Describe the last fruit on a bare tree in two lines, then say who gets it.Season word to try: persimmon (autumn). Turn: not you.
Use the word moon alone, with no season named, in a haiku about a walk at night.Season word to try: moon (autumn). Moon by itself is read as a full moon in autumn.
The sun has set and the sky is still orange. Write the minute before the streetlights as a haiku.Season word to try: afterglow (summer).
A bird is singing and you cannot find it in the sky. Write that haiku.Season word to try: skylarks (spring). The lists note them for their songs in flight.
Catch the dark second between a firework's flash and its bang in a haiku.Season word to try: fireworks (summer).
Find a hill or a mountain that looks asleep under snow and give it three lines.Season word to try: sleeping mountain (winter). It stands for the stillness of the mountains.
Give a hot day a modern haiku: start from the hum of an air conditioner.Season word to try: air conditioning (summer). The list gives it for contemporary haiku.
Give three lines to a night when the crickets were louder than the people.Season word to try: crickets (autumn). The lists note the singing of the males.
Let the north wind arrive in line one of a haiku, before anyone feels cold.Season word to try: north wind (winter). It signals the coming of cold weather.
Look up from somewhere dark and write the Milky Way in three lines.Season word to try: Milky Way (autumn). In Japan it shows best in autumn.
One tree on your street turned color before the rest. Give it a haiku.Season word to try: colored leaves (autumn). A very common subject for haiku.
Put one cicada into a haiku about the hottest afternoon you remember.Season word to try: cicada (late summer). The lists note it for its cries.
Say blossoms in a haiku without saying which tree.Season word to try: cherry blossoms (spring). Blossoms alone is assumed to mean cherry.
Use the word moon alone, with no season named, in a haiku about a walk at night.Season word to try: moon (autumn). Moon by itself is read as a full moon in autumn.
Write a haiku about puddle ice too thin to stand on.Season word to try: thin ice (early spring).
Write a haiku about seeing your own breath at the bus stop.Season word to try: breath vapor (winter).
Write a haiku for Christmas morning without using the word present.Season word to try: Christmas (winter). A modern season word.
Write a haiku with frogs in it, and let the reader hear them before seeing them.Season word to try: frogs (spring). The lists note frogs for their loud singing.
One moment outdoors 15
A crane, or any tall bird, stands in a frozen field and lifts one foot. Write that as a haiku.Season word to try: crane (winter).
A deer at the edge of the road looks up at your bike. Write the second before it decides, in three lines.Season word to try: deer (autumn).
A duck sleeps on the lake with its head tucked under a wing. Three lines.Season word to try: waterfowl sleeping on water (winter).
A leaf lands on the page of the book you are reading outside. Write it as a haiku.Season word to try: leaves start to fall (late autumn).
A mosquito lands on your arm during the best part of the sunset. Write the haiku.Season word to try: mosquito (summer). Angle: keep both in it, the sky and the itch.
A wave pulls back and leaves one jellyfish on the sand. Catch it in three lines.Season word to try: jellyfish (summer). Angle: what does the next wave do?
An evening downpour starts and one person at the bus stop does not move. Write the haiku.Season word to try: evening downpour (summer).
Catch the half second a swallow touches the pond and leaves a ring, in three lines.Season word to try: swallows (spring). Angle: end on the ring, not the bird.
In a still orchard, one peach drops. Write the sound in three lines.Season word to try: peach (autumn).
Put your hand in the creek on the first day the water does not sting, and write that in three lines.Season word to try: warming of water (spring).
Snow begins while you are halfway across a field. Write the moment you notice, in three lines.Season word to try: snow (winter). Angle: what did the first flake land on?
Stand in the spray of a waterfall for one breath and write only that breath, as a haiku.Season word to try: waterfall (summer).
The sun has set and the sky is still orange. Write the minute before the streetlights as a haiku.Season word to try: afterglow (summer).
Watch willow branches touch a river and get pulled downstream. Three lines.Season word to try: willow (spring). Angle: what lets go first?
Write a haiku for the first patch of bare ground showing through the snow.Season word to try: patch of ground without snow (spring).
An ordinary object 15
A bike comes out of the shed with two flat tires. Give it a haiku.Season word to try: warmth (spring).
A jar with holes punched in the lid sits on the porch rail. Write what is inside, as a haiku.Season word to try: insects (autumn). In the lists it mainly means singing insects.
A lawn chair is unfolded for the first time this year. Write the haiku.Season word to try: nap (summer).
A sweater comes out of the bottom drawer. Write the haiku of putting it on.Season word to try: first colored leaves (autumn).
A wind chime has been silent all week. Write the haiku of its first sound.Season word to try: south wind (summer).
A window is opened for the first time since fall. Write what comes in, in three lines.Season word to try: twittering (spring). It means the chirping of songbirds.
