| The banana tree blown by winds pours raindrops into the bucket by Basho | Beautiful delay, making everything fall quiet naturally by Mark | Those falling blossoms all return to the branch when I watch butterflies by Moritake |
HAIKU is a minimalist poetic style, expressing fleeting moments of heightened awareness. A mere three lines, a great haiku captures and expresses a profound impression of emotion, thought, or understanding. Click Here to Add Your Haiku to the Widget and Gallery
Haiku poetry commonly consists of 17 sounds or syllables arranged in three lines - five syllables in the first line, seven in the second, and five in the final line. Typically, classic haiku speaks of nature and includes a seasonal word. Two ideas or images are often presented, where the power of the poem consists in the unspoken symmetry or tension between the two images.
Though originally often associated with nature, modern haiku can express any sentiment, relationship, or idea. The three line structure is maintained while the strict 17 syllable 5-7-5 structure is considered a guideline. Modern, English language haiku is a very versatile form, extending well beyond the Asian imagery and ideas found in most classic Japanese haiku.
The Haiku widget is open for your own haiku expression! Add your creative haiku and it will display intermittently with dozens of others in the Haiku widget running on blogs and websites worldwide. Haiku now available as a Facebook app you can add to your Facebook profile!
Helpful Books How to Write, Share & Teach Haiku |  Haiku Moment: North American Haiku |  Haiku Anthology |  Haiku: A Poet's Guide |  Writing and Enjoying Haiku |
From Knowing is Haiku "...Haiku doesn't involve metaphor. It lays down before the mind a pair of concrete objects or events, and from these apparently disconnected items it somehow points the mind to a third invisible thing, a very unique but universal species of human experience that is usually inexpressible in words. When a scientistic mind sees haiku, it can only giggle...; it only sees two disconnected physical events. It isn't able to connect to the invisible species sitting behind them. ...If we can never appreciate what’s going on in haiku, we will also have a hard time understanding what’s going on in Scripture, the Incarnation, and the world around us. All of them use the same pattern of knowing: the concrete unveils the invisible."
Online resources:Simpy Haiku quarterly magazine Haiku Society of America various resources
short & simple definitions/guidelines guidelines for writing Haiku
Open Directory - Haiku and related forms Wikipedia - Haiku
Haiku Gallery These are currently featured in the Haiku Widget.
Add Yours to this Gallery and the Haiku Widget
| Those falling blossoms all return to the branch when I watch butterflies by Moritake | Wind chases the leaves In a freezing winter night While each white flake sways. by tri tran © | Most of earth's music Has always been with us. Listen to the wind. by Grace E. © |
| Ah! Leave it! Back...No! Sigh. The hardest animal to train is myself. by Leanne Betts © | Blowing in the wind, Fifty fair fruit of freedom. The Stars and the Stripes. by Raging Bull © | thinking words we hear living other's fantasies through the tv screen by Matthew Baxter Miller © |
| pink yarn velvet sky reminds me of Peter Max in the spring sunset by jameselle bond © | At the ancient pond a frog plunges into the sound of water by Basho | Looks artificial yet the luxurious smell proves a red rose real. by Vivica Aramina © |
| A solitary crow on a bare branch- autumn evening by Basho | september silent birds left by Roys Haiku © | Stirring thoughts of tea; My purring cat lays on me... I am still again. by Leanne Betts © |
| Nothing in the cry of cicadas suggests they are about to die by Basho | If you change something, The world probably won't change. But it might. by Grace E. © | I draw back the shade The sun is coming, coming, But never quite here. by Grace E. © |
| Small city river Calming place for pleasure boats Sweet river dreaming by Gemma Wiseman © | the path of the worm broken by puddles of rain spring thunderstorm by jameselle bond © | Neck bent, legs trailing Grey-blue feathers catch the sun On his lonely flight by Sally Clarke © |
| Beautiful delay, making everything fall quiet naturally by Mark © | Behold the ego Set in glowing emptiness On the edge of time by Noel Kaufmann | Trees are not frightened By a sheer, foreboding cliff-side Or a silent fall. by Grace E. © |
| weeping daughter cry me a salt river of tears before you return by jules Honore © | The morning paper harbinger of good and ill - I step over it by Dave McCroskey | Elements unseen amid skillful arrangements, His artistic way by Mark © |
| Changes come in life, they don't just merely happen. There is a purpose. by S. Mills © | That great blue oak indifferent to all blossoms appears more noble by Basho | Hand wringing experts light fourteen million boxes - open rows up front by Mark © |
| loving my daisies and their lackadaisical approach to our lives by Jules Honore © | Cozy coffee shop "Is Theology Poetry?" speechless in wonder by Mark © | create an omelet to rescue your broken eggs. cook slowly or else... by jules Honore © |
| First autumn morning: the mirror I stare into shows my father's face. by Murakami | The Apricot tree, laden. But it won't drop fruit till they are rotten. by Raging Bull © | Guard your heart my friend, the queen of hearts you trust may have a change of heart. by Ashley M. © |
| Windy day in France--- Leaves tumble in the cold air While roses shiver. by tri tran © | The sound of wood bats cracking as balls fly above Homerun! Tigers win! by Steve B. © | Steel monster towers; City shadowed with darkness blackening all lives by Shannon M © |
| life's jigsaw puzzle is hidden beneath Gods' wings 'till the end of time by jameselle bond © | God invented time. But he is not subject to it, Today or tomorrow. by Grace E. © | The old fisherman unalterably intent - cold evening rain by Buson |
| This dark autumn old age settles down on me like heavy clouds or birds by Basho | Breakfast enjoyed in the fine company of morning glories by Basho | Tired but restless, my mind turns to poetry. Haiku helps me sleep. by Raging Bull © |
| Spring blooms, but some trees stay bare. Seedlings sprout below. The circle of life. by Raging Bull © | The banana tree blown by winds pours raindrops into the bucket by Basho | A gardener 'allows' A vine to curl around his fence. But the fence will fall. by Grace E. © |
© indicates author retains the copyright
banner photo - Winter Lake