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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 Once entries are posted, they can be revised or withdrawn ONLY by making another Comment.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 red garden bench
Is dotted with windfall limes
Colours in Winter
Autumn nights grow cold
While travellers sip their tea —
Red moon, aeroplane.
Red-hot pokers stand
Proud against the horizon —
The winter hills wait.
Tulips push their tips
Past their earthen carapace —
Spring is here to stay.
morning reflection
joining her hands in prayer
a moth rests its wings
Warning sirens blare
Continuing to look down
As birds fly away
Earlier this time
Branches against the window
Calmness with the storm
Ducklings cross the road
Beauty meets fragility
Slippery wet leaves
nicely done, Carl
well lineated, natural,
uncluttered, spare
On my window-sill
a cycladic
figurine.
reveals existential
knowledge with
threads of
connection.
5,000 years ago
as i wash my
dishes.
Pohutukawa
Water like paint in relief
Framed in a Landscape
I remember you
Sunlight formica kitchen
Brown knitted tie, shorts
Ionisation
Elevates mundanity
On a solar wind
Post apocalypse
Amongst devastation ruins
The cat enjoys the sun
Before the sunrise,
the waking world bares itself
with a warming face.
Stars in the cold night;
lights shining across dark tides
from so far away.
A flight of starlings
dances on the swirling winds
like dry autumn leaves.
BREEZE
The breeze passes by
Unnoticed, except by some
Yet is still a voice
LUNAR VIEW
A blue horizon
As seen from the darker side
And still there are tides
AUTUMN THOUGHTS
Leaves fall and settle
All in red and golden brown
Yet in peaceful rest
Learn about the pines
from the pines, and from the spine,
learn about the spine.
On the paved concrete,
the screech of the cicadas
sinks into my head.
In Kyoto too,
cuckoos long for Kyoto,
kyoo-kyoo, and cuckoos.
from winter to spring
velvet snow turns to water
flowers on the hill
old men laughing loud
speak of times long long ago
mind over matter
a river flows free
at the end the ocean waits
I will not forget
Grey skies in July
Garden waterlogged and drab
Then a daffodil.
Melancholy day
Wistfully recollecting
Fragrance of daphne.
Haiku 0 for my Rose (11012024) by Kyle Brogmus
In crunchy leaves jump
surrounded by death we laugh
within the Fall grace
rain’s deafening din.
scorching sun, dry wind, abate.
drip, again it comes.
dark clouds horizon.
ants scavenge, stash, shelter, wait.
pale lilac shrouds land.
sky darkens, wind howls.
volcano spews, earth devours.
sky lightens, wind calms.
The Crunch of the Frost
A Girl is flushed with Cold
The Horse waits for Day
this winter acre
of deep furrows, hare-hurtle
heart-hurtle, faster
clumsy hash of oars
watching riverbank whiskers
halt their dainty dip
scrabbling musty air
a porch mosquito inspects
old Sears catalogues
Dendrobium white
bedside in the filtered light
a cup of ice chips
reasons I stay here…
the geography of blood
in a rabbit’s ears
Ozymandias!
rising from the horse’s dung
freshly sprouted grass
A silent whisper
A voice lost in the deep sea
Deafening silence.
Veridian splendor
In the wilds, turquoise the sea
Face up to the sun
Drizzle, pour and pelt
Winter rain – a bleak outlook
We are warm inside
Paradise, this view
of gentle slopes and hues, I
know not all is lost
Pregnant ewes grazing
Grass shivers, southerly breeze
Spring biding her time
Stones grind underfoot
Driftwood litters onyx sand
Muddy sea claims all
Coriander sprawls
Pluck slender stems, pick a bunch
Gardener’s delight
1. outburst of my pain
lava of such volcano
in an overdose
2. pasive fugitive
blocked in body , free in mind
mixture of beings
3. blurred channel of view
bad signal from the
critics
any dream time stopped
Bogdana Găgeanu
Mess on the clean floor,
a breeze moves crumbs in sunlight-
things I’m not sorry for!
the first day of spring
I also dance to the tune
of the snake charmer
familiar sadness
somewhere I hear the echo
of yesterday’s rain
trying to fathom
what goes on under the sun
drooping sunflowers
open air café . . .
watching lovers hand-in-hand
on Champs-Élysées