Y & Z of Haiku

If you’re inspired to make your own haiku alphabet – and there are so many other poems I could have used, please share the link in the Comments section.

Y

canyon dawn:
a bat folding dark
into a crevice

Ruth Yarrow, Lit from Within (Red Moon Press, 2016)

 

sunflowers
the tube of cadmium yellow
squeezed flat

D Claire Gallagher, Second place HPNC Contest, 2004

 

Z

 

zinnias . . .
why yes my favourite
was Harpo

Scott Mason, The Heron’s Nest 11.3, 2009

 

never younger
than now
i zest a lemon

Marilyn Appl Walker, The Heron’s Nest 16.1, 2014

 

The End!

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V, W, X of Haiku

V

Valentine’s Day —
she reminds me
to fasten my seatbelt

Michael Dylan Welch, Haiku Society of America Newsletter 15.4 , 2000

 

removing
     the bullet-proof vest:
          the heat

Nick Virgilio (1928-89), Modern Haiku 14.3, 1983

 

W

that one kid
with the plastic whistle —
evening heat

Cherie Hunter Day, Modern Haiku 45.3, 2014

 

watermelons
the weight of our grunts
breaks an axle

Chad Lee Robinson, The Deep End of the Sky (Turtle Light Press, 2015)

 

X

I send a fax
protesting the bombing
pages come out hot

Ruth Yarrow, from The Haiku Apprentice by Abigail Friedman (Stone Bridge Press, 2006)

 

          Listening …
After a while,
     I take up my axe again

Rod Willmot, Haiku (1969)

S, T, U of Haiku

If you feel inspired to make your own alphabet, please share the link in the Comments section.

S

shooting the rapids
even the back of his head
looks suprised

HF Noyes, Haiku Ancient & Modern (MQP, 2002)

 

choosing a swimsuit
when did I start seeing
through his eyes?

Mayuzumi Madoka, Haiku Love (The British Museum, 2013, tr Alan Cummings)

 

T

trail’s end
the taste of wild onion
still sharp on my tongue

Billie Wilson, The Heron’s Nest 6.3, 2005

 

tackle shop for sale –
a tide-chart on the wall
two years out of date

Rodney Williams, Windfall 5, 2017

U

in the rains of spring
an umbrella and a raincoat
pass by, conversing

Buson (tr Kenneth Yasuda)

 

Cherry Blossoms in Ueno Park, Tokyo by Hasui Kawase (1883 – 1957).

 

southern humpback –
     miles of ocean
     pushing back

Scott Terrill, A Hundred Gourds 2.1, 2012

P, Q, R of haiku

If you feel inspired to make your own alphabet, please share the link in the Comments section.

P

platelets —
the trip we were planning
to plan

Roberta Beary, Modern Haiku 41.2, 2010

 

unplanned pregnancy
the hum of a beehive       
beneath the porch

John McManus, Acorn 35, 2015

Q

into the silence
of a Quaker meeting
the scent of roses

Jo Pacsoo, Presence 47, 2013

 

Queen Anne’s lace —
a childhood spent
in second-hand clothes

Mary Kendall, The Heron’s Nest 19.1, 2017

R

Roman road
I carry the dust
further north

Matt Morden, Martin Lucas Haiku Award 2017

 

prairie storm
the darkness disperses
as buffalo

Chad Lee Robinson, The Heron’s Nest 19.3, 2017

M, N, O of haiku

If you feel inspired to make your own alphabet, please share the link in the Comments section.

M

morning meditation
the white cockatoo
just doesn’t get it

Glenys Ferguson, Windfall 6, 2018

 

autumn moon
eclipsed for a moment
migrating geese

Tracy Davidson, Katikati Haiku Contest winner, 2016

 

N

hotel laundry
the weight the maid carries
down to the Nile

Ingrid Baluch, The Mamba #5, 2018

 

distant wren song …
the brown river
slowed to green

John Barlow, The Heron’s Nest 7.4, 2005

 

O

Okavango delta —
dawn climbs slowly
from rhino to rhino

Lysa Collins, Under the Basho, 2017

 

swallow loops
a farmer clambers onto
his old tractor

John Barlow, paper wasp 13.3, 2007

J, K, L of haiku

If you feel inspired to make your own alphabet, please share the link in the Comments section.

