examples come from both classic Japanese and contemporary English literature. Remember: a contemporary piece does not need to have 17 syllables, it must merely be spoken in a single breath.

Matsuo Bashō (1644-1694)

Bashō is one of the most famous Japanese haiku poets, and his work popularized the form throughout all of Japan. In this poem, “Spring is passing” refers to an eternal parting, and the birds and fish represent the poet’s friends.

Fukuda Chiyo-ni (1703-1775)

Chiyo-ni was one of the greatest poets of the Edo period, and also one of the few popular female poets from classical Japan. This poem encompasses the importance of simple observation, and the profound thoughts one can have simply by witnessing nature.

Kobayashi Issa (1763-1828)

Issa, a name which roughly translates to “cup of tea,” wrote poetry that often attended to animals in nature. This poem is allegorical, referring to a traditional Japanese legend of a woman who was led to a Buddhist temple by a cow whose horns had stolen her drying clothes.

Masaoka Shiki (1867-1902)

Despite his short life, Shiki’s work is filled with humor. The name Shiki itself means “little cuckoo” a bird who, in legend, vomited blood from singing so much. (Shiki died from tuberculosis.) In this poem, Shiki juxtaposes the summer moon against the paper lanterns, perhaps commenting on the brightness of the moon despite the streetlights, or perhaps commenting on modernity’s rejection of nature.

Richard Wright (1908-1960)

Richard Wright was a prominent African-American writer, poet, and critic in the 20th century, who wrote countless haiku towards the end of his life. This breathtaking poem begins with an absence of self, juxtaposed against the sublime immensity of the sun, which has stripped the speaker of identity and left him in a field of mystery.

Elizabeth Searle Lamb (1917-2005)

Elizabeth Searle Lamb turned towards the power of haiku poetry in her 40s, and continued to write it throughout the rest of her life. Her work was often ekphrastic and inspired by classical art, such as this poem, which feels as though you are staring at Monet’s painting and falling into a deep, thoughtful tranquility.

James Emanuel (1921-2013)

Highly underrated during his lifetime, James Emanuel’s jazz-and-blues haiku defined the possibilities for the poetry form as its popularity grew in the West. Emanuel’s poems ought to be read accompanied with music, but because most of his poetry was performed in Europe and Africa before modern recording technology was universal, readers are encouraged to read his work rhythmically and out loud.

Jack Kerouac (1922-1969)

Kerouac, as well as the Beat Generation in general, re-popularized haiku poems for the West. Following the advice of “first thought, best thought,” Kerouac’s poems explored the landscape of modern America, yet still found depth and inspiration from natural observation.

Allan Ginsberg (1926-1997)

Alongside Kerouac, Ginsberg’s poetry encouraged writers to meditate, observe, and record thoughts as they arose.

Sonia Sanchez (1934- )

Sonia Sanchez was highly influential to the Black Arts Movement in the 1960s and 70s, and her work continues to inspire poets and artists of all stripes. Her haiku poems are decisively more contemporary and less reliant on natural imagery, which frees her to explore the intersections and juxtapositions of modern America.

While it’s easy to understand the haiku format and the requirements of the form, it can seem daunting to write a haiku that’s both brief and inspirational. Here are a few tips on how to write a haiku poem to get you started.

• Meditate, and stay in the present. Great haiku poetry comes from simple observations, and from accepting what comes to the mind without judgment or modification. Let your thoughts arise naturally, and try to transcribe those images into the poem.
• First thought, best thought . To put it another way: preserve naked thoughts. This advice, borrowed from the Beat Generation of poets, should free you to accept your own thoughts as rich source material for haiku poems and other pieces you write.
• Carry a mindfulness notebook. Throughout your day, use a little notebook to transcribe your dreams, observations, and thoughts as they arise. You might find the notes you jot down combine into powerful haiku poems. Again: do not self edit, simply record things as they occur.
• Lean into uncertainty. You don’t have to know what your own words mean. Many beautiful poems lean into the mystery of language and its countless possibilities.
• Imitate the classics. At least, to get a start in writing haiku poetry, spend some time observing the styles of other poets and trying to imitate them. You might learn how to observe and record the world simply by observing how other poets do it.
• Don’t be concerned with counting syllables. Yes, your poem should be concise and imagistic, and you don’t want to edit too much that you distort your naked thoughts. But, worrying about syllable count will only prevent you from jotting down your honest observations.
• Use representational, symbolic language. Good i magery can act as a symbol, allowing your poem to have multiple meanings. The haiku examples we use from Bashō are rife with symbolism and imagery, such as his poem which represents his friends as birds and fish.
• Use titles to clarify only when necessary. Generally, haiku poems don’t use titles. But, if your poem will make more sense to the reader with a brief, descriptive title, you can bend the rules a little and provide one. Only do this when the clarity is necessary—you might find that your poem benefits from leaning into mystery.

Let’s end with a prompt for writing a haiku, which comes to us from Allan Ginsberg. There are many other prompts for haiku poetry out there, but this one has a contemporary flair to it, and helps the poet rely on their own observations.

Line 1: What is your neurotic confusion? (Something that obsessively confuses you.)

Line 2: What do you really want or desire?

Line 3: What do you notice where you are now?

Here are some literary journals that frequently publish or specialize in haiku poetry.

• Haiku Journal ( link )
• 50 Haikus  ( link )
• Nick Virgilio Haiku Association ( link )
• Modern Haiku ( link )
• Wales Haiku Journal ( link )
• Haikuniverse ( link )
• Failed Haiku  (which publishes senryū) ( link )
• Acorn ( link )
• Frogpond ( link )

Learn More About Haiku Poems at Writers.com

Whether you take our mindfulness class, our workshop on haiku poems, or any of our other poetry writing classes , Writers.com will help you master the art of haiku. In the meantime, be present, draw upon natural observations, and accept your thoughts as they arise.

Many thanks to Marc Olmsted, Miho Kinnas, Richard Modianos, and Barbara Henning for their insights on the writing process.

Sean Glatch

Thank you Sean

Some of your tips helped my Students to produce more content than Students in my Class last year in the same Unit of Poetry and for World Poetry Day.

Thanks too for your technical support on the Writer’s.Com Courses I’ve taken.

My pleasure, Jen! I’m delighted to hear our poetry advice has helped your students write. Best feeling in the world!

I have loved haiku for many years. I really enjoyed this essay as it brings haiku into modern times and represents freedom from the old strict 5-7-5 syllable in english days. My suggestion to current writers is review, review, review! Eliminate any superfluous words, Pare down to the kernel of your intention. Don’t forget to try different line arrangements to help with the ‘aha’ moments. to write haiku, become haiku in your outlook on everything. Make haiku your record of lived experience, your diary in effect. Remember the power of haibun, study the masters, specially Basho, to see how they painted word pictures so beautifully finished with haiku. Haiku poetry is so much a part of my life that I can never forget it. It illuminates my vision and creates hope for a World so in need of healing.

Thank you for this piece Sean – an off the top of my head for an, I think, Senryu based on your “Lean into uncertainty” – ‘You don’t have to know what your own words mean’:

Therapists love this separated from yourself only one writer

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Writing a Haiku: Ideas, Format, and Process

Last Updated: June 24, 2024 Fact Checked

Brainstorming Ideas

Revising and polishing, template for a haiku poem.

This article was co-authored by Alicia Cook and by wikiHow staff writer, Jennifer Mueller, JD . Alicia Cook is a Professional Writer based in Newark, New Jersey. With over 12 years of experience, Alicia specializes in poetry and uses her platform to advocate for families affected by addiction and to fight for breaking the stigma against addiction and mental illness. She holds a BA in English and Journalism from Georgian Court University and an MBA from Saint Peter’s University. Alicia is a bestselling poet with Andrews McMeel Publishing and her work has been featured in numerous media outlets including the NY Post, CNN, USA Today, the HuffPost, the LA Times, American Songwriter Magazine, and Bustle. She was named by Teen Vogue as one of the 10 social media poets to know and her poetry mixtape, “Stuff I’ve Been Feeling Lately” was a finalist in the 2016 Goodreads Choice Awards. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 7,062,982 times.

If you like the idea of making a profound impact in just a few words, haiku might be the perfect poetry form for you. A haiku (俳句 pronounced similar to "high-koo") is a short, 17-syllable poem broken into 3 lines, meant to be read in a single breath. The most important thing about a haiku is that it captures and conveys a sensory image of a single moment in time, and in a well-written haiku, that image resonates on a deeper level, leaving the reader feeling enlightened and illuminated. [1] X Research source Read on to learn everything you need to know to write a powerful haiku poem of your own.

Haiku Format

• Haikus are made of 3 lines, 5 syllables in the first, 7 in the second, and 5 in the third.
• They contain a kireji , or cutting word, which separates the feeling of the poem into two parts, usually at the end of a line.
• Haikus don’t have to rhyme—instead they are supposed to paint a picture of a feeling or a season.

• Matsuo Basho
• Kobayashi Issa
• Winner and Runners-up of the Society of Classical Poets 2021 Haiku Competition

• For this to work, you need all of your senses present—don't take this walk while playing music through headphones. Take a notebook and a pen with you so you can write down your observations.
• You can also record your observations using the notes app on your smartphone. If you go that route, turn off notifications first so you don't have any distractions.
• Don't want to write about nature? That's technically a senryu , which follows the same basic structure, but is more about humanity than nature. [2] X Research source

• It can help to look at the big picture and then think of "zooming in" on a single thing and capturing every possible sensory detail associated with it. For example, you might be looking out at a forest and focus on a single leaf falling.

• For example, if it's fall, you might notice that the leaves are falling from the trees around you. Go smaller! A single leaf falling. A single leaf quivering on a branch before getting taken to the ground by a gust of wind.

• For example, if one of your moments is a single leaf falling, you might list words such as "brown," "crunchy," and "dry."
• Haiku poems aren't supposed to rhyme, so you don't have to worry about that as you're trying to think of words.

• For example, if it's currently fall, you might write down words such as "crisp," "cool," "harvest," and "dusk."

• For example, you might choose a leaf falling to the ground and a gust of wind as your 2 images.
• The second line of a haiku typically includes a "cutting word"—this is a Japanese concept that doesn't really exist in English, but you can think of this as a moment that pivots, or changes, your scene.

• For example, if your haiku is meditating on a single leaf falling to the ground, you might think about how beautiful the leaves are in the fall. They only get their colors because they're dying, though, and death is not something people normally consider beautiful. There's your surprise.
• You can also use wordplay to create your surprise. Throwing in a pun takes your poem beyond its literal meaning to surprise and amuse your readers. [9] X Research source
• Nothing in a haiku has to rhyme, but an unexpected rhyme could also fit the bill for the third line.

• In the first line, the leaf is still clinging to a branch of the tree. You might write, "Dry brown leaf quivers." That's 5 syllables, so there's your first line.
• The second line features the moment of the gust of wind, which also serves as your "cutting word." You might write, "A sudden gust of wind blows."
• Your third line surprises your reader by equating death with beauty. You might simply write, "Beauty in dying."

• What is this word showing my readers? Is there another word that would do a better job of showing the same thing?
• Are there any words that tell readers what to think or feel, rather than showing them? How can you show them the moment more directly?

• In the first line, the word "quivers" is really evocative, so you definitely want to keep that. "Dry" and "brown" aren't exactly inspired, though. Perhaps if you changed the order? "Brown leaf dry quivers" seems more interesting and poetic.
• The second line definitely has problems. "Gust of wind" is somewhat redundant, and "blows" seems totally unnecessary—what else does a gust of wind do, but blow? Try instead "A sudden gust; branches snap," which enables you to use the semi-colon as your "cutting word."
• The third line cleanly conveys your surprise, so you could leave it as it is.

• Other people often come up with things you wouldn't have thought of on your own. They can really inspire you and give you fresh insight into your poem.
• Feel free to revise your haiku even further based on the feedback you receive.

• Haiku traditionally don't have a title. You might add a short one for clarification, but it's usually not necessary and will only detract from the impact of your poem.
• To follow through with the example, the final haiku would be: brown leaf dry quivers a sudden gust; branches snap beauty in dying

Community Q&A

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Share a quick video tip and help bring articles to life with your friendly advice. Your insights could make a real difference and help millions of people!

• If you're writing a haiku for a class, try to stick closely to the 5-7-5 syllable format—your teacher will likely be pretty strict about that! But if you're just writing for yourself, don't worry about it too much. [14] X Research source Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0
• The plural of haiku is haiku —there's no need to add an "s" onto it if you're talking about more than one. Thanks Helpful 4 Not Helpful 0

Tips from our Readers

• While the haiku format that is most popular in the West is 5-7-5, haiku was actually written in a variety of meters, including 8-8-8 and versions that only use two lines.
• Try not to use similes in haikus (comparisons with the words “like” or “as”).

