These suit the exuberant tone of his poem. Contrast Martin Rizley’s winter haiku, which exhibits regular English rhythm, rhyme, and alliteration in all three lines. It thus has more of the deep “stirrings” it mentions-and it breaks away from the “bare”/ “unaware” rhyme and tone of the other lines. The third line, with the same number of syllables as the first, has more word accents or stresses. Linette Eloff captures late winter in three lines appropriately rhymed and metered.

However, they add beauty to the poem and demonstrate the poet’s skill with language. These things are neither required nor specially favored in this competition. These first four haiku show how poets writing in English can naturalize the required Japanese syllabic form by using features of English poetry, including rhythm, rhyme, and alliteration. A more detailed article on haiku by G.M.H. Information and advice about the seasonal requirement, including a link to a kigo list, with an analysis of last year’s winner, can be found HERE. They fulfill ALL the above haiku requirements, but are grouped to allow for easy discussion of one requirement at a time, in the paragraph that follows each group. ⦁ offers an intriguing insight that arises from interaction of the two partsīelow are examples of good haiku, chosen from runners-up and other entries last year.

⦁ has two parts or two images or two aspects ⦁ has a seasonal word or image, known in Japanese as a “kigo” ⦁ uses present tense (“goes” or “going,” not “went” or “has gone”) ⦁ presents an observation of nature, or of human activities in nature The required 5-7-5 syllable form alone does not make a haiku.

A complete haiki