I just discovered yesterday that in the "Life" section (front page) of USA Today, there is a sorta Haiku writing "contest," challenge, which has been going on for apparently a couple years. Each day there's a different focal word or topic to revolve the haiku around. Yesterday's word (topic) was "dirt" and here is my first submitted entry:

REMOVING ONE'S SHOE'S
SYMBOLICALLY CORRECT
PRISTINE FLOORS AND HEARTS. or


Removing one's shoe's
Symbolically correct
Pristine floors and hearts.

Won't gain the top spot. Haiku have to have a nature theme to win contests nowadays.

The stumble on shoe's would lose it anyway though.

Hugh,

Give me a little credit please, as the "shoe's" was definitely a typo as I was unfocused while being quite distracted. At first I thought you might have been "dead on" in your theory that it would have to have a nature theme to have a chance as this is the selected entry:

Recipes for pies:
pour water over dirt
Bake under the sun.

However, here's the selected one from yesterday with the focal word "supermarket:"

cart with broken wheel
free sample on a tooth pick
paper or plastic?

So, go figure?

What exactly are the rules regarding a haiku? What is it, exactly? Are there several certain qualities they must have?

I thought a haiku had to have 17 syllables or something. Doesn't the one about pies have 16?

Hello
actually "The Athenian",,, a haiku
is 5/7/5, 3 lines

Mary...aka Ladybug

Thanks, Ladybug!

By the way, will we be seeing any more poems from you soon? "Playing Hookey With the Sun" was a hit!

Yea, Athenian, there should have been a "the" before dirt in second line (sorry, as I've been dealing with quite a bit of distraction).

The nature theme is usually accepted as a haiku requirement. The number of syllables is often disputed, since Japanese does not have syllables that compare to English. Many say that English haiku should have some rhymes, others disagree. Here are some excellent ones by Dennis Hammes, from his pages at,

[www.t-independent.com] />

wet wood at the hearth
a tiny jet of white fire
spits into the void


april airbrakes wish
pretty skirts on the sidewalk
would come for a ride


ah, bright butterfly
you treat winter's brief cease-fire
like the Armistice


so cold winters but
this snowonderful morning
a warm toilet seat


geese cup the air
and slant in toward the pond
though trees are bare


The syllable counts may be violated, but I think they all qualify as haiku.

Jazzy,
I loved the MUD PIE, haiku. I disagree about it having to be a nature
theme although that was the original haiku.

Mary...aka Ladybug

The Athenian,
Thanx for your encouragement. I just havent felt an urge to post
any of my poetry since I caused such a disturbance on the last one.

Mary...aka Ladybug