You Might Also Like

• ↑ https://poets.org/glossary/haiku
• ↑ https://ideas.ted.com/i-wrote-a-haiku-every-day-for-a-week-heres-what-i-learned/
• ↑ https://classicalpoets.org/2016/11/13/how-to-write-a-haiku-and-much-much-more/#/
• ↑ https://tricycle.org/article/haiku-tips/
• ↑ https://powerpoetry.org/actions/how-write-haiku-poem

About This Article

To write a haiku poem, write a poem that's 3 lines long and make sure each line has the right number of syllables. Give the first line 5 syllables, the second line 7 syllables, and the third line 5 syllables. Haikus are supposed to help people clearly visualize something, so use sensory details by describing how your subject feels, smells, tastes, looks, and sounds. Also, use the present tense when you're writing your haiku. For more information on how to brainstorm ideas for your haiku from our co-author with an MFA in Creative Writing, keep reading! Did this summary help you? Yes No

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Poetry Explained

How to Write a Haiku

Haiku is a form of traditional Japanese poetry that is known for its brevity and focus on capturing the essence of a moment or a feeling. Despite its simplicity, writing a haiku can be a challenging task.

Haiku has its roots in traditional Japanese poetry. The form was developed in the 17th century by the poet Matsuo Bashō , who is considered one of the greatest haiku poets of all time. At the time, haiku was known as hokku and was the opening stanza of a longer collaborative poem known as a renga .

A Brief History of Haiku

What is haiku, 1. choose a subject, 2. focus on a moment, 3. use sensory details, 4. stick to the syllable count, 5. use seasonal or nature imagery, 6. avoid rhyme and metaphors, example #1: everything i touch by kobayashi issa, example #2: after killing a spider by masaoka shiki, example #3: in the moonlight by yosa buson, haiku writing conclusion.

The first versions of haiku were written in the 13th century and were composed as the opening part of a renga or a poem that was read aloud. The opening “haiku” was only one small part of what was a very long poem. 

Haiku evolved to become a standalone form of poetry in the 19th century, thanks to the efforts of poets such as Masaoka Shiki, who introduced the term “haiku” and established the 5-7-5 syllable pattern that is still used today.

Haiku gained popularity in Japan and eventually spread to other parts of the world, including the United States, where it became popular in the mid-20th century as part of the Beat Generation literary movement .

Haiku is practiced by poets all over the world and has become a respected and valued form of poetry that is appreciated for its simplicity, focus on a single moment or feeling, and ability to capture the beauty of nature and the human experience.

Haiku is a form of poetry that consists of three lines with a syllable count of 5-7-5. The traditional subject of haiku is nature, but modern haiku can be written about any subject matter .

Haiku is often characterized by its simplicity, its focus on a single moment or feeling, and its use of seasonal or natural imagery .

The first step in writing a haiku is to choose a subject. As mentioned earlier, haiku traditionally focuses on nature, but you can choose any subject that inspires you. Some common subjects for haiku include animals, landscapes, seasons, and emotions. 

It’s helpful to consider what comes to mind about a particular place, season, or emotion. For example, if you want to write about fall, what comes to mind? Maybe colorful leaves, cooler weather, holidays, family, etc. 

Haiku is all about capturing a moment in time. Choose a specific moment or image you want to convey in your haiku. This could be as simple as a bird taking flight or a leaf falling from a tree.

The best haiku transport the reader, through only a few words, to a place or feeling. Basho is well-known for doing this. For example, in ‘ The old pond ’ he writes: 

The old pond;  A frog jumps in — The sound of the water. 

The reader is meant to imagine this short, beautiful moment. The elevated focus on this scene inspires an appreciation for the natural world and all its simple moments. 

In terms of the haiku 5-7-5 , the above haiku does not conform to this, as it was a translation from Japanese (so syllable count won’t be like-for-like).

To make your haiku come alive, use sensory details to describe the moment you’re trying to capture. Use vivid language to describe what you see, hear, smell, taste, and feel. 

This is seen through the poet’s use of phrases like “swaying gently / All day long,” as seen in ‘ Spring Ocean ’ by Yosa Buson , or “Fishes weep / With tearful eyes,” as seen in ‘The passing spring’ by Matsuo Bashō. 

The syllable count of a haiku is 5-7-5. This means that the first line should have five syllables, the second line should have seven syllables, and the third line should have five syllables. It’s important to stick to this structure to create a true haiku. 

When you read famous Japanese haiku, the translation usually eliminates the syllabic pattern. (Additionally, many early haiku did not use the syllabic pattern.) So, when looking for good examples of how the syllable pattern actually works, take a look at English-language haiku. For example, ‘The West Wind’ by R.M. Hansard: 

The west wind whispered, And touched the eyelids of spring: Her eyes, Primroses.

While modern haiku can be about any subject matter, traditional haiku often include seasonal or natural imagery. This helps to create a sense of time and place in the poem. Look for ways to incorporate seasonal or nature imagery into your haiku.

Haiku is a form of poetry that relies on simplicity and understatement . Avoid using rhyme or metaphors in your haiku, as this can detract from the poem’s focus on a single moment or feeling.

Examples of Haiku

To help you better understand how to write a haiku, here are some examples:

Everything I touch with tenderness, alas, pricks like a bramble.

In this haiku, the focus is on describing an effort to touch with tenderness. The attempts fail, and the touches keep prickling like “bramble[s].” This is a good example of how nature-related images can be used as symbols for something far deeper. 

After killing a spider, how lonely I feel in the cold of night!

This haiku captures a moment in time with the image of the spider and what happened after the speaker killed it. It was a simple choice that didn’t seem important at first. But, after the moment passes, it becomes clear that the poem is interested in the spider as a symbol . 

In pale moonlight~ the wisteria’s scent comes from far away.

This haiku captures the sound and scent of leaves and flowers at night, specifically the smell of wisteria as it wafts in. The use of the word “pale” paints a very clear picture of the night sky, even though the poem is so short. 

Writing a haiku may seem simple, but it can be a challenging task to create a truly effective and impactful one. However, by following the basic principles of haiku and keeping it simple, you can create a beautiful and meaningful poem that captures a moment in time.

Remember to choose a subject, focus on a moment, use sensory details, stick to the syllable count, use seasonal or natural imagery, and avoid rhyme and metaphors. By incorporating these elements into your haiku, you can create a poem that is both simple and powerful.

With practice and dedication, you can become a skilled haiku writer and explore the many possibilities of this beautiful and unique form of poetry.

The three traditional rules of haiku are: 1. The poem must consist of three lines. 2. The first and third lines must have five syllables, while the second line must have seven syllables. 3. The poem usually focuses on nature or the seasons and usually contains a “cutting word” that emphasizes a contrast or a change.

One of the most famous haiku poems was written by Matsuo Basho, a Japanese poet who lived in the 17th century. The poem is: “An old pond / A frog jumps in / The sound of water.”

Haiku does not need to rhyme . In fact, traditional Japanese haiku rarely use rhyme , as the focus is on the syllable count and the juxtaposition of images or ideas.

Yes, grammar does matter in haiku . While haiku is known for its brevity and simplicity, it still follows the rules of grammar and syntax in order to convey its meaning effectively.

Judging the quality of a haiku is subjective , as it depends on individual taste and the specific elements that one values in a poem. The best haiku follow the syllable pattern, focus on nature-related imagery (often connected to the seasons), and evoke some kind of emotion.

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What is a haiku?

What are haiku traditionally about, which notable poets wrote haiku.

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• Literary Devices - Haiku
• Association for Asian Studies - Transplanting the Haiku
• Academy of American Poets - Haiku: Poetic Form
• Art in Context - What is a Haiku? – The Art of Writing Japanese Haiku Poetry
• Academia - Haiku Poetry: An Introductory Study
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• haiku - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up)

The haiku is a Japanese poetic form that consists of three lines, with five syllables in the first line, seven in the second, and five in the third. The haiku developed from the hokku, the opening three lines of a longer poem known as a tanka. The haiku became a separate form of poetry in the 17th century.

Traditionally, writers of haiku have focused on expressing emotionally suggestive moments of insight into natural phenomena. This approach was solidified and popularized by the 17th-century poet Bashō , many of whose haiku reflected his own emotional state when communing with nature. After the 19th century, haiku subjects expanded beyond natural themes.

Influential haiku poets included Bashō , Buson , Issa , Masaoka Shiki , Takahama Kyoshi , and Kawahigashi Hekigotō . Bashō is usually credited as the most influential haiku poet and the writer who popularized the form in the 17th century. Outside Japan, Imagist writers such as Ezra Pound and T.E. Hulme wrote haiku in English.

When did the haiku become popular in the English-speaking world?

The haiku began gaining mainstream recognition outside Japan in the early 20th century. In the English-speaking world, the form was popularized by Imagists such as Ezra Pound and later by Beat poets such as Allen Ginsberg .

haiku , unrhymed poetic form consisting of 17 syllables arranged in three lines of 5, 7, and 5 syllables respectively. The haiku first emerged in Japanese literature during the 17th century, as a terse reaction to elaborate poetic traditions, though it did not become known by the name haiku until the 19th century.

The term haiku is derived from the first element of the word haikai (a humorous form of renga , or linked-verse poem) and the second element of the word hokku (the initial stanza of a renga ). The hokku, which set the tone of a renga , had to mention in its three lines such subjects as the season, time of day, and the dominant features of the landscape, making it almost an independent poem. The hokku (often interchangeably called haikai) became known as the haiku late in the 19th century, when it was entirely divested of its original function of opening a sequence of verse. Today the term haiku is used to describe all poems that use the three-line 17-syllable structure, even the earlier hokku.

Originally, the haiku form was restricted in subject matter to an objective description of nature suggestive of one of the seasons, evoking a definite, though unstated, emotional response. The form gained distinction early in the Tokugawa period (1603–1867) when the great master Bashō elevated the hokku to a highly refined and conscious art. He began writing what was considered this “new style” of poetry in the 1670s, while he was in Edo (now Tokyo). Among his earliest haiku is

On a withered branch A crow has alighted; Nightfall in autumn.

Bashō subsequently traveled throughout Japan , and his experiences became the subject of his verse. His haiku were accessible to a wide cross section of Japanese society, and these poems’ broad appeal helped to establish the form as the most popular form in Japanese poetry.

After Bashō, and particularly after the haiku’s revitalization in the 19th century, its range of subjects expanded beyond nature. But the haiku remained an art of expressing much and suggesting more in the fewest possible words. Other outstanding haiku masters were Buson in the 18th century, Issa in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, Masaoka Shiki in the later 19th century, and Takahama Kyoshi and Kawahigashi Hekigotō in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. At the turn of the 21st century there were said to be a million Japanese who composed haiku under the guidance of a teacher.

A poem written in the haiku form or a modification of it in a language other than Japanese is also called a haiku. In English the haiku composed by the Imagists were especially influential during the early 20th century. The form’s popularity beyond Japan expanded significantly after World War II , and today haiku are written in a wide range of languages.

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How to Write a Haiku: Format, Rules, Structure, and Examples

Hannah Yang

Table of Contents

What is a haiku, haiku format, syllables, and rules, examples of haiku, use prowritingaid’s word explorer to create your own haiku, conclusion on how to write a haiku.

Do you like poems? If you do, try a haiku. It’s a lovely form!

Haiku are short poems that follow a specific three-line format, where the first line has five syllables, the second line has seven syllables, and the last line has five syllables again—just like the first line.

Read on to learn what a haiku is and how you can write one of your own.

A haiku is a short, concise poem that consists of three lines. Traditionally, the first line has five syllables, the second line has seven, and the final line has five.

Each haiku is so short and succinct that you need to choose each syllable carefully. The art of haiku is all about expressing as much as possible in very few words.

This form of poetry originated in Japan. In its earliest form, it was known as hokku.

Japanese poets have been writing hokku for centuries, originally as parts of a longer collaborative poem known as a renga, which sometimes consisted of more than a hundred lines. Poets worked in groups of two or three to take turns composing three-line stanzas and two-line stanzas until they created a complete renga .

Around the 17th century, poets began writing short self-contained poems in the same form as the opening hokku of a renga. Late in the 19th century, renowned poet Masaoka Shiki renamed the stand-alone hokku to haiku .

Most traditional haiku describe a moment in time that captures the beauty or power of the natural world. Classic Japanese poets often used haiku to describe seasonal changes or other natural phenomena.

These days, people all over the world write haiku in various languages about countless different themes. Many poets even break the standard rules of how many syllables each line needs to have, choosing to adhere to the spirit of a haiku rather than the technical rules a haiku usually follows.

The traditional structure of an English haiku consists of three nonrhyming lines with the following syllable counts:

First line: five syllables

Second line: seven syllables

Third line: five syllables

That’s it! If you stick to these syllable counts, you’ll be writing a haiku in no time. The hard part is choosing words that fit perfectly into this format.

Another important decision involves choosing the subject of your haiku.

If you want to stick with the traditional version of haiku, you should describe a moment of time that’s related to the power of nature. Traditional Japanese haiku are supposed to include a kigo , which is a seasonal reference.

Many haiku also juxtapose two distinct images, such as a small cricket with a large mountain or a laughing child with a bitter storm.

Ultimately, you can also use the form to write about anything that resonates with you, the same way you would use any other poetic form. You can write a haiku about love, death, parenthood, corporate office culture, or any other theme you care about.

The rules of haiku format vary between languages, since each language has distinct grammar, punctuation, and formatting conventions. There are some aspects of Japanese haiku format that don’t apply to English haiku format.

For example, traditional Japanese haiku include at least one kireji , which means “cutting word.” The purpose of a kireji is to make a “cut” in a sentence, which cements the end of a stream of thought or creates a pause between two separate ideas.

