All haiku must be in English and must meet the criteria for the Innovative category, as described in Examples of Innovative Haiku in English below. All poems must be the original, unpublished work of the submitter.

Examples of Innovative Haiku in English

Anything goes in this category. All we ask is that the poem be as short as it can be and as long as it needs to be. We also will be favorably disposed to poems that are haiku-like (which suggests a very broad range). Since one or more of the traditional haiku elements are usually missing in innovative haiku, it’s imperative that whatever haiku elements you do choose to utilize here be conspicuous. For instance, John Cooper Clarke’s (UK)

      To convey one’s moods
      in seventeen syllables
      is very diffic

 

. . . is dependent on traditional haiku form, even as it lampoons it. Marlene Mountain’s (USA)

 on this cold
             spring   1
          2  night   3   4
             kittens
             wet
              5

 

. . . has nothing approaching traditional haiku form, but the precision of her orthography, her brevity and her timing coagulate into an unforgettably actual experience of the birth of a litter. Robert Boldman’s (USA)

      wind blowing leaves into a sentence

 

. . . uses a surprising self-referential strategy that in academia might be called post-modern, though it was written before the onset of that particular critical perspective. And Carl Patrick’s (USA)

     fireflies
     my neighbor
     has more

 

. . . chooses a grumpy and unexpected humor, as well as allusion (to a famous Japanese haiku) to bring the reader to a vision of a warm night brightly lit. These strategies, and many more, will succeed in the innovative haiku category.