An extra blanket appears at the foot of the bed. Three lines.Season word to try: cold (winter).
Give three lines to one pear ripening on the kitchen counter.Season word to try: pear (autumn). Angle: who is waiting for it?
Two muddy rain boots stand by the door. Three lines, no people.Season word to try: rainy season (summer).
Write a haiku about a box fan in a window.Season word to try: hot day (summer). Angle: what does it move besides air?
Write a haiku about a flashlight with weak batteries.Season word to try: hazy moon (spring). Angle: two dim lights, one near, one far.
Write a haiku about a lunchbox with one apple left in it.Season word to try: apples (autumn).
Write a haiku about a rake leaning on a fence.Season word to try: fallen leaves (winter). Winter is where the Japanese lists put it.
Write a haiku about a trowel left standing in the dirt.Season word to try: sowing (spring). Angle: what went in, and who walked away?
Write a haiku about a wall calendar on its last page.Season word to try: New Year's Eve (winter).
A turn in the last line 15
Complain about the cold for two lines of a haiku, then take it back in the third.Season word to try: snow-viewing (winter). Turn: from grumbling to looking.
Describe a sunflower taller than you in two lines, then say which way it is facing.Season word to try: sunflower (summer). Turn: not toward you.
Describe neat planted rows in two lines, then end on the footprints across them.Season word to try: seedbed (spring). Turn: whose feet?
Describe the last fruit on a bare tree in two lines, then say who gets it.Season word to try: persimmon (autumn). Turn: not you.
Fill two lines with playground noise, then make the last line the quiet.Season word to try: summer holidays (summer). Turn: the day after the last bell.
Give two lines to frost on a garden, and the third to the one green thing that made it.Season word to try: late frost (spring). Turn: from damage to a survivor.
Give two lines to the heat and the last line to one cold thing.Season word to try: sweat (summer). Turn: from the whole day to something in your hand.
Give two lines to the hillside everyone drove to see, and the third to what the smallest passenger watched instead.Season word to try: leaf peeping (autumn). Turn: from far to near.
Put a storm warning in two lines, then end on the calm thing a neighbor is doing.Season word to try: typhoon (autumn). Turn: from the sky to one person.
Spend two lines on a bare branch in bloom, then turn to what is still on the ground.Season word to try: plum blossom (early spring). Turn: the snow has not gone.
Two lines for a bowl of grapes, then a last line an hour later.Season word to try: grapes (autumn). Turn: only stems.
Two lines on purple flowers hanging over a fence, then a last line for what is inside one.Season word to try: wisteria (spring). Turn: a bee, heard before it is seen.
Two lines where everything is asleep for the winter, and a last line for the one thing that is not.Season word to try: hibernation (winter). Turn: one light, one sound or one animal.
Write two lines about falling asleep outdoors and a third about what woke you.Season word to try: lesser cuckoo (summer). A bird the lists note for its song.
Write two lines of your own tracks in new snow, then cross them with someone else's.Season word to try: rabbit (winter). Turn: you were not the first one out.
How it works
These haiku writing prompts each hand over one small thing to look at: a swallow touching a pond, a lunchbox with one apple left. The line underneath offers a season word and the season the Japanese lists file it under.
Read the full guide
Start with a season word
Some season words are surprises. Moon by itself means autumn, a rainbow belongs to summer, and fallen leaves are filed under winter: the lists follow the traditional Japanese seasons, in which winter starts on November 7 and spring on February 4. Fifteen prompts start from the word itself. In the rest it is there to borrow or ignore.
A turn in the last line
Traditional Japanese haiku include a cutting word, which can break the stream of thought and set two parts side by side. English has no direct equivalent, so poets sometimes use a dash, an ellipsis or an unmarked break. Fifteen prompts mark the place: two lines one way, then a third that looks somewhere else.
Write what you saw before you count syllables. Trim to fit afterwards.
If a season word from Japan means nothing where you live, swap in a local one. Haiku groups in other regions keep their own lists.
Questions and answers
Does a haiku have to be 5-7-5?
That is the traditional count: three lines of five, seven and five syllables, seventeen in all. The Academy of American Poets notes that the pattern has been routinely broken as the form evolved, while the focus on one brief moment has been kept.
What is a season word in a haiku?
A kigo: a word or phrase tied to one season, such as frogs for spring or crickets for autumn. Japanese poets find them in a book of season words called a saijiki. Many haiku written in other languages leave the season word out.
What is a good subject for a haiku?
One brief moment, often an image from nature, said simply and directly. Puddle ice too thin to stand on is a haiku subject. So is a bike coming out of the shed with two flat tires.
Are these haiku poem writing prompts for kids?
Yes. Each asks for something a child can go and look at: muddy rain boots by the door, a jar with holes punched in the lid, a duck asleep on the lake.