There’s no exact equivalent to kireji in the English language, so the English haiku format doesn’t include this rule. If you want, you can try to replicate the effect of kireji by using a punctuation mark that creates a “cut” in a sentence, such as an exclamation point, an em dash, or an ellipsis.

The best way to learn poetry is by reading masterful haiku examples so you can learn from the greats.

Four of the greatest haiku masters of all time are Matsuo Bashō (1644–1694), Yosa Buson (1716–1784), Kobayashi Issa (1763–1828), and Masaoka Shiki (1867–1902).

Let’s look at a few examples of Japanese haiku written by these four masters.

“The Old Pond” by Matsuo Bashō

An old silent pond… A frog jumps into the pond— Splash! Silence again.

You can clearly see the contrasting images in this haiku by Matsuo Bashō, which describes a moment in nature. The pond in the poem is silent and still, while the frog is full of motion.  

These two images are separated by the kireji, which are represented in the English translation by the ellipsis and the em dash.

One common interpretation of this poem is that Bashō is using the pond as a metaphor for the human mind. External stimuli, like the frog, can momentarily disrupt a mind at rest, but soon, the mind returns to its original state.

Be confident about grammar

Check every email, essay, or story for grammar mistakes. Fix them before you press send.

“Calligraphy of Geese” by Yosa Buson

Calligraphy of geese against the sky— the moon seals it.

Yosa Buson was a painter as well as a poet. He often wrote poems that depicted striking visual imagery.

This poem paints a clear picture, showing geese flying on a moonlit night. The kireji , represented in English by an em dash, creates a pause in the poem that separates the “calligraphy” of the geese and the “seal” of the round moon.

“A World of Dew” by Kobayashi Issa

This world of dew, is a world of dew, and yet…and yet…

“A World of Dew” is one of Issa’s most famous poems. He wrote this poem a month after his young daughter passed away.

Dewdrops are often used in Japanese literature to represent the transience of human life, since dewdrops vanish when the sun comes up. With this simple poem, Issa creates a nuanced feeling about life and death using only a few words.

“Pain From Coughing” by Masaoka Shiki

Pain from coughing the long night's lamp flame small as a pea

Masaoka Shiki contracted tuberculosis in his twenties, which eventually took his life. He often wrote poems that depicted short sketches of his life, including poems that described his illness.

In this poem, you can see a moment in Shiki’s struggle with illness. His description of the dwindling lamp flame evokes the image of a light going out at the end of a life.

More recently, many haiku poets have also written modern haiku poems that are powerful and evocative.

Here are some examples of haiku written in English.

“In a Station of the Metro” by Ezra Pound

The apparition of these faces in the crowd; Petals on a wet, black bough.

Ezra Pound was an American poet and critic. His poem “In a Station of the Metro” is widely considered the first English haiku, even though it doesn’t follow the three-line structure of a standard haiku.

Like traditional haiku, this poem captures a single moment in time. It also juxtaposes two distinct images: human faces in a busy metro station and flower petals on a tree branch.

“The West Wind Whispered” by R.M. Hansard

The west wind whispered, And touched the eyelids of spring: Her eyes, Primroses.

This poem won the first British haiku competition in 1899.

It personifies the west wind, portraying it as something capable of whispering and touching. Hansard describes the arrival of spring in a way that gives nature agency.

“Picasso’s ‘Bust of Sylvette’” by Elizabeth Searle Lamb

Picasso’s “ Bust of Sylvette ” not knowing it is a new year smiles in the same old way

Elizabeth Searle Lamb was a 20th century poet. The prominent poet Father Raymond Roseliep called her “The First Lady of American Haiku.”

In this poem, she portrays the arrival of a new year by describing a sculpture that has smiled the same way across all the years because it’s carved in stone. The poem captures timelessness and change in a single stroke.

“Haiku [for you]” by Sonia Sanchez

love between us is speech and breath. loving you is a long river running.

Sonia Sanchez is an American poet, playwright, and professor who was a leading figure in the Black Arts Movement.

In this haiku, Sanchez compares love to speech, breath, and a long river running. All three of these things are natural and simple, which makes the love she describes feel just as instinctive and effortless.

Writing a haiku is all about choosing the right words to express exactly what you mean.

ProWritingAid’s Word Explorer gives you a wealth of words to choose from. It gives you all the word options a dictionary or thesaurus would, along with plenty of other insights into that word.

The tool can let you look at a word based on alliteration, rhyme, pronunciations, common phrases, collocations, and more. It’s a great way to make sure each of the words you choose is perfect in as many ways as possible.

So, if you’re trying to write a haiku and you can’t think of a word with the right syllable count for that line, try the Word Explorer to find a perfect replacement.

There you have it—a complete guide to how haiku poetry works and how you can write a haiku poem of your own.

Good luck, and happy writing!

Hannah is a speculative fiction writer who loves all things strange and surreal. She holds a BA from Yale University and lives in Colorado. When she’s not busy writing, you can find her painting watercolors, playing her ukulele, or hiking in the Rockies. Follow her work on hannahyang.com or on Twitter at @hannahxyang.

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How To Write Haiku Poems With Examples

• by Domestika @domestika

Explore the art of haiku poetry: Discover its history, unique format, and immerse yourself in examples from renowned poets.

Haiku poems have persisted for centuries, capturing the essence of brief moments in nature. In this article, you will learn what a haiku is, what its format is and some examples. Let's take a look!

What is a Haiku?

What is the format of a haiku poem.

Steps on how to write a Haiku poem

1. Choose a subject: A good starting point is to pick a subject that inspires you. Nature, emotions, and everyday experiences can form the foundation of your poem.

2. Focus on a moment: These poems usually capture a specific moment or feeling. Try to convey the essence of that moment without any unnecessary details or explanations.

3. Use sensory details: Engage your readers' senses by incorporating vivid and descriptive language. Haikus often emphasize imagery, which helps paint a picture in the reader's mind.

4. Stick to the syllable count: Its structure follows a 5-7-5 syllable pattern, with five syllables in the first line, seven in the second, and five in the third. Although this rule is not always strictly followed, adhering to it can provide structure and ensure the poem is concise.

5. Use seasonal or nature imagery: In many classic haikus, the poet references nature or the seasons to set the scene and evoke emotions. This can help enhance the poem's imagery and establish a connection with the reader.

6. Avoid rhyme and metaphors: It's often best to avoid using rhyming schemes or overusing metaphors. This keeps the poem direct and unadorned, allowing the vivid imagery to shine through.

Examples of Haiku

Haiku poems about love Haiku poems about love offer a unique perspective on the theme, capturing moments of romance and connection within the brevity of the three-line format. Let's take a look at these two examples from Japanese poet, Bashō

1. Love Haiku poem by Bashō Easing in her slender forearm for his pillow

This haiku captures a fleeting moment of tenderness and intimacy between two lovers. The simplicity of the act – using one's arm as a pillow – is a testament to their deep connection.

2. Another love haiku poem by Bashō Leaf-wrapping the rice cakes, with one hand she tucks back her hair.

Bashō's haiku captures a fleeting, intimate moment in everyday life: a woman wrapping rice cakes in leaves. The delicate gesture hint at the deeper emotional connections and the profound beauty in the small, shared experiences that often define relationships.

Haiku poems about nature Haiku poems about nature beautifully capture fleeting moments in the natural world, using vivid imagery to evoke emotions and sensations.

1. Nature Haiku poem by Bashō: Old pond... A frog jumps in: The sound of water.

This simple yet powerful haiku encapsulates the essence of a brief moment in time. The image of a frog jumping into an old pond creates a sense of movement and vitality, while the sound of water resonates with the reader, transporting them to the scene.

2. Nature Haiku poem by Masaoka Shiki: Repeatedly, How is the snow depth? I asked.

Shiki's haiku reflects anticipation and curiosity about snow's depth, suggesting deep engagement and possibly eagerness for environmental change. Both Bashō and Shiki emphasize the brevity of life and the appreciation of simple, fleeting moments in nature.

Haiku poems about life They offer a glimpse into the beauty and complexities of the human experience, connecting us with our surroundings and the natural world.

1. Haiku poem about life: Anonymous Life’s a mystery We search for answers every day Few are ever found

The haiku talks about how life is mysterious and even though we always look for answers, we rarely find them.

2. Haiku poem about life: Anonymous Life is a journey A story only you can write Make your own destiny

The haiku says that everyone's life is their own unique journey. It tells us to take control, make our own choices, and not let others decide our path. The poem encourages us to be independent and shape our own destiny. In just a few lines, haiku poems about life capture the essence of existence, offering insight into the human condition and encouraging us to cherish each passing moment.

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How to Write a Haiku Poem

by Pamela Hodges | 61 comments

Haiku are a type of traditional Japanese poetry. Only three lines long, haiku are fun to write and share. Let's find out what a haiku poem is and what we need to write our own!

Definition: What Is a Traditional Haiku Poem?

Haiku originated in Japan and as a poetic form, they are arranged in three lines, each line with a specific number of syllables. Here are the elements you need for a traditional haiku:

• Three lines that don't rhyme, with seventeen syllables in a 5-7-5 pattern. Five syllables in the first and third line, and seven syllables in the second line.
• Each haiku “must contain a kigo . A word that indicates the season in which the poem is set,” according to the World Book Encyclopedia, page eight, volume nine, between the words Douglas Haig and Hail, and according to Japanese Haiku tradition. The word that indicates season can be obvious, like “ice” to indicate winter. Or it can be more subtle, like using the expression “fragrant blossom” to indicate spring.
• The words and expressions in the poem are usually simple and deal with everyday situations, usually capturing a moment in time, often in nature.
• Usually, the haiku form does not contain metaphors and similes.

Subject matter: Haikus Are About a Single Moment

“Haiku explores a single moment's precise perception and resinous depths.” — Jane Hirshfield, The Heart of Haiku

Matsuo Bashō, a popular Japanese poet, composed this poem in the late 1600's.

furuike ya kawazu tobikomu mizu no oto

In English:

old pond: frog leaps in the sound of water

The English version doesn't follow the syllabic pattern due to translation differences, but you can see all the other elements of haiku in play. It's arranged in three lines with the traditional number of syllables in each. Its subject matter is the small splash a frog makes leaping into an old pond.

Why focus on a single moment?

Good question. Haiku invite us to slow down as readers and experience a single moment, to pay attention . And isn't that part of what fuels great writing?

Let's turn again to Japanese poet Bashō to show us how to write a haiku poem.

Jane Hirshfield explains in her book, The Heart of Haiku , how Bashō encourages us to see for ourselves and hear for ourselves, and if we enter deeply enough this seeing and hearing, all things will speak with and through us.

“To learn about the pine tree go to the pine tree; to learn from the bamboo, study bamboo.” — Matsu Bashō , Jane Hirshfield, The Heart of Haiku

Using the four guidelines mentioned above, think of an everyday situation, feeling, or a precious moment, such as a blade of grass, a sink full of dirty dishes in the spring, a warm cat, or the sound of snow falling.

If your haiku poem is about something that has happened in your past, if you are remembering a snowfall from last winter, then sit in a quiet spot and go to the memory in your mind.

Use all of your senses. Think of what you heard, felt, tasted, smelled and saw. Let us live the moment with you through distinct images.

If your haiku is about a blade of grass, as Bashō said, go to the grass. Yes, that's right. Go outside right now and lay down in the grass and let the single blade of grass speak through you. Study the grass.

If you are writing about a warm cat, go to the cat and study the cat. Study the sink full of dirty dishes while you wash them. To learn about snow go to the snow.

Ready to Write Your Haiku?

Now that you've tried to immerse yourself in an experience to use for your inspiration, pick out some words that describe the sensations you felt. Remember to choose precise words that capture the moment. Arrange them into three lines and count out those syllables for each.

If you are not sure how many syllables are in a word, you can check out your word on  Mirriam-Webster , an on-line dictionary.

You might find that the practice of writing haiku is meditative and a little addicting. It's great practice for using language to show but not tell. The art of haiku is a perfect way to practice creating strong images that will benefit your other forms of writing as well.

I hope you'll give it a try today!

Do you have a favorite haiku? Have any tricks you use to write them? Share in the comments .  

Practice staring at a blade of grass for fifteen minutes . No, I have a better idea. Come and help me wash my dishes. We can both write about washing dishes.

Okay, seriously now. Please write your thoughts down about something you see in your everyday world or focus on nature, and then try to fit it to the five-seven-five pattern.

Write a haiku poem and share it with us in the practice box below. Then comment on someone else's work. I hope you enjoy this old form in new ways!

Pamela Hodges

Pamela writes stories about art and creativity to help you become the artist you were meant to be. She would love to meet you at pamelahodges.com .

61 Comments

Am I missing something or does the sample not follow the syllable rule?

Hello Concordriverlady,

The Japanese language does not have syllables like English does. So their words don’t translate into our English syllables. The center line, “kaqaza tobikama” has seven sounds, seven individual sounds – ka-ga-za – to-bi-ka-ma. But, when you translate it into english, you don’t get seven syllables. Thank you for pointing out the syllable variable in the example. xo Pamela

For those serious about a study of haiku, Harold G. Henderson’s An Introduction to Haiku (1958) is perhaps the definitive little tome. For each haiku, he gives you the lines in Romaji (phonetically spelling out the words as they sound in Japanese but using the alphabet) and English translations. It is fascinating to see how Japanese syntax and thus the emphasis they place on the elements of the poem are different from English. Pamela, your transcription of Basho’s haiku in Japanese does not reflect the correct translation of the individual words in English. Henderson’s rendering of the poem is as follows: Furuike ya / kawazu tobi-komu/ mizu-no-oto…This is the standard translation and conforms perfectly to the form here. Thanks for your post!

