What is haiku?
A short note on what the journal looks for — and why the form still matters.
Haiku is an important poetry form. The subject is often nature, but not always. There are many variations: some count syllables, some don't; some are written in long-short-long lines, others are shaped by an overall syllable budget.
Haiku Journal sticks to a constrained form. We accept haiku in the English language — though the roots of the form are Japanese — and we accept only poems that follow the classical pattern: five syllables in the first line, seven in the second, five in the third.
If you don't like this style of haiku, consider our sister site 50Haikus.com, where all forms of haiku are welcome. It's a wonderful journal despite the funny name.
Is this a haiku?
I was made of clay. I became a free bird. My clay has turned to wind.
The first line has 5 syllables (good). The second line has only 6 syllables; the third has 6. A beautiful small poem, but not 5 / 7 / 5, and not what this journal publishes.
And this one?
pleasant cathedral coughs sadly, dimly shrewd, loud patient carnivores
The lines count 5, 7, and 5. It would be considered nontraditional in its imagery, but it fits the shape the journal honors, and we would read it carefully.
A word on two Japanese ideas
kigo
A word or phrase that anchors the haiku in a season — a small hinge by which the whole poem turns. Snow. First plum blossom. The first katydid. The kigo does half the work of the poem by itself.
Read more on Wikipedia →kireji
A "cutting word" — the small pivot inside a haiku where one image turns into another, or where the poem breathes in before breathing out. Classical Japanese has explicit kireji; English haiku suggest the same turn through rhythm, punctuation, or a line break.
Read more on Wikipedia →We do not require a kigo or a kireji — but because we are lovers of the form, we almost always notice when you've used them.
Short and plain
- Three lines — no more, no less.
- Five syllables in line one, seven in line two, five in line three.
- No title. The haiku is the whole thing.
- No explanation. Let the image land on its own.
- Lines no longer than forty characters (our books are printed in narrow columns).
Ready to send us a haiku?
Read the full guidelines and submit when the reading period is open.
Read Submission Guidelines