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WHO
Anyone in the world, of any age or background, may participate (SCP Membership not required). Among members of the Society of Classical Poets, everyone including Advisory Board members may participate, if not involved in judging the contest. The winner, if not a U.S. resident, must have a PayPal account or a bank that accepts U.S. checks, in order to receive prize money.
IMPORTANT: By submitting haiku to this contest, the contestant declares that the poems are his or her own work, and that they were written in the last twelve months and therefore are not a repeat submission from a previous year. Poems written using artificial intelligence (AI) are not allowed. Please submit using your first and last name, as we may find it difficult to distinguish between contestants who have similar first names.
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PRIZE
$200
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JUDGES
J. Thomas Rimer, Professor Emeritus of Japanese Literature, Theatre, and Art at the University of Pittsburgh; former chief of the Asian Division of the Library of Congress.
Margaret Coats, Ph.D. in English and American Literature and Language from Harvard University; retired from a career of teaching literature, languages, and writing that included considerable work in homeschooling for her own family and others.
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WHEN
Now until August 15, 2025, 6 pm EST (New York time). Results to be announced August 28, 2025. Please check back on August 28 or after to view the “Best Haiku of 2025” selected from this competition. NOTE: THE HAIKU CONTEST HAS ENDED! No more entries, the comments have been closed! Thanks to all who entered!
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HOW
Post your entries in the Comments below.
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WHAT
Each competitor may post in the comments below up to three haiku of traditional form: three lines per poem with 5 syllables in the first line, 7 syllables in the second, and 5 in the third. Entrants are recommended to conform to other traditional haiku requirements outlined HERE.
If you want coaching on haiku features, please read the examples and explanation before submitting your entries. Once entries are posted, they can be revised or withdrawn ONLY by making another Comment. This is permitted until the competition closes, but do take reasonable care to complete work to your satisfaction before you enter it. Please do not use the Comment area as your scratch pad. That is discourteous to other competitors, to interested readers, and to the judge and will disqualify you.
Entries that do not meet basic traditional haiku requirements may be deleted. Anyone who submits more than three entries will have ALL his or her entries disqualified, unless excess entries are clearly withdrawn by a later Comment.
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PAST WINNERS
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a morning aubade
Canaries sing so softly
the choir baton snaps.
Branches swaying arms
holding me at my worst
love me at my best
over nine o’clock
just looking sunset alone
end of the earth…
where, looking up
rocky peaks of Yosemite
summer becoming end…
Japanese snow crab
soaking hot springs
cheerful father
glove leather and dirt
crunching cleats, ding of metal
cloud drifts over fence
bees amongst flowers
alcohol made by taking
sweet stores of labor
voice beckons, boy looks
crossing pasture, heat subsides
sun gives way to night
Clear skies are preferred
But every once in a while
Rain is bearable
Midnight Sun is rare
Everyone is excited
Midday Moon is glum
Rose petals are fine
But before you go near them
Watch out for the thorns
My black berry bush
A shelter for lone ducklings
A river of frost
A farmers harvest
A crumpling weed aging
Breakfast for a mouse
Falling leaves
Pale building blocks
For mouses home
Tears fall like raindrops
Peace crowns the vast universe
Shadows dims our truth
Nigeria my home
Rich in treasured minerals
Echoes from the east
Ancestral voice leads
Colour weave our heritage
Symbols guard our past
crackle, flutter, chirp
ending dark prenatal night
song of fledgling spring
dingy, splotchy white
winter tiger’s toothless fight
shadowboxing light
color winds collapse
winter’s coat of autumn scraps
gift of a lifetime
Moonlight on still waves,
your eyes once lit my shoreline—
now the tide takes all.
Petals fall too soon,
whispers fade in autumn fog—
your warmth stays in dreams.
Under quiet stars,
I call where you cannot hear—
night swallows my voice.
Sadness everywhere
The world continues on
Still obliviously
Love was to be free
Yet you burned my tender skin
Two hands drunk on sin
Blood runs through my veins
You have always kept me sane
Yet you were the flame
Our love like thunder
Lightning striking down on us
Your skin didn’t burn
longest quiet night
the meteor between us
fades into her eyes
Noah Patullo
A search for nectar
Hungry is the hummingbird
Buzzing through the trees
cypress sentinels
one, two needles fall…silence
then the whole forest
fresh cedar kindling
the warmth of long winter nights
in his flannel shirt
There is an oddness
to it. How the drops hit dirt
hit the dry earth, cold.
So water permeates
In straight lines, watering earth
Clean down, dirty mud
Because what’s most off,
most foreign. How clean you fall
How much mud you stain.
NAME: TICHA ASANA
WRITTEN ON ; Monday 11th August 2025
SPRING – “GIRL’S EDUCATION”
Blossoms chase the light
walls of custom choke the air
books dream through the night
☀ SUMMER – “CHILD’S LABOUR ”
Sun beats on bare feet
factories devour the hours
hope wilts in the heat
❄ WINTER- “ALBINO CHALLENGES”
Frost on silver land
whispers coil around the path
sun strikes without hand
waiting for bad news –
watching leaves fall from the trees
outside the window
Computer predicts
Spring, snow, winter, rain, fall, fog
Look out the window.
Don’t flush your poems
No matter how bad they smell
Images clog sewers
Parking lot empty
Except where there’s some shade — one
hundred Fahrenheit
Haiku 1:
Between two worlds still,
silent threads weave my being
home is in the seam.
Haiku 2:
Light breaks through the fog,
truth blooms beyond the surface,
heart finds its own path.
Haiku 3:
Mirrors reflect me,
shadows dance with morning’s hope
love begins within.
Cherry Blossom
Moonlight
Trees swaying in the wind
Cherry blossom petals softly sleep
pink petals float in the wind
Their sweet smell
A maple leaf
In someone’s golden hair
Pretty are you not
The hot warm sun shines
Summer is finally here
My body is tan.
The new lambs are still
The foals in the paddock run
The spring breeze is calm.
The frost on the grass
The snow on the cold mountains
The winter sleds slide.
An icy frost
Sets down on the field
Rugby is a cold one
Winter is coming with snow
It’s here glistening in the sky
Flowing down to me
Spring is coming here now
Blossom trees sway in the sky
My hands full of pink
Summer comes quickly
Goes away faster than it came
I enjoy the beach