Thank you Jeanne, I corrected the spelling of the Haiku by Matsuo Bashō. Thank you for pointing it out. The book you suggested sounds great. I will have to check it out. There is so much more to this art form I would love to learn. xo Pamela

the syllable count in the 5-7-5 format is old and distorted information and not a true rule. Haiku experts around the world debunk this all the time- see http://www.nahaiwrimo.com/home/why-no-5-7-5 great description of the art form! But the syllable rule was taught that way in USA schools for decades so it has deep hold as fact, but its really innacurate. There are many various forms of haiku but all with similar components, and though it can be fun and informative to writing discipline to limit ones writing to a a certain # of syllables or characters (as in Tweets), it is not an imperative of haiku at all. The more important elements are the seasons, the objects of the senses, the perceptions of a moment in time, all in few words and lines, and what i think is the most difficult aspect, and the kicker as I like to call it or kirejji/ “cutting” word that cuts the poem, turns it subtly to a previously unseen or unexpected perspective.

Great link Sheila. You are so right that the focus should not be on the strict syllabic count but the elements referenced in the linked post. Though I personally like the challenge of that stricture 🙂

Hello Sheila B, Thank you for the link to the article about the 5-7-5 rule. There is so much to learn about this art form. Thank you for sharing your knowledge about haiku. I want to learn more about haiku, especially the element of the cutting word. All my best, xo Pamela

The tree wears white lace Each branch and twig atwinkle First frost in new morn

Hello Jay, Thank you for writing a haiku. 🙂 The frost and the white lace are very vivid images. xo Pamela

thanks Pamela, I took your advice and went outside. The frost on the tree was very striking to me.

Wow, is that beautiful imagery.

thank you, Katherine.

Sunset reflects light Off the fresh fallen snow drifts Sinks and all is black

Hello Katherine Rebekah, Your first two lines created a strong feeling of light, reflection, fresh fallen, and then the word fallen lead to sinking and black. A strong powerful contrast. Thank you sharing your writing. xo Pamela

I’m glad you liked it. Always happy to share. 🙂

My first time commenting here! This was a great prompt for me as I am trying to write a poem every day so it fit into my established routine, besides I love haiku even though I don’t have much practice with them!

Such a lot of noise Galahs tumbling through open air Before midday heat

That one is outside my window this morning. This one reuses the first line,

Such a lot of noise So much fuss about what she’s done Chicken has laid an egg

Thanks so much for a great prompt and article! 🙂

Hello Zuop, Thank you for sharing your writing, and for being brave to make your first comment. How is your daily poetry writing habit going? Your poetry created strong feelings of nature, (and a noisy chicken.) xo Pamela

Hey Pamela, thanks! I am very inspired by nature because I live in a rural area. Yes it’s going pretty well so far, it’s good to get in a habit of writing something every day 🙂 I really enjoyed your article too, love your writing style 🙂

As colored leaves fall Blending with gentle breezes Harmonies of life

I like this, felicia_d. I wanted to write about autumn leaves but wrote about my cat instead.

Hello felica_d Your leaves felt like they were really falling, as though I was there, feeling the gentle breeze. It brought back memories of being beneath a giant Maple tree in the fall in Minnesota. Thank you, xo Pamela

Thanks, Pamela!

Seed awaits heaven’s breath immanent I am

Wrote this ignorant of Haiku structure so not following the 3 line structure or syllabic rules more 1, 2, 3, 3, 2

Hello Masterman, Your poem has a pattern that is very gentle, thank you for showing the structure you used. The seed felt very real. xo Pamela

My foot squinched a bug Flat, wet, two-dimensional. Candle drew it in.

Very expressive, Winnie. I can feel the bug underfoot.

Really like your haiku. But I believe the first line has 6 syllables–that is, if squinched has 2

My squinched has only one. I imagine Shakespeare would have made it two.

pretty good 🙂

Hello Winniw, Oh dear, the thought of stepping on a bug, really made the poem feel real. The words, flat and wet. The candle drew me in too. xo Pamela

This is quite new to me and I don’t know if I’ve got it right. You be the judge.

My cat purrs softly Curled on the Persian rug Winter’s at the door.

Sure seems to have the right number of syllables. Your haiku evokes a really sweet image.

Thanks, Louise.

Hello Lillian, Thank you for trying a new form of writing. Your haiku is hi-cool. The words create such a warm atmosphere. softly curled and the last sentence is such a contrast. It words very well. And the cat is on a Persian rug, not a tile floor, it make the room feel warmer. xo Pamela

Hello Pam, You are sensitive and observant to note the difference from a Persian rug and tile floor. Actually, your words did the trick! You asked us to connect physically with something to create the verse and I did just that. Please hug Harper for me and for Minnie, too. Lilian

I love this!

Thanks, Haylee. 🙂

crisp fog stains twilight breath afloat on morning air promise for new day

oh david, i won’t capitalize anything here too or use punctuation the words took on the shape of the fog without capital letters these words really created the mood crisp stains breath afloat and promise helped me get out of the fog it is sort of like the fog would be real in the air but also the fog of depression that is how it spoke to me xo pamela

Darkness falls Light awaits Ocean of people living in routine

Hello Crystal Johnson, Oh my, an ocean of people living in routine. I felt the monotony of people living in routine, day after day. Dark then light, dark then light. Makes me want to climb out of the ocean. xo Pamela

That was awesome, I need to practice more. I feel the wrong element of people in my life and I need to let go of, but it seems that element won’t let go of me.

Leaves scatter around Sky full of brittle gold birds The cold cuts my face

Really like ‘The cold cuts my face’

Me too Louise Rita, The cold cuts my face, is such a strong image. And “brittle” gold birds, with the word cuts, makes me think the birds might break apart in the cold. Very strong images. I felt cold after I read it. xo Pamela

Outline so simple 5 Evokes painful memories 7 Makes it hard to write 5

Hello Louise Rita, Oh dear, I am sorry about the painful memories. I felt them too. In your three lines, you expressed your pain. Perhaps it was the word, “evokes.: And in the hard writing you still wrote. xo Pamela

Yes. I live in the macalester Groveland area of St. Paul.

I posted this yesterday on my Facebook page (Mike Schoenberg). Please visit:for more haiku.

Gutter full rainfall, autumn monsoon thunderstorm in the dark of night.

Hello St.Paul Mike, Does this mean you live in St. Paul, Minnesota? We use to live there, on the East Side, close to Payne Avenue, Gutter full, expresses heavy rain so well. A small glimpse of a storm moment. xo Pamela

I live in the Macalester – Groveland area. Thanks for the comment.

Laying on the ground Sun shining on snow and ice I feel the murmer

Hello Vanessa, Laying on the ground, you became one with the snow and ice. You felt the murmer, and I did too. xo Pamela

Thanks! It’s been fun, I am going through back injections so spending a lot of time on the ground, but I seem to be coming up with Haiku’s through the day and all inspired by you 🙂 I did not spend much time on my Haiku it was just a fun exercise, but I like it better written On the ground laying Snow and Ice the sun shining I feel the murmur…..Thanks again for the prompt!

Hello LaCresha Lawson, Please share your son’s work. It would be a pleasure to read their writing. xo Pamela

I sure will. Thank you.☺

November 15, 2015

Luke Ramirez, 13

My son’s Haiku Poem

For the Write Practice

LaCresha Lawson

Sitting on my bed

Wondering when I got it,

remembering now.

Writing Haiku past midnight is an exercise in futility

Window veiled in frost Inside they smile and fire burns Yet I am outside

Laura, this is fabulous. What a vivid picture your words evoke.

Hi Pamela, I’m very late with my comment on this post. Nanowrimo has turned my schedule upside down. 🙂

Actually there often is a metaphor in haiku, but it tends to be understood by the original writers because they used words with a double meaning, such as “scarecrow” which tended to stand for “old man” or “old age.” Consider that as you read this verse: scarecrows are the first heroes to fall in the rush of the autumn wind Kyoroku

Chrysanthemums and cherry blossoms likewise say something to the Japanese that they don’t say to us, giving a verse like this meaning we wouldn’t as soon catch: even stones in streams of mountain water compose songs to wild cherries Onitsuba

I see there’s often a hidden implication in the verse. For example you fleas seem to find the night as long as I do are you lonely, too Issa One can picture both the poet’s loneliness (his wife died young); that loneliness, as well as the fleas, tormented him all night.

I’ve tried my hand at haiku as well. Here’s one of my best liked verses: roadside sunflowers faces turned from the rude wind looking for summer

And my scarecrow one, complaining about my own achy old age: 🙂 this sorry scarecrow grown stiff in autumn’s frosts sighs for the tasseling corn

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• Poetry Contests

How to Write a Haiku

A quick haiku guide  , a traditional haiku should….

1. Be three lines. The first line should have five syllables, the second seven syllables, the third five syllables. Seventeen syllables total.

2. Contain a nature or seasonal reference: the crumbling leaves, the cold air, the smell of manure, the taste of fresh black berries, the cicadas’ buzzing.

3. Be in the present tense (swims rather than swam).

4. Be subtle and observational.

5. Contain some sort of twist in the third line: a shift in perspective or mood, a surprise, a new interpretation of the first or second line.

6. Not worry about rhyming, although it can be a bonus.

An In-depth Haiku Guide

by G. M. H. Thompson

The Japanese-inspired haiku is perhaps the most well-known and often used form of poetry today. Schoolchildren the English-speaking-world over know that a haiku is five syllables in the first line followed by seven syllables in the second line followed by a final five syllables in the third and final line. It’s as simple as counting, right? Well, if that was right, this essay would end right here.

For, although the haiku is perhaps the most well-known form of poetry, it is also probably the least well-understood. The contents of a legitimate and interesting haiku must do about five different things all at once in a very tight space.

Perhaps it will be easiest to start out with what a haiku is not. Many English-speaking would-be haiku poets concentrate solely on the 5-7-5 syllable count and the fact that what they are writing is a haiku, ever so often chucking in superficial Japan-esque imagery, such as lanterns, cherry blossoms, willow trees, Mt. Fuji, or anything out of Cowboy Bebop or Miyazaki (and that’s if you’re lucky—if you’re unlucky, it’s from Dragon Ball Z, Full Metal Alchemist, or Yu-Gi-Oh!). This leads to glib, epigramic syllabic poems that go something like this:

A Bad Haiku                                        

Archipelago: There are perhaps a million Haiku with that word

What makes a good haiku? Fundamentally, the art of haiku is the art of saying by not saying but by suggesting allusively.

1. Firstly, the haiku is a statement on humanity’s relationship with nature.

The master haiku poet Bashō (1644-1694) wrote this often repeated haiku:

At the ancient pond, A frog leaps and plunges in The sound of water

Here the poem is ostensibly about a frog but this all changes with “the sound of water” since it is something perceived presumably by the poet. Thus, the connection or relationship may be very subtle. Here is a haiku I wrote:

Water lilies bloom Beside a crystal fountain In the Sultan’s court

If the poem were about lilies alone it would not be a haiku. The relationship comes alive through the Sultan, although he may not necessarily be there, and the fact that this is a harem and the lilies may not be lilies at all but beautiful women devoted to the Sultan.

2. The second vital element of haiku is that it be in the present ,

which is to say, each haiku is focused on a moment and the moment, like a very short film. This can at times be hard to convey or pick up on as a reader, but it helps to write in the present tense exclusively and to focus on action with things doing things. Using gerunds (-ing words) is also pretty handy with grounding the poem in the present. Another Bashō poem that would clearly be less effective if the first line said flew:

A flash of lightning The screech of a night heron Flying in darkness

The lightning’s menace is elegantly complemented by the night heron’s plight in the darkly storm to create a mood of lost hopelessness, perhaps reflecting the poet’s psychological state at the precise moment of the haiku’s composition, which appears to be quite desperate.

3. The third key thing a haiku must do is twist in the third line :

traditional Japanese poetry does this through the use of a “ cutting word .” Unfortunately, there is no real equivalent for that in the way the English language works. The closest parallel to this twist in other forms of English poetics is the final two lines of a Shakespearean sonnet, or the final couplet of an Elizabethan soliloquy. The cut creates a curious and very non-Western disruption, or twist, to the flow of idea developed so far in the poem, yet one that forms a new flow of the idea. Observe the below Bashō haiku, his death poem:

Sick on my journey Only my dreams will wander The desolate moors

Here, we do not know if it is the traveler on the desolate moors or the dreams somehow on them, or both on them. The third line disrupts the traditional Western disconnection between mind and matter. This is my haiku:

ebony & gold newsprung flowers kissed to life: the earth reborn sweet

In the final line, we see that the earth is in fact alive and the perspective has gone from tiny, to normal, to large beyond our view.

4. The fourth tenant of haiku is image. Specifically, two images.

That is the ideal number of images a haiku should have—with only one image, there is little room for action and little room for change; with more than two images, things often get said that don’t need to be said and the haiku quickly becomes slack and lost within itself. Juxtaposing two images with a colon, dash, or comma, without doing anything else, can be enough to make a great haiku. See this example by Haiku master Yosa Buson (1716-1783):

A pear flower blooms, A woman reads a letter— Beneath the moon’s light

The tight juxtaposition of the images of the pear flower blossoming and the woman reading a (probably amorous) letter beneath the moonlight suggests that there is some deep, mysterious, almost mythical connection between them.

