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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 Once entries are posted, they can be revised or withdrawn ONLY by making another Comment.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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another hot day…
in the old beggar man’s box
many years of shame
families of toads
into a jazz -blues concert –
evening picnic
boat full of migrants…
a song about the green grass
face the horizon
Old traditions
A note in my daughters lunchbox
The cold northern wind
is whispering
About winter coming early
Pitter-patter
On my roof the announcement
Winter is here!
– Stef de Koker
from South-Africa
Vapor sweeps my eyes
Tearing up after, for you
Sky falls down on us
August dolour here
Airless sky, airless ticker
Longing your twister
It is winter and
this is God flushing our sins.
I am forced to muse
Snow shrouds the lantern,
footmarks fade along the path-
night swallows the light.
The street is holding
an assembly of bodies,
and bullets and bombs.
nettle for the sting
strawberry for the sweetness
my tattoo heals me
a sturgeon moonrise
brings the bereft abundance:
serendipity
ukrainian spring
even in the minefields, growth
is unstoppable
We are the soldiers
Spring’s breeze rising through the trees
Autumn’s falling leaves
strange how, in grief, the
whole world can unfurl upon
a tiny spring leaf
spring’s here, I say, my
words of course unheard – yet all
the birds are singing
in Willow’s deep shade
pasts and futures fade into
the soft ‘plop’ of now
Ticking of clock
Abyss stares darkly
Wave in sand
why are you still here
you know that we are finished
it’s time to move on
we were never good
we always just pretended
now we are both free
mosquito attack
hot summer
sitting by the water
mosquito attack
butterfly wings
my stress dissolves
into many colors
butterfly wings
The poor fortune-teller
Puts the lifetime of all time
Out for a cheap sale
Upon the cloud tops
A wandering thought walks slow
Freed from every chain
A child leaves alone
His wooden doll on the ground
He longs for the branch
Weathered photographs
cold stench of rot and wet moss
a lone crow cries out
A murder of crows
circles above winter snow —
red blooms stain the white
Cherry blossoms fall
staining the wet stone pathway
echoes of lost hands
Frown creases his brow
Even with month’s wage in hand
Wrinkles hold the day
________
New skin in the spring
Woven for unwritten tales
Past sleeps in the ground
________
He lowers his sword
Poverty sleeps in white snow
Sakuras in frost
Sunset above a sweltering city
Firebathes brick buildings in an apricot haze
Blue dusk relief exhales nightfall
Sometimes it isn’t the living
Who gently rock you to sleep, murmuring
“I’ll always be with you.”
Blossom glows and froths
Like curling surf in sunlight
A sweet treat for birds
One tiny snowdrop
Shakes a white head at winter
Passing by, we smile
Light’s gleam strokes the tree
Dancing its fingers along
A touched leaf trembles
Low swallows over
late summer grass – I wish I
had roamed more widely!
High summer, high winds –
white butterfly clings, angled,
to its bramble leaf
Coo COO coo coo coo –
high in a green tree, pigeon
begins a haiku
weary trees drop leaves
crispy from the heat of drought
aching for autumn
sweet soft breeze blows in
ousting steamy summer heat
which plots to return
crickets wake confused
spring eclipse calls for stellar
daytime lullabies
entangled up high
a boy unravels the kite
from the sky’s embrace
drifting paper boat
a child cups the hush of rain
in his trembling hands
evacuation
box after box after box
packing memories
Monarch butterfly
Emerge from green chrysalis
Magical beauty
-Stefeni Bartlett
Sunflower faces
Each to the north, south, east, west
Russian mammoth here
-Stefeni Bartlett
Feathers of a wren
Making their houses again
Next year they’ll be ten
-Stefeni Bartlett
1. if peace is the goal
then i must let you go, dear.
adieu, my love. bye.
2. why did you leave, dear?
i knew this would not last long.
it was just one word.
3. the house is silent
a man melts, a woman burns.
but finally- peace?
two monarchs flutter
around like petals, twirling
in the springtime breeze
ship beyond the sea
sings its centuries old song
hidden behind mist
figure in the pond
a reflection that ripples
i wave— it waves back
Mexico summer,
dirt droplets smear the windshield:
radio rain song.
after daffodils,
cicada summer sets in —
retreat to haiku.
salt-beetle roams on
cow plop, startles butterfly;
rippling rut-water.
Minuscule worries
Bother me, irritate me
Rationalizing
A single thought moves
From my head down to my toes
It commands my will
I watch her rise up
hands towards the new day sky
my blooming flower
My love bleeding out
gathering into one heart
a red rose bouquet
The intricate art
of weaving romantic lace
as spider prepares