J

joint custody
a child on each end
of the see-saw

Susan Constable, Haiku Canada Review 7.2, 2013

 

thunder-filled clouds –   
over the bridge come
jingling-jangling horses

Cyril Childs, Beyond the Paper Lanterns, 2000

 

K

dry summer –                                                                  
the kale field shimmering
with white butterflies

Catherine Bullock, scattered feathers (New Zealand Poetry Society, 2015)

 

broken whelk
the silky touch
of inside

Jenny Fraser, The Heron’s Nest 19.1, 2017

 

L

the long night
festive lights blinking
at the gun shop

Roland Packer, Haiku Canada Review 10.1, 2016

 

a last year’s lambskin where mushrooms gather dusk

Lorin Ford, Katikati Haiku Contest winner, 2014

 

G, H, I of Haiku

If you’re inspired to make your own alphabet, please share the link in the Comments section.

G

the bouncing ball
       beats the giggling boy
             down the zig-zag

Cyril Childs, Kokako 14, 2011

 

filling the grave
     more earth
than will go back in

David Cobb, Jumping from Kiyomizu: A Haiku Sequence (Iron Press, 1996)

 

H

honeysuckle
I haven’t been touched
in a long time

Robert Epstein, Mariposa 29, 2013

 

her hazel eyes
somewhere between winter
and spring

Gregory Piko, Presence 58, 2017

 

Image: Dunpharlain, via Wikimedia

I

mosquito she too
insisting insisting she
is is is is is

Peter Yovu, Modern Haiku 35.1, 2004

 

call of the wild
I unzip
her sleeping bag

Dave Read, Failed Haiku 22.2, 2017

D, E, F of Haiku

Hope you’re enjoying this ride through the haiku alphabet – if you feel inspired to make your own alphabet, please share the link in the Comments section.

D

初夢や金も拾はず死にもせず
hatsu-yume ya kane mo hirowazu shini mo sezu

first dream of the year
not finding money on the road
not dying either

Natsume Soseki  (1867-1916), tr Susumu Takiguchi

 

debate night
one dog barks
then another

Bill Cooper, A Hundred Gourds 5.2, 2016

 

E

the everywhere
of wild carrot
wayside moon

Michele Root-Bernstein, The Heron’s Nest 19.1, 2017

 

glowing embers
I start my story
from the end

Debbi Antebi, Presence 60, 2018

 

F

forsythia –
misspelled twice in the poet’s
yellowed notes

Ron Evans, Haiku Odyssey blog, 2014

 

clearing storm
a ewe flicks a fly
from her ear

Pamela Brown, Presence 52, 2015

A, B, C of Haiku

Hope you’ll enjoy this ride through a fairly random haiku alphabet – there are a myriad of alternative choices for each letter. If you feel inspired to make your own alphabet, please share the link in the Comments section.

A

deep autumn
the arsenic
at the apple’s core

Melissa Allen, A New Resonance 8 (Red Moon Press, 2013)

 

home of my ancestors
I download an app
that speaks their language    

Ann Magyar, IRIS Magazine Little Haiku Contest winner, 2017

 

B

so suddenly winter
baby teeth at the bottom 
of the jar

Carolyn Hall, The Heron’s Nest 7.1, 2005

 

Baskin-Robbins
we sample new
baby names

Susan Burch, Betty Drevniok Haiku Award, 2018

 

C

crematorium
today my son weighs the same
as when he was born

David J Kelly, Modern Haiku 48.3, 2017

 

gatecrashing
into the church hymn
wall gecko

Anthony Itopa Obaro, Yamadera Basho Memorial Haiku Contest, 2017