5. The fifth element of a traditional, proper haiku is the seasonal word .

This can be as obvious as “spring,” “autumnal,” or “March,” but it can also be a lot more subtle and interesting. For instance, mentioning plum blossoms is a reference to very early spring/very late winter (depending on where one is in Japan). Mentioning the cuckoo’s song alludes to summer and also to death, as another baby bird has to die for a cuckoo to survive and thus sing. The cicada also refers to summer. There are many other veiled seasonal references like that, many of which I do not actually have knowledge of, but nonetheless, here is an example of a Buson haiku with a seasonal word:

The white plum blossoms Almost through yesterday’s night A new day coming

Here, the white plum blossoms refer to early spring/late winter and the poem itself is about the changing of one year into the next, the image of yesterday’s residual darkness turning into the new day’s nascent light serving as a metaphor for this transformation. On a deeper and more important level, this poem is about passing from the world of the living, “yesterday’s night,” into some world beyond, “a new day coming,” as it is Buson’s death poem, that is, his last poem before he died.

Regarding rhyming, traditional Japanese haiku is unrhymed because every Japanese word ends in a vowel sounds, so there are really only about six rhymes in the entire language, effectively ruling rhyming right out as being almost comically simple and stupid (the opposite of English’s rhyming troubles, funnily). That being said, there is no real reason why haiku should not rhyme in English. Here is my rhymed haiku:

who knows and who cares & who goes where roses wear the pale face of death

Here, the rhyme serves to link the first two lines, and the third line is nicely set apart from them by its lack of rhyme, this absence in and of itself serving as the haiku’s twist or “cutting word”. If all three lines rhymed (a tempting choice, admittedly, but one that is best avoided), this haiku would not succeed in what little way it does.

A Final Note Regarding Inspiration

Regarding how to obtain the tangible inspiration necessary to actually sit down and write a haiku, it is best to focus on specific moments of nature observed personally by the haiku-poet, and to think about how these instances were moments of transformation or change or revelation. For while haiku can be constructed using the imagination, it is far easier to rely upon lived experience. Let reality and memory do the work and don’t feel beat up if it’s difficult to dream up great haiku using pure imagination (it is tremendously difficult to do that). Go to a park, or to the zoo, or to a nature preserve, or to a forest, or to a jungle, or to an aquarium, and notice. Notice and notice more wherever you go and wherever you are and whatever you are doing, for it is observation above all else that will lead to writing good haiku. And notice the little things, for those are the things that no one seems to notice, and those are also the things whose noticings often make the best haiku.

The History of Haiku

The composition of poetry in Japan in several different forms constructed of lines five and seven syllables in length has occurred since at least the eighth century A.D., and probably long before that; that date simply being the century in which the first book of Japanese poems was composed. From at least this time, such poetry was pursued by members of every island in the archipelago of Japanese society, no matter how low or high, although the considerably greater amount of free time and education the nobility possessed has always led to an over-representation of their social order within the ocean that is Japanese verse.  Note that although Japanese does not technically have “syllables” like English does, it can be said to have de facto syllables, provided, of course, that one is not a slave to pedantry. One of these forms was the tanka , a form that can be thought of as a tercet (three lines) of five-seven-five syllables followed by what can be thought of as a couplet (two lines) of seven-seven syllables. (Traditional Japanese poetry does not use line breaks as a strong, active element of poetic structure as traditional European poetry does, but it is best to think of things as they have been stated outside this parenthesis.) Additionally, Japanese is not a language of stresses as is English or German, nor does it have any equivalents thereof such as the longs and shorts of Latin and Greek. Every syllable is given nearly equal weight when pronounced in Japanese, like in French, so traditional Japanese poetry is strictly, and it really is very strict on this its only metrical point, syllabic.

Another of these five-seven forms was what would come to be called renga , which is best to think of as a series of tanka stacked on top of one another. Note that the plural of renga is renga; the plural of tanka is tanka; the plural of haiku is haiku, and so forth. Formally, renga go  5-7-5  7-7  5-7-5  7-7  5-7-5  7-7 . . . , ending on a couplet traditionally. The renga is a collaborative poem that by the seventeenth century had established itself as the dominant long-form of poetic expression in the Japanese literary tradition. One poet would begin a renga with a hokku , which is a tercet of five syllables followed by seven syllables followed by five syllables (coincidence—I think not!). Another poet would add to this a couplet of seven syllables followed by seven syllables. Then, a third poet would add a tercet structurally identical to the first stanza (i.e. 5-7-5), but the key here was that the poem formed by the hokku and the couplet alone had to be different in content and character than the poem formed by the couplet and the third stanza when looked at alone. In other words, the third stanza introduced a curious and very non-Western disruption, or twist, to the flow of idea developed so far in the poem, yet one that formed a new flow of the idea with the second stanza when considered without the first hokku. A couplet structurally identical to the second stanza was then added, often by yet another poet, and like the third stanza, this fourth stanza had to disrupt the flow of idea by forming a new flow of idea with the third stanza that was different than the flow of idea between the third and second stanzas, or the flow of idea between the second and first stanzas. This often went on for exactly 36 stanzas (forming a kasan ), and there were many rules as to the content that the participants were to write. The themes were almost invariably humanity’s relationship with nature or humanity’s relationship with humanity, the same two themes of traditional haiku, and similarly, seasonal imagery was employed heavily.

Yet, by far the most vital element of the renga was the hokku, the opening tercet of 5-7-5, as this set the overall tone and mood of the entire series. Owing to this special status, poets would study and practice the construction of hokku with especial fervor and concentration. Groups of hokku began, by the mid-seventeenth century, to be collected and displayed independent of the renga that spawned them, and the acclaimed Japanese poet Bashō (1644-1694) interspersed hokku in his prose travel journals, inventing a new form of prose-poetry: the haibun . Later, as you might have guessed, the hokku was renamed haiku. Thus concludes a not so short synopsis of the history of haiku.

Haiku Published by the Society of Classical Poets:

Fall Haiku by Reid McGrath Haiku by Ibe Ware Desu, LC Haiku on the Persecution of Falun Gong Spring Haiku by Reid McGrath

G. M. H. Thompson’s publication credits: Scifaikuest ,  Shemom ,  Bear Creek Haiku ,  Haikuist ,  Anti-Heroin Chic  (formerly  Heroin Chic ),  Old Red Kimono ,  Road Not Taken: The Journal of Formal Poetry. Let Us Go , a poem by G. M. H. Thompson, won the  Winter 2016 Heart & Mind Zine Judge’s Choice award in the category of poetry.   Four of G. M. H. Thompson’s as-yet-unpublished poems will appear in the forthcoming 2016 anthology of Scurfpea Publishing .

NOTE TO READERS: If you enjoyed this poem or other content, please consider making a donation to the Society of Classical Poets.

The Society of Classical Poets does not endorse any views expressed in individual poems or commentary.

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12 Responses

Thank you for this, G.M.H. Thompson. Might you like to visit “The Haiku Room” on Facebook? I’d be curious to hear what you think of it.

Thank you for your kind words, Poet Boquet. And I report my impressions of “The Haiku Room”, but it is a closed group so I had to request to become a part of it before I see anything about it, and that request is pending as of yet.

Oh, so sorry, that’s supposed to read, “And I would report my impressions of . . . “

I will message them with your name, with pleasure.

Oh, sorry, my Facebook name is Hidalgo Huellah.

As it turns out, I can add you via Facebook. Omdid not, however, find a G.M.H Thompson….

G. M. H. Thompson,

You have written a nice essay on haiku (and more). I like that you included present tense as one of the important components of a haiku. As you pointed out with your examples, Bashō was a master of the haiku (then colled hokku). And though he thought many wrote haiku as well as he did, and felt that he was at his best in renga (renku), I have felt for some time that, after him, the quality of the haiku dropped in figures, such as Buson, Issa, and Shiki; however, I can think of hardly one English-language haiku that has stirred me as much as those many authored haiku from the late 17th century through the 19th century. I know Postmodernist American poets, like Rexroth, Wilbur, and Snyder, have been influenced by haiku, but they have left no single haiku that has touched me; nor I daresay has any other English-language poet. The only reason I even dare indulge in haiku, like the following:

A paper kite dips in a sunlit, steamy pond: the teabag simmers.

is that it is good practice in microscopic writing. I also like the oddness in its structure (3-5-7), a rarety in the English tradition.

I remember when I was younger, being thrilled to such haiku, as the following by Bashō:

Shizukasa | ya | iwa | ni | shimi iru | semi-no-koe Stillness | : | rocks | to | pierce-in | cicadas-voices

Yagate | shinu | keshiki | wa | mie-zu | semi no koe Soon | die | indication | as-for | appear-not | cicadas-voices

Blyth puts it prosaically as, “‘Nothing intimates, in the voice of the cicada, how soon it will die,’ and goes on to say, it can be taken in two ways. First, there is the nothing in the singing of the cicada which shows that it will not sing forever. Its singing quality of ‘pure present’, the eternal now. Second, the cicada sings oblivious of and indifferent to its approaching death. It sings without fear or hope, without rhyme or reason; it sings because it sings.”

Can you think of an English-language haiku, whose poetic force has been an inspiration to you?

And I especially liked that haiku you included in your comment:

It took me a while to realize that a paper kite is a kind of butterfly (I’m assuming that is the intended meaning, not a human-manufactured toy sort of paper kite, as the butterfly serves as both a season word and a nature image, and allows the haiku to make sense), which is why I did not comment on it in the original reply to your comment (that paper kite means a kind of butterfly should perhaps be footnoted– I would not at all be surprised if others were as unfamiliar with types of butterflies as I am). Did you write that haiku? It’s very beautiful.

Also, for some reason spaces don’t register in the comments, so the Pound haiku came out all rushed and unaesthetic. I will attempt to use underscores to show how Mr. Pound intended to use blank spaces in that poem (it is often printed incorrectly without these very important blank spaces in anthologies):

In a Station of the Metro

The apparition of these faces____in the crowd____: Petals____on a wet, black____bough____.

Seleucid Web Ra, Thank you for your kind words and for your cogent analysis. And thank you for the translations of haiku; they were very nice and it’s always fascinating to look at the original (phonetically spelled with Latin characters) text. You raise many points that I agree with, some of which I wanted to address in the article itself (but opted not to as it was intended as an introductory guide, so some of the finer points had to be sacrificed in the interest of clarity). To wit, haiku do not actually have to be written in the 5-7-5 straightjacket most people think of when they think “Haiku”. In Japanese haiku tradition, there is a sub-form called “Hachou”, or ‘Broken Rhythm’, that uses irregular counts like 3-7-5, 6-8-7, etc. Here is an example of that in Japanese by the poet Hakyō:

yuki wa shizukani | yutakani hayashi | kabaneshitsu

Here, the first section of the poem has seven syllables, not 5. Many of the masters of the form including Bashō wrote hachou. In fact, the way that haiku are constructed in Japanese is deeper than most English speaking people suspect. For, the haiku is fundamentally a musical form of poetry, meant to be heard, and the musical phrase is largely lost when it is subjected to the printed page’s sequence of the metronome. This article outlines the deeper elements of Japanese haiku metrics far better than I could (I’m not entirely sure, but I think it might be a groundbreaking article in the field of English haiku): http://terebess.hu/english/haiku/total2.html

And that’s just the historical, tradition-based argument for not feeling compelled to write haiku to fit the rigid, 5-7-5 formula English teachers shriek at you in the sixth grade; perhaps the more important reason is that English is a different language than Japanese, and what works perfectly in Japanese will probably not work quite as well in English. 5-7-5 is a count that works great in Japanese, but I have personally found it to be somewhat unwieldy in English, in no small way because English, unlike Japanese, has stress patterns that have the nasty habit of getting in the way all over the place (yet there are reasons beyond that). And that’s not to say that it can’t be done in English— just that it shouldn’t be thought of as the only option.

As for the search for good haiku in English, I must admit, they are often difficult to find. Most of the establishment haiku magazines, such as Acorn or Modern Haiku are conspicuously lacking in taste. These magazines, and others like them, don’t know the first thing about what makes a good haiku or what makes a good poem, and they frequently cause me to question my sanity in raging fits of bitter despair. I do like many of the haiku Jack Kerouac wrote, but I will not post any here (I don’t have an opinion on his other poetry, as I have read very little of it). Haiku anthologies can be a good place to hunt for readable English-language haiku. I discovered this one, by Lorraine Ellis Harr, in the pages of the third (1999) edition of The Haiku Anthology (“Over 800 of the best English language haiku and related works”, its cover claims):

on the old scarecrow a crow sits for a while— suddenly flies off

I don’t think I know of a more eloquent description of death. And here’s another by the same poet that I found in the same source:

after the snowfall deep in the pine forest the sound of an axe

The axe’s industry defies the seemingly universal deadness of the recent snowfall, suggesting that it is best to resort to action when all things seem lost and not to resort to despair (that seems obvious, but many people resort to despair anyway, and I myself am often guilty on that count).

