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Three lines, 5–7–5

Haiku

A haiku makes a small space feel large. It places two images beside each other and lets the reader feel the turn between them.

Try Haiku

The shape

  • Three lines with five, seven, and five syllables.
  • One concrete image usually does more than an abstract explanation.
  • The final line often changes how the first two lines are understood.

A good place to use it

A precise observation, a season, or a brief moment that contains more than it explains.

Try this

  • Describe something ordinary without naming the feeling it gives you.
  • Put two unrelated things in the same weather.
  • Read the finished poem aloud; count with your ear as well as the tool.

A small example

Late train window
One moth circles the platform
No one gets off

Keep in mind

  • Three lines: five syllables, seven, then five.
  • Traditionally one image, and a turn or surprise in the last line.
  • Present tense does most of the work.
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