Haiku
Quick answer: Haiku definition and craft guide: the Japanese form of seventeen sound units, season words, the cut, and how to write haiku in English that actually work.
A haiku is a short Japanese poem of seventeen sound units arranged in phrases of five, seven and five, traditionally containing a season word and a cut that sets two images against each other; in English it is usually written as three brief lines. It is probably the most widely practised poetic form on the planet, and also the most widely misunderstood.
The misunderstanding is the syllable count. Japanese counts light sound units called on, which are shorter than English syllables, so seventeen English syllables carry noticeably more freight than seventeen on. Serious English-language haiku poets therefore treat five-seven-five as an ancestral guideline rather than a law, and aim instead for brevity, a seasonal anchor and the electric gap between two juxtaposed images.
How It Works
A haiku typically sets down one image, cuts, then sets down another, letting the reader's mind spark across the gap. In Japanese the cut is made by a kireji, a cutting word; in English a colon, an ellipsis or a line break does the job. A season word, or kigo, roots the moment in time. An original example:
Nothing is explained. The trolley and the last car are simply placed side by side, and the loneliness arrives on its own. That restraint, showing rather than concluding, is the entire discipline.
Where You Will See It
Four Japanese masters define the tradition. Basho gave it depth, most famously in his poem where a frog breaks the silence of an old pond. Buson brought a painter's eye. Issa let sparrows, snails and orphans into the form. Shiki, in the 1890s, modernised it and coined the very word haiku for the standalone verse. In English, the Imagists borrowed its compression early in the twentieth century, and today journals, societies and contests across every continent publish haiku in dozens of languages.
How to Use It in Your Own Poems
Write from observation, not from ideas: a haiku is a noticing machine. Draft the two images separately, then test different cut points to see where the spark jumps strongest. Cut every word that interprets, especially adjectives of emotion. Keep a notebook of small seasonal events from your own region, since borrowed cherry blossoms mean less than the first day your local ice-cream van returns. Writory's monthly contest welcomes haiku alongside longer forms, and brevity is no disadvantage when judges score imagery and emotional truth.
What poets can take from this
- Aim for roughly ten to fourteen English syllables rather than a strict seventeen.
- Use two images and one cut; three images is a crowd, one is a caption.
- Anchor the poem in a season, ideally through something you actually observed.
- Delete every word that tells the reader how to feel.
- Write daily for a month; haiku is a practice before it is a product.
Try it yourself
For seven days, write one haiku a day about the same location at the same hour, using a different sensory detail each day. On day eight, keep the strongest one and throw the rest away without regret.
Questions
Does a haiku have to be 5-7-5?
In Japanese, seventeen on in a five-seven-five pattern is standard. In English, most serious practitioners write shorter, since English syllables carry more information than Japanese on. Brevity, season and juxtaposition matter more than an exact count.
What is the difference between a haiku and a senryu?
They share the same shape, but haiku centres on nature and the seasons while senryu aims its wit at human behaviour. A poem about plum blossom is haiku; a poem about your uncle dominating the karaoke machine is senryu.
Who invented the haiku?
The form evolved from the hokku, the opening verse of linked poetry, which Basho perfected in the seventeenth century. Masaoka Shiki established it as an independent form and popularised the name haiku in the 1890s.
By the Writory editorial team, reviewed by working poets. Updated July 2026.
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