One haiku I have always personally adored is one that I don’t think many people here will greet warmly. Thus, I hesitate to summon it. It is perhaps overrated. And it does not fit into the 5-7-5 straightjacket that Mrs. Pelker would approve of. And its author is highly controversial for some reason (he recanted his antisemitism in the 60s, and when he said those things on Mussolini’s radio, he was losing his mind; besides, no one was listening besides allied spies). Nevertheless, it is a true haiku and I have always been moved by it, so I will summon it nonetheless and with the full expectation of opposition (I will print it as if it were written with the most up-to-date and fashionable modern-day haiku sensibilities):

The apparition of these faces in the crowd : Petals on a wet, black bough .

This haiku illustrates the power of juxtaposing two seemingly unrelated images better than any I know. Cherry blossom petals are compared to London commuters, suggesting that human beauty is going to waste in the dank city, which itself can be seen as a symbol of the modern age for Pound.

I’m a writer of poetry I’ve love putting words together for poems. I hope that you enjoy this poem I put together for this contest……….

You might care to add the following to the requirements for a haiku:- A traditional haiku should… not have a title. (Yes, of course, in English that might make it difficult, but you did say “traditional.”

The wind’s cooling blows Caress to give reminders To breathe life with hope

………………………………………………

The rush of water Which flowing sound still lingers Births a greener earth

Bedazzling sunset A view that’s so picturesque Wows dreamy mindset

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Definition of Haiku

only one guy and only one fly trying to make the guest room do

Common Examples of Poetic Images in Haiku

Structure of haiku.

This 5-7-5 pattern and structure means that a haiku poem, as a rule, consists of three lines and 17 total syllables.

Writing Haiku

Subject matter, language and wording.

It’s important for poets, when writing haiku, to utilize short phrases that evoke strong images and emotions for the reader. In this case, it’s beneficial to consider the Japanese tradition of  kigo . This allows the poet to choose images that symbolize a season and therefore set the mood and tone of the poem with a select few words. For example, a poet can utilize the phrase “tender snowflakes” to represent winter and indicate a cold, perhaps peaceful, setting . This can evoke feelings of calm and quiet for the reader.

Examples of Haiku in Literature

Example 1:  the falling flower (moritake).

What I thought to be Flowers soaring to their boughs Were bright butterflies.

In this poem, Moritake utilizes the phrase “flowers soaring to their boughs” as  kigo , an indication of the spring season when plant life is blooming. In the third line of the poem, the poet establishes that the flowers are actually bright butterflies, reinforcing the warmth and renewal of spring . Additionally, in mistaking the butterflies for flowers and then realizing the actuality, the poet emphasizes the themes of balance, beauty , and relationships in nature. This perception allows the reader to witness this change in imagery and actuality, as the poet does. As a result, this haiku is significant in its representation of the natural world and the way it is interpreted by humans.

Example 2:  Lightning in the Sky (Matsuo Basho)

Lightning in the sky! In the deeper dark is heard A night -heron’s cry.

Example 3:  After Basho (Carolyn Kizer)

Tentatively, you slip onstage this evening, pallid, famous moon.

Kizer’s poem is both a haiku on its own and an homage to Matsuo Basho, a seventeenth century Japanese poet who refined the 17-syllable poetic form and established it as an artistic literary expression. As an independent poem, Kizer utilizes the moon as a subject matter which is common in haiku poetry. The moon is personified and “slips onstage” in the evening, just as the moon subtly appears in the night sky. Kizer incorporates this image of nature in a clever manner, as the moon appears to have a spotlight shining on it while “onstage” in the sky.

Example 4: c’mon man hold me  (Sonia Sanchez)

c’mon man hold me touch me before time love me from behind your eyes.

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Posted on May 12, 2022

What is a Haiku? Japan’s Beloved Poetry Format, Explained

A haiku is a traditional Japanese poem that captures emotional responses evoked by nature. The most common haiku format is a three-line poem with a 5-7-5 syllable structure and no rhyme requirements.

With its simplicity and concision, haiku poetry has endured the test of time, crossed language and cultural barriers, and is, to this day, one of the most widely read and written types of poem . To better understand this fascinating literary form, let’s look at the haiku’s format, features, and history. 

A poetry format containing 17 syllables

The original haiku format is based upon 17 phonetic units, referred to as on (音) in Japanese poetry, which can be roughly compared to syllables. Even though haiku were originally written in a single line, today they are divided into three lines with a 5-7-5 syllable pattern.  

Here is one example of a haiku from the form's most famous poet, Matsuo Bashō: 

fu-ru i-ke ya (5) ka-wa-zu to-bi-ko-mu (7) mi-zu no o-to (5)

Throughout time, poets worldwide have remained broadly faithful to this structure while also experimenting with new forms inspired by haiku.

What do you capitalize in haiku? Some poets/translators only capitalize names, some only the first word, and others every line’s first letter. There are no set rules for punctuation at the end either — you may or may not use any. 

Beyond its format, one of haiku’s core features has always been its conciseness and elegance in describing nature — the main Muse of haiku poets. 

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Nature is a common central theme

The natural world has long been central to haiku poetry, inspiring poets to observe their surroundings and notice ordinary yet meaningful moments. Nature was — and still is — considered an ideal setting to invoke wabi-sabi (侘寂), a mental state where one finds contentment with simple things. In nature, you can take pleasure in a bird's song or meditate on the impermanence of life by watching autumn leaves drift downwards.

In the Japanese haiku tradition, nature is referenced using ‘season words’ ( kigo , 季語), like spring’s canola flowers or winter’s snowflakes. In the following two examples, cherry blossoms tell us that it's springtime, while cool stars paint a picture of a starry summer night.

cherry blossoms

fall! fall!

enough to fill my belly

一 Kobayashi Issa

The lamp once out

Cool stars enter

The window frame.

一 Natsume Soseki 

Over time, various schools of haiku poets have debated whether the form should be solely inspired by nature or open up to other themes. While the jury is still out (after hundreds of years of debate), a reverence for the natural world remains one of haiku’s driving motifs to this day — along with the strong use of imagery.

Combining simple images to express an idea

Many haiku poems aim to express an 'insight': an unexpected emotional response to whatever the poet observes. This insight could be as simple as a laugh, or as deep as a reflection on the fleeting nature of our existence. 

Unlikely images united by an emotion

In some haiku poems, one image is sufficient to express a feeling, while in others more images are linked together. Let’s take a look at two examples: 

Even in Kyoto,

hearing the cuckoo,

I long for Kyoto.

一 Matsuo Bashō 

The image of the cuckoo, and the hearing of its sounds, evokes in the poet a certain nostalgia for a city — and a time — that seems to be gone. The singularity of this image reminds us of how memories work: sometimes it takes just a specific sound to bring you back in time. 

In the following haiku, insects, lovers, and stars are connected to highlight the universal theme of loss and separation. 

Don’t weep, insects 一

Lovers, stars themselves,

Juxtaposing images for emotional impact

Sometimes, the insight is expressed by placing two images in contrast with one another. These images are not picked because of their uniqueness or beauty, but rather for what they evoke when linked together.

Let’s see an example:

A caterpillar,

this deep in fall 一

still not a butterfly.

一 Matsuo Bashō

The way Bashō frames the images of a caterpillar and a butterfly in this poem expresses a feeling of unrealized potential or a yearning for growth and evolution that has not yet manifested. 

Haiku fact! Traditionally, the juxtaposition of the two images is highlighted by ‘cutting words’ ( kireji , 切れ字) — a poetic construct that can structure a verse in different ways. This break can be punctuation (like a dash) or simply with a word of emphasis (like “Oh!”). By directing the flow of the poem, the kireji helps to break the reader’s thinking patterns and facilitate the association between the images. 

The use of natural imagery to convey insights and sudden emotions has been a key component of haiku poetry ever since it gained popularity in 17th-century Japan. 

The form dates back to the 17th century

Before haiku, there was renga 一 a form of spontaneous and collaborative poetry from Japan. Renga poems were written in a joint effort by poets, scribes, and masters, starting from an initial stanza ( hokku , 発句) of 5-7-5 phonetic units, followed by a series of 7-7 verses.

As the hokku was considered the catalyst of the entire creative process, poets felt it required a particular level of sensitivity and craftsmanship. In the 17th century, the effort needed to craft a strong hokku led wordsmiths like Matsuo Bashō to approach it as a standalone art form. 

Bashō’s time in the wilderness

Despite making a name for himself as a renga poet, Bashō’s restless soul led him to travel around rural Japan 一 something considered to be extremely dangerous at the time. Alone in the wilderness of the countryside, Bashō developed a greater sensitivity to nature and the changing of the seasons 一 trying to encapsulate their essence into a collection of hokku . 

Second-generation haiku poets

Matsuo Bashō was, and still is, one of the most acclaimed haiku masters of all time. His body of work inspired many 一 like Yosa Buson and Kobayashi Issa 一 to follow his tracks and continue the haiku tradition with their own style. 

Here are two examples of their work: 

A summer river being crossed

how pleasing

with sandals in my hands!

― Yosa Buson

Climb Mount Fuji

But slowly, slowly!

― Kobayashi Issa 

In the late 19th century, the poet Masaoka Shiki renamed the hokku as haiku 一 further strengthening it as an independent form of poetry. Like Bashō, Shiki believed that haiku should be “a sketch from nature”, an ever-present theme in the thousands of stanzas he left as his legacy. 

green in the field

was pounded into

― Masaoka Shiki

After Shiki, haiku poetry continued to grow in popularity, expanding to discuss modern themes and embracing a more open format.  

Modern poets continue to write haiku

In the 20th century, many European and American poets became fascinated with the form and started to write haiku in various languages, including English, French, and Italian. Particularly influential was the Imagist movement (led by T. E. Hulme, Ezra Pound, and Amy Lowell) which tried to “take stills” of their emotional states in just a few words. 

Later on, American poets like Nick Virgilio, Richard Wright, and Sonia Sanchez contributed to haiku literature with their own verses. Here are some of their poems: 

a blind musician

extending an old tin cup

collects a snowflake

一 Nick Virgilio

I am nobody:

A red sinking autumn sun

Took my name away.

一 Richard Wright

say no words

time is collapsing

in the woods

一 Sonia Sanchez

Some of these poems display traditional haiku features, like the 5-7-5 syllables format, the seasonal references, or the strong use of imagery. Other poems don’t meet these criteria: it’s not uncommon for modern haiku poetry to stray from the traditional guidelines, maybe taking inspiration from the bustling city life as opposed to nature.  

However, much of modern haiku poetry still tries to capture, in essence, the many memorable moments and experiences that we are presented with every day. 

From the poets of medieval Japan linking verses together, to modern writers sketching lines among skyscrapers in futuristic cities, the story of haiku continues to be written. As long as nature and life remain endless and timeless sources of inspiration, so too shall there be haiku.

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How to Write a Haiku

It is easy to learn to write a haiku, but it can take a lot of practice to learn how to do it well. This lesson will give you the basics for writing your own haiku. It’s up to you to practice by writing a lot of them so you will get very good at it.

What is a Haiku?

A haiku is an unrhymed three-line poem. It is based on a traditional Japanese poetic form. Though there are different ways to write haiku, the traditional pattern in English is to write the first and last lines with five syllables each, and the middle line with seven syllables. In other words, the pattern of syllables looks like this:

Line 1: 5 syllables Line 2: 7 syllables Line 3: 5 syllables

Here’s another way to visualize the same thing:

1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1 2 3 4 5

Most often, haiku poems are about seasons or nature, though you can write your own haiku about anything you like. If you don’t want to write about nature, and would prefer to write haiku about candy or sports, that is perfectly okay.

One more thing to keep in mind is that the last line of a haiku usually makes an observation. That is, the third line points out something about the subject you are writing about.

Let’s see how we can put these few rules together get your started writing your own haiku poems.

Haiku About Seasons

Let’s say that you decide to write your haiku about a season. First you will want to select a season: spring, summer, fall, or winter. I’ve decided to write a haiku about winter, and I know that in the last line I will want to make an observation. I want to say that winter is almost here, but we aren’t quite ready for the snow. Maybe it’s that we haven’t raked the leaves off the front lawn and we need to do it soon before it snows.

I want to say all of this, but I want to do it in a pattern of 5, 7, 5. So I might say something like this:

Winter is coming. Snow will be arriving soon. We should rake the leaves.

 If you count the syllables on your fingers as you read this poem, you will see that the lines have five syllables, seven syllables, and five syllables, just as they should.

Haiku About Nature

If you decide to write a haiku about nature, you will have many more subjects to choose from. You could write about animals, plants, the sky, the ocean, streams, the wind, and so on. Start by selecting a topic, and then decide what you want to say; what observation you want to make about it.

For example, I have decided to write a haiku about my cat. One thing I notice about my cat is that he sleeps a lot . In fact, I’m pretty sure he sleeps almost all night and  all day. I’m not sure how he can be so tired. In any case, here is my haiku:

Tired cat sleeps all night. He needs lots of rest for a Long day of napping.

 Funny Haiku

Just because most haiku poems are about seasons or nature doesn’t mean that’s all they can be about. If you want, you can even write funny haiku poems. One way to make a haiku funny is to have an unexpected  last line. For example, if the last line says the opposite of what the reader expects, it becomes like the punchline of a joke. It also helps to write about a funny subject.

