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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 Once entries are posted, they can be revised or withdrawn ONLY by making another Comment.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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2. Bones on every side.
White curving dormant femur
Covered with clay dirt.
3. Bay outta season,
Are fishes cold in Winter?
I’d be quite crabby.
3. Minuscule cell walls
I wish our prison had plants
I’d break every pot
1.
The whisper of the wind.
Where is her baby fawn?
Tiny footprints in snow.
2.
Blooming morning
Off to feed baby badger
looking for honey
3.
hot sunny morning
a fluffy duckling circles
in a flowering pond
She inherits gold
And flies like a billionaire
The Cloudless Sulphur
I think of life
My degrees, lost aspirations
The cooker whistles
***
I think of life
Of borders dividing it
Blurring my own thoughts
***
I think of life
The beginning and the end
They call it cycle
***
bright moon paints the sky
the trees glow, their branches dance
and sway in the night
feet on the dash board
hair wild. tangled in the wind
it will be night soon
a bird takes flight.
soaring high over patchwork fields
gliding on the wind
after a hard day –
discovering the silence
in grasshopper sounds
return from afar –
under the rustle of leaves
the paths of childhood
alone in the dark
absorbed by the meadow’s scent
an evening prayer
touched by longing
tears ripple your reflection
in the quiet pond
finished in one go—
closing the hardcover book
first sunrise in spring
arch of the cat’s tail
his lover has whiskers too
the moon veiled in mist
aloha print shorts
on a wave riding the moon
to a bamboo hut
Sea breeze fog obscures
the sun, fuzzes the edges.
Dreams fuse then dissolve.
seeds become saplings
from a butchered sycamore
cherished life returns
long nights come early…
so do the carol singers
sadly out of tune
sky full of spring rain
the returning birds and I
shake our tail feathers
Your big, empty bed.
Worse than any hangover –
the reasons she left.
Sunflower seeds cracked.
Think of who I could have been.
All that time, wasted.
Hitman elegy –
forgiven, in the next life.
You are not your job.
forgotten sparrow
fallen among autumn leaves
her funeral shroud
greygrim winter morn
digging up this graveyard mind
bygone lovers’ bones
maria on pearl
alabaster on midnight
moon in medium
Whitecaps race to shore
Tumbling over each other
Summer’s far too short
December morning,
visible…invisible…
hastening headlights
Golden jubilee
nan rests a sheaf of lilies
by grandpa’s picture
First drop of monsoon—
a peacock unfolds its train;
wide-eyed spectators
dark clouds gathering
lightning splits open the sky
summer night suspense
rain strikes calm water
thunder cracks the sky in two
a child gasps, delight!
bird sings to himself
as he bathes in a cool stream
picture then fall in!
I watch my hands type
my mind far from work’s demands
somewhere full of trees
untended garden
a monarch butterfly rests
on the rusted rake
*
wisteria vines
on the forgotten farmhouse
this lengthening day
*
first winter morning
in grandmother’s heirloom cup
warm hibiscus tea
With a pastor’s eyes
I’m going to talk nicely
Thank you God for her
I climb blind up slopes
thin air is here on the peak-
Again, I have sight
Autumn with brown leaves
From the tree they fall, decay;
Finally, I see color
Wrinkly am I now
In youth, the green grass I loathe-
Here it enchants me
Coiled dreaming python
she’s gone by evening
I step on the hose.
Becalmed mirror sky
aqua blue in reflection
my splash , a ripple.
I , the crashing wave
will surrender together
in bubbles and foam.
Moonlit Sea (Shoda Koho)
a nonchalant moon,
the sentinel grass makes sure
there are no ripples
Song Birds on Persimmon Bough (Shoseki)
so fat and so round,
orange berries on branches:
songbirds weigh so light
Branches with Almond Blossom (Van Gogh)
sprinkle of winter
snow melting on the branches:
one morning it’s gone
the last cicada
sings into the silent dusk—
summer’s requiem
through the clover patch
swift bare feet speckled with dew—
a cricket leaps high
waxing crescent moon
slowly lifting the bride’s veil—
a pale cratered face
From her eye a tear,
Her loved one she sees no more.
Overwhelming pain
Is she gone really
My heart cannot take the pain
Heaven I will pray
When my time is up
I will embrace your warm hug
Until then my love
Tokyo morning
He asks me to marry him
Blossoms nod their heads
A frosty pine tree
Turns to the old temple
Receives the moonlight
Reeds in the river
Bowing to cherry blossoms
I row through the past
dew and choking smog
enclose the tops of buildings
but still, this is home.
vines split mined granite—
these claws of nature that try
and try to survive.
sweetness of sugar
and juice on innocent lips,
still, a seed chokes.