As an example, I decided it would be funny to write a haiku excuse for why I can’t turn in my homework. Here it is:

My homework is late. My dog ate it this morning. I sure like my dog.

 Notice that this ending is unexpected. Most readers would expect the poem to end with something like “can I turn it in tomorrow?” or “I’m mad at dog” or something like that. By saying “I sure like my dog,” I am telling the reader something they don’t expect, which will hopefully make them smile.

Getting Started Writing Haiku

To begin writing haiku poems, just follow these steps:

• Select a type of haiku. Decide if you are going to write a seasonal, nature, or other type of haiku.
• Pick a topic. Select one specific season, item in nature, or something else you are going to write about.
• Think about what is different about your last line. What observation do you want to make?
• Start writing.
• Don’t forget to count the syllables as you read to make sure you’ve got the right pattern.
• Finally, “center” your poem on the page like the poems in this lesson.

Click here to download a haiku writing worksheet

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How to Write a Haiku Poem, with Haiku Examples 

This page explains how to write a haiku poem, and offers haiku examples and prompts to inspire you. At the bottom of this page, you'll find links to more poetry help.

What is haiku?

Haiku is a Japanese poetry form. A haiku uses just a few words to capture a moment and create a picture in the reader's mind. It is like a tiny window into a scene much larger than itself. Traditionally, haiku is written in three lines, with five syllables in the first line, seven syllables in the second line, and five syllables in the third line.

Haiku examples

Here's a haiku poem written by a poetry student: The last winter leaves Clinging to the black branches Explode into birds. You can find more haiku examples by our visitors at the bottom of this page.

Characteristics of haiku

The following are typical of haiku:

• A focus on nature.
• A "season word" such as "snow" which tells the reader what time of year it is.
• A division somewhere in the poem, which focuses first on one thing, than on another. The relationship between these two parts is sometimes surprising.
• Instead of saying how a scene makes him or her feel, the poet shows the details that caused that emotion. If the sight of an empty winter sky made the poet feel lonely, describing that sky can give the same feeling to the reader.

Below, you'll find some ideas for writing haiku. If you're interested in other kinds of poetry, you might also like our online writing course, Essentials of Poetry Writing .

How to write a haiku - try it!

You can use the pictures lower down on this page to give you ideas. In your haiku, try to use details related to the senses -- sight, hearing, touch, smell, or taste. Or look out your window, and describe what you see. Try to "zoom in" on a small detail that contains the feeling of the larger scene. Or follow the steps below to write a "surprise-ending haiku." This is based on an exercise from the poet Ron Patchett which is described in The Haiku Handbook by William J. Higginson:

• Write two lines about something beautiful in nature. You can use the pictures below to give you ideas. Don't worry about counting syllables yet.
• Write a third line that is a complete surprise, that is about something completely different from the first two lines.
• Look at the three lines together. Does the combination of these two seemingly unrelated parts suggest any surprising relationships? Does it give you any interesting ideas?
• Now rewrite the poem, using the 5-syllable, 7-syllable, 5-syllable format and experimenting with the new ideas or perspectives that have occurred to you.

Haiku Photo Prompts

Haiku examples from our visitors

Here is a small selection of poems that were submitted to us by visitors.  (Please note that we are no longer able to accept poetry submissions.)

Fences Like Smoke by Tirzah Goodwin (Kentucky)

Run Appaloosa... until your white spots wink out, fences gone like smoke.

Fall by Al McCartan (Bathurst, NSW, Australia)

It’s fall, leaves tumble Colorful kaleidoscope Bonfire time again

Purple! by Elizabeth (Winston-Salem, North Carolina)

heliotrope hills where bear and deer make their homes radiate purple

Migration of Autumn by Constance (Land of the Midnight Sun)

South, 'V' formation Following the next in line Snow geese fly away

Crane Rising by Patricia Rogers (Glendale, CA)

Slowly, graceful wings Lift skyward; as you lift me Friends always, grateful

Seasons Inside of a Season by Emma Gamble (Alaska)

Leaves are transforming Slowly covering the ground Shimmering from frost

Stars by Patty (Manila)

Stars shining brightly out there in the deep blue sky Wish i could reach you

Veins of the Earth by Thomas Pipps

Large mountain landscapes A maze of lush green forest Mother nature’s child

Autumn Invasion by Jeanne Rainoldi (Nuttings Lake, MA)

leaves nosedive to earth every bit like birds of prey commandeered by Wind.

Picture Perfect by Melissa Owens (Elk Grove, CA)

Darkness absorbed light a flash too bright for my eye capture a moment

Dead Leaves by Yannis Hondros (Perth, Western Australia)

winter's dead dried leaves are picked over by the wind a footprint lingers

The Silver Toss by Silous (Philadelphia)

A flash of silver The fall heat is beating down Heads, we win the toss!

Anticipation by Anne (Eltham, Australia)

The sun dried red earth. Birds resting with open beaks. Storm clouds gathering.

The Web by Kim (New Hampshire)

web in the window beautifully spun silk threads reflecting the sun

In Late Summer Heat by Simon Rowson (Tokyo, Japan)

In late summer heat Dead cicada at my feet Its song has ended

Rainy Day by Tai H. (Texas)

Sleeping all day long Hearing the rain beat gently - Dozing back to sleep.

How to Write a Haiku - Next Steps

Learn how to write acrostic poems, blank verse, sestinas, and more! Sign up for our online course, Essentials of Poetry Writing.

• How to Write a Haiku

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How To Write A Haiku: Tips And Examples

• What Is Haiku?
• How To Write A Haiku
• Examples Of Haiku

by Min Straussman

Writing poetry can be as simple as just crafting a haiku

Many find the poetic form intimidating, but haiku is a great starting point for learning to both read and write poetry. As you can see from our short introductory haiku, these poems are short and to-the-point. In this article, you will learn about the haiku form, how to write your own haiku, and get inspiration from some examples of this kind of poetry, both traditional and modern.

What is haiku?

A haiku [ hahy -koo ] is a non-rhyming poem of three lines that follows a 5-7-5 syllable pattern:

5 syllable line 7 syllable line 5 syllable line

A syllable is a unit of a word that contains one vowel sound and often the surrounding consonants. For example, the word syllable is made of three syllables: syl – la – ble. In English, you can count the number of syllables by clapping each time you hear a vowel sound when you pronounce the word.

Take, for example, this haiku by Daniela Misso. The dashes are added to show the syllables.

taste of morn – ing tea (5 syllables) the del – i – cate ray of sun (7 syllables) through an ic- i -cle (5 syllables)

The name haiku and the form itself come from Japanese. Because the word comes from Japanese, it does not take an -s at the end for a plural (eg., two haiku ). It is derived from the Japanese haikai , itself a form of comic poetry, short for haikai no renga meaning “jesting (linked verse).” The -ku in  haiku means “stanza.”  In traditional haikai , which is closely associated with the 17th-century Japanese poet Matsuo Bashō, the focus was on humorous wordplay. The haiku was initially the opening stanza of longer poetic forms, but eventually came to stand on its own.

In traditional Japanese poetry, the haiku contains a specific reference to nature or seasonal change, as well as a “cutting word,” known as a kireji , in the middle of the poem. In English haiku, it is not necessary to adhere to these traditional guidelines. However, themes of nature and seasonal change are still often found. Additionally, instead of the Japanese kireji , English-language writers will often create juxtaposition by describing one image in the first two lines of the poem and a second image in the third line.

Eunoia? Caziques? Hiccough? What’s so special about these unusual words? Find out with our 13 weird, wondrous facts about English.

How to write a haiku

Step one:  Choose a subject for your poem. This can be anything. As we noted, in traditional Japanese haiku, themes of nature and the changing of seasons are most common. However, you are free to pick any image you feel a connection to. Typically, the goal is to use the image as a metaphor or to evoke a particular feeling.

Some examples of haiku topics are: a particular plant or animal, like a pine tree or a robin; an everyday action or event, like walking the dog or making breakfast; or, an object that is special to you, like a photograph or a piece of jewelry.

Step two (optional): Once you have chosen your object or image, brainstorm words, particularly adjectives or verbs , that you associate with the object. It is best to do this while looking at the thing itself, either while outside in nature or at a picture of the thing. You can always use Thesaurus.com as well to find sophisticated descriptive language.

Step three: Draft your haiku. When you are drafting, don’t worry too much about counting syllables. You will edit and revise your haiku later to make sure it fits the form (or, perhaps, doesn’t). The goal at this stage is simply to capture the image and feeling you want to connect with.

Step four: Revise your haiku. At this point, you will want to read it aloud to make sure the poem sounds correct. You will also want to count the syllables to make sure it follows the 5-7-5 pattern. 

Step five: Share your haiku. Poetry is an art form that creates a connection between the writer’s image and the audience’s emotions; it is meant to be shared. Haiku in particular lends itself to illustration, so you may consider adding a picture or drawing of the object to really make the message clear to your reader.

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Examples of haiku

We have given the basic guidelines of how to write a haiku, but what does it look like in practice? Let’s take a look at some haiku for inspiration. 

Novelist Richard Wright was particularly interested in haiku later in his life. He would compile scrapbooks of dozens, if not hundreds, of haiku that he wrote. Here is just one example of his many haiku:

And now once again Winter wind breathes sighingly Amid the pine trees. 

This is a great example of a classic English-language haiku. It follows the 5-7-5 non-rhyming pattern. It also describes a seasonal, natural scene: cold wind blowing in pine trees. Like many haiku, there is something melancholy about the image.

In translation into English, Japanese haiku typically do not adhere to the traditional 5-7-5 pattern, but they give us a good idea of the kind of feelings and imagery this kind of poetry often employs. Take a look at this haiku by the 17th-century master Matsuo Bashō:

In the twilight rain these brilliant-hued hibiscus— A lovely sunset

Here, we have a natural scene set in spring and two images juxtaposed: the hibiscus (a kind of flower) and the sunset. Both are lovely, colorful images that are connected in the poem to one another.

Not all Japanese haiku use this kind of structure though, such as this example from Masaoaka Shiki, a 19th-century poet who was a leader in developing the modern haiku:

Consider me As one who loved poetry And persimmons.

This haiku is much more personal and demands that the reader acknowledge the poetic narrator rather than a particular natural scene. 

Other modern haiku in English have followed Shiki’s lead and moved away from natural scenes to put the narrator in the center of the poem’s image, such as this poem by Carol A. Coiffait: 

This Autumn midnight Orion’s at my window shouting for his dog.

While this poem uses the 5-7-5 non-rhyming structure that is connected to a particular season, it depicts a very different image, one that personifies the constellations of Orion and one of his hunting dogs (either Canis Minor or Canis Major). 

Of course, some Anglophone writers do away with the 5-7-5 structure altogether, as in this example from Jack Kerouac, a writer who was not known for following literary tradition: 

Holding up my purring cat to the moon I sighed

This poem uses an unusual 4-6-2 syllable structure. For all that though, it still has aspects of a traditional haiku: three lines, juxtaposed images, and a natural element (the moon). 

As the writer, you can decide whether you want to follow all of the rules of haiku, some of them, or none of them. But at least you now know what they are! We hope you find these examples inspiring and that you use them as a jumping-off point to find something in your own life to capture in verse.

Min Straussman is a freelance writer and educator from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. A frequent contributor to Dictionary.com and Thesaurus.com, his work has also appeared in  Hey Alma ,  beestung , and other publications. He lives in Paris. For more by Min, read:  Terms For Understanding The Diversity Of Jewish American Life  | A Language Of Pride: Understand The Terms Around LGBTQ Identity | 7 Meaningful Ways To Express Your Gratitude  | 15 Earth Day Quotes That Remind Us To Appreciate And Preserve Our World

There's no right way to start writing, but these 11 strategies will help you create a writing routine.

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Haiku (or hokku)

A Japanese verse form most often composed, in English versions, of three unrhymed lines of five, seven, and five syllables. A haiku often features an image, or a pair of images, meant to depict the essence of a specific moment in time.

Not popularized in Western literature until the early 1900s, the form originates from the Japanese hokku, or the opening section of a longer renga sequence. In this context, the hokku served to begin a longer poem by establishing a season, often with a pair of seasonal images. Unlike the rest of the renga sequence, which was composed collaboratively, the hokku was often created by a single poet working alone, and was subsequently used as an exercise for students. Over time, the hokku began to be appreciated for its own worth and became distinct as a poetic form, formally mastered by poets such as Basho and Yosa Buson .

In 1905, Paul-Louis Couchoud became one of the first European translators of the form, converting many short Japanese verses into his native French. This began the popularization of haiku in Europe, where the form was translated by French and Spanish poets, such as José Juan Tablada. Throughout the two World Wars and the rise of Modernism , haikus were gradually adapted and celebrated by Imagist poets, such as Ezra Pound , H.D ., and T.E. Hulme . In this context, the haiku was appreciated for its linguistic and sensory economy. Most notably Pound’s “ In a Station of the Metro ,” though not intended as a haiku, adapts the sparse, visual style of the Japanese form.

Despite its formal history, the haiku’s composition has expanded somewhat over time. This is due in part to the differences between the Japanese language and Western languages. In its original Japanese form, the haiku is often divided into 17 mora (a Japanese unit of syllable weight) and arranged in a single vertical line. However, in English there is no exact equivalent to the mora unit. As a result, in English and other languages, haikus are most frequently adapted into three lines of verse, usually unrhymed, composed of five, seven, and five syllables, adding up to seventeen syllables total. However, many American poets, such as Jack Kerouac , began to gradually depart from this traditional syllable and line count, in favor of depicting images as succinctly as possible.

Despite its many adaptions into multiple languages and styles, the haiku remains a powerful form due to its economic use of language to evoke a specific mood or instance. Most often occurring in the present tense, a haiku frequently depicts a moment by using pair of distinct images working in tandem, as in these lines by Kobayashi Issa , translated by Jane Hirshfield :         On a branch         floating downriver         a cricket, singing.

(Notice how, in translating from Japanese to English, Hirshfield compresses the number of syllables.)

The haiku continues to be a popular form today, and its different qualities have been emphasized and expanded by a wide variety of writers. Poets such as Etheridge Knight  emphasize the formal and sonic quality of the verse, as seen in his piece “ Haiku ,” whereas poets such as Scott Helmes have chosen to emphasize the haiku’s visual arrangement, as seen in his piece, “ haiku #62 .”

For further examples, see also “Three Haiku, Two Tanka” by Philip Appleman and Robert Hass’s “After the Gentle Poet Kobayashi Issa.” In addition, see the Imagist poets of the early 20th century, most notably Ezra Pound .

Look here to browse more haiku .

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10 of the Best Examples of Haiku Poems Everyone Should Read

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

A haiku is the most famous of all Japanese verse forms. In English versions, a haiku tends to consist of three unrhymed lines of (respectively) five, seven, and five syllables, adding up to a total of just seventeen syllables. However, you’ll notice that many of the best and most emblematic examples of Japanese haiku which we’ve gathered together below don’t fit this number of syllables precisely.

A haiku often features a single image which represents the essence of a brief, fleeting moment in time. Sometimes there will be two images, but even here, the power of the haiku is derived from the ‘spark’ generated by the two things being brought together within the same poem. In many cases, there will be something timeless and vast (a mountain, the moon, the sky) juxtaposed with something fleeting and brief (a dog barking; a leaf falling).

But there’s more to it than this. For strictly speaking, a haiku should take nature as its subject: if a short poem does not feature nature in some way, it is more accurately labelled an example of Senryu , a related form also comprising seventeen ‘syllables’ but not featuring nature or the seasons. Hokku or haiku were traditionally a brief preface to a longer poem, known as a renga , and the purpose of the haiku was to introduce the seasons.

Although the haiku as a verse form is centuries old, the word ‘haiku’ isn’t. Indeed, it was only surprisingly recently – as recently as the end of the nineteenth century, in fact – that people started referring to these miniature Japanese poems as haiku , when Masaoka Shiki (1867-1902) began referring to them as haiku as opposed to the older term hokku .

But what are the best examples of haiku poems, in Japanese, English, and American literature? Below, we select a few of the finest and best-known haiku.

1. Matsuo Bashō, ‘A Caterpillar’.

A caterpillar, this deep in fall – still not a butterfly.

Matsuo Bashō (1644-94) is the Shakespeare of the haiku form. In this haiku, we find the seasons (‘fall’ alludes to the autumnal months), and the natural world; although here the poem seems to refer beyond the world of nature, to human potential too. How many people mature without really achieving what they are capable of?

2. Yosa Buson, ‘Even More So’.

Even more so because of being alone the moon is a friend.

This is a translation of one of the many haiku written by Yosa Buson (1716-84), an eighteenth-century master of the form who was also noted for his painting and his prose compositions.

As you’ll see, the translation doesn’t exactly fit the ‘syllable’ requirement for the haiku in English; but that’s because Buson’s original Japanese haiku didn’t strictly fit the ‘rules’ for the form either. He believed that poems should be more organic and natural than this, but the poem reproduced above summons the haiku and has a natural image (the moon) at its centre.

3. Kobayashi Issa, ‘Mosquito’.

From deep inside the pretty flower – a mosquito

Kobayashi Issa (1763-1828) was a Japanese poet and a lay Buddhist priest of the Jōdo Shinshū. He penned hundreds of haiku, and this one is just an example of his style, which often turns on an element of surprise (such as finding the mosquito, a potential carrier of an ugly disease, within the pretty flower).

4. R. M. Hansard, ‘The West Wind’.

The west wind whispered, And touched the eyelids of spring: Her eyes, Primroses.

It was towards the end of the nineteenth century that the haiku began to become popular among English-speaking poets. In Britain in 1899, The Academy announced a haikai contest, and the prize was awarded to R. M. Hansard for this poem.

5. Bertram Dobell, ‘You Laughed While I Wept’.

You laughed while I wept, Yet my tears and your laughter Had only one source.

Bertram Dobell (1842-1914) was an English poet, publisher, bookseller, and editor, who published Rosemary and Pansies in 1901. In that volume, he included a few of his own ‘haikai’. At the time, the form was sufficiently unfamiliar to his English readers for Dobell to consider it necessary to include a footnote explaining what a haiku was.

Dobell’s, then, is another very early example of a haiku written in English. Although strictly speaking it might be considered an example of Senryu instead of haiku (because its focus is solely human, rather than nature), it’s a notable development in the western adoption of the Japanese form.

6. Masaoka Shiki, ‘Winter’.

The desolation of winter; passing through a small hamlet, a dog barks.

Masaoka Shiki (1867-1902) was a reformer of the haiku: he felt that, at the end of the nineteenth century, the form had become stale and full of platitudes. It is very easy to write an indifferent haiku, and very difficult to write one which can say something significant within its three brief lines.

In this haiku, we can see how Shiki approached the haiku unsentimentally, bringing in the simple image of the dog barking to summon the desolation and quiet that hangs over a small village during wintertime.

7. Amy Lowell, from ‘Twenty-Four Hokku on a Modern Theme’.

Sweet smell of wet flowers Over an evening garden. Your portrait, perhaps?

Lowell (1874-1925) became the leader of the imagists after Ezra Pound, the founder of the movement, grew bored and went off to found Vorticism. And the imagists were much in love with the haiku. Indeed, one of Pound’s most famous poems, ‘ In a Station of the Metro ’, suggests the brevity and language of the haiku without strictly being an example of one.

Lowell, too, was drawn to Japanese forms, and ‘Twenty-Four Hokku on a Modern Theme’ appeared first in Poetry magazine in June 1921. This is one of those twenty-four, with the suddenness of the final line – which transforms the poem from a lyric about nature into a love poem – showing the potential of the haiku for arresting our attention and showing us something in a new light.

8. Yone Noguchi, ‘Hokku’.

But the march to life – Break song to sing the new song! Clouds leap, flowers bloom.

Yonejirō Noguchi (1875-1947) was an influential Japanese poet who composed a number of hokku or haiku. He moved from Japan to the US when he was a teenager, settling in San Francisco, although he later returned to Japan. He would later travel to England to lecture on Japanese poetry. But his greatest claim to fame is that he was the first Japanese-born poet to publish poetry in English.

His work has been aligned with modernism, and certainly Ezra Pound, the founder of imagism, considered his poetry to be ‘beautiful’. The haiku quoted above demonstrates why; but there is also something ineffable, even ambiguous about his haiku, which explains the comparisons to modernism.

9. Jack Kerouac, from ‘American Haiku’.

frozen in the birdbath A leaf

The Beat Generation novelist and poet Jack Kerouac, who is best-known for On the Road , was also attracted to the possibilities of the haiku form. He penned a sequence of ‘American Haiku’, one brief quotation from which we reproduce above. You can read a greater selection here .

10. Jennifer Wong, ‘Koi’.

Let’s conclude this pick of the best examples of the haiku with an example from a contemporary poet. Jennifer Wong is a writer and poet from Hong Kong who studied at Oxford and the University of East Anglia (where she gained an MA in Creative Writing).

In this brief poem, about koi carp, we get a beautiful interplay of movement and stillness, colours red and white, and the associations between animal (the fish itself) and flower (the lotuses; but also see those ‘heart-shaped leaves’). You can read this poem here .

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Haiku Poem Interactive

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With this interactive, students can learn about and write haiku, a popular Japanese poem that traditionally has three lines of 5, 7, and 5 syllables. Students begin by brainstorming words for their poem, and then they compose their poem with attention to how many syllables they've written for each line. The final step allows students to customize the design of their poem with one of the provided artistic backgrounds or by uploading their own image.

Saving capability allows students to return to their work and make revisions. Final work can be shared via e-mail, as a PDF, or printed out.

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Spartan Alert

Pride and poetry, according to emilia phillips.

Posted on June 25, 2024

On a dreary Thursday night in February, a group gathered at Scuppernong Books in downtown Greensboro for a reading of a new collection of poetry by Emilia Phillips . Phillips had just released their fifth collection of poetry, entitled “Nonbinary Bird of Paradise,” but this was no typical book reading.  

Phillips gathered UNCG students and alumni to read original works and selected text that inspired their latest poems. All in attendance raved about how the reading was a celebration of voices and art and the flow of inspiration. For Phillips, all of this is intertwined.  

An Artist Spreads Their Wings  

A UNCG professor since 2017, Phillips is an associate professor of creative writing where they teach poetry workshops and serve as core poetry faculty for the Masters of Fine Art in Creative Writing . Phillips also has cross-appointments in the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and English departments teaching the Queer Poetry and Poetics class and the Women’s Health and Bodies class to undergraduates.  

Being a poet, a teacher, and a voice for the LGBTQIA+ community is all part of the creative process for Phillips. “I can’t teach poetry unless I’m writing it and vice versa,” she says. “My constant dialogue with students informs my work.”  

“Nonbinary Bird of Paradise” is a prime example of Phillips’ exploratory style of poetry, but this latest collection focuses on gender and the ways cultural, religious and mythological narratives support heterosexuality as “the norm”. 

In “Nonbinary Bird of Paradise,” Phillips’ challenge of compulsory heterosexuality cuts right to the chase. The first section includes twelve poems in the voice of Eve from the Bible. It imagines if Eve wasn’t born straight and was never desiring of Adam but had no other choices of partners. 

“My writing is definitely informed by my own worldview, experience, gender journey and sexuality,” says Phillips, who was raised in Chattanooga, Tennessee. “I couldn’t have written the Eve sequence without getting to a certain point of my own reflections and self-work, but I was nervous when the book came out because it does deal so explicitly with sex and gender and sexuality.”  

The poem that inspired the book’s title is also extremely personal. “It’s a love poem for my partner,” Phillips explains. “I imagined if I was a bird of paradise, how would I woo my partner without the fancy plumage.”  

Phillips admits that most of their poetry is part autobiographical and part creative, but its fiction label opens doors for creative freedom, a principle they encourage in the classroom as well.   

Birds of a Feather Writing Together  

Phillips’ classes provide a safe space for building art and students appreciate the sense of community they find at UNCG’s English department. 

“Emilia prioritizes community not only in the classroom but outside of it too,” second-year MFA student Liz Bruce explains. “We are constantly sharing resources and opportunities and celebrating each other.” 

Recent MFA graduate Kay Zeiss is a private practice therapist working with adults who have experienced trauma. They are particularly dialed into using writing to process trauma. Self-identifying as genderqueer and nonbinary, Zeiss was particularly interested in working under Phillips’ mentorship and thrived in the department. 

“My goal isn’t to become this famous writer,” Zeiss confesses. “I just hope my writing can be of service to someone. Folks are really interested in being able to articulate their experience and find language for something that they didn’t have before. There’s a community and compassion there that I want to help facilitate.” 

Attracting creative minds like this to UNCG is exactly what Phillips had in mind when they joined the English department in 2017. Establishing a close-knit community within a larger campus community, which serves minorities and has historically been a safe place for LGBTQIA+ youth, provided the perfect environment for Phillips’ poetry to take root. 

“Having representation in the classroom and also having representation in my work out in the world is very important to me,” Phillips says. 

Artistic Reflections   

This high regard for representation and community made it natural for Phillips to invite students to share inspirational text at their book reading. “My students are among the most important people in my life,” they said. “Including them made it really festive.”  

“I’ve been to multiple readings at Scuppernong and this one was definitely different in that there was a huge crowd of people there to celebrate,” said Bruce, who read “[Poem about Naomi; unsent]” by Rachel Mennies at Phillips’ book reading. 

Zeiss read an original poem publicly for the first time at Phillips’ reading. “Hymnal to Transqueer Futures” reflects on grief following the death of Nex Benedict and ponders hope for the future of nonbinary and transqueer children. Zeiss dedicated it to Maddie Poole, another writer in attendance.  “I was so honored to be a part of this group,” they said. “It was very tender and sweet to have other people in the MFA program that I care about in this line-up of incredible poets. Reading my poem felt like an offering to the community.”  

Bruce, and others who participated in the event, felt similarly grateful to be a part of Phillips’ unveiling of “Nonbinary Bird of Paradise.” 

“Because of Emilia’s decision to platform multiple voices and multiple authors, they recognize that writing isn’t created in a vacuum,” Bruce says. “It was a celebration of the community as much as the book, because the community influenced the making of the book in so many ways.” 

UNCG has nothing but pride for communities like Emilia Phillips’ that bring art into the world to spur curiosity and impart understanding. We celebrate this during Pride month, as we do throughout the year. 

Story by Becky Deakins, University Communications.   Photography courtesy of Felipe Troncoso  

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