Haiku is a form of Japanese poetry comprised of three phrases.

Traditional haiku uses 17 syllables (5:7:5) but contemporary haiku in English often ignores this rule. A haiku is typically about nature, the earth and the natural world and are designed to be thought-provoking. These original haiku poems are by Anthony Rutledge and are mostly written in the contemporary free style format.

There are over 4,000 Haiku on this site in 15 different themes: Australian, Beach, Garden Sundial, In the Mirror,Kimono,Motherhood,Ships and Oceans,Spring,Windjammers and Miscellaneous.

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Buoy bells
in the fishermen’s thrown heads
a chorus of gulls.

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building a snowman
our neighbour’s clarinet
beneath the quiet

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Pacific rim
a sailboat
its future on the edge

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insomnia
the whispering-in
of the lace curtains

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Whale family
between oceans
in the ice of the world.

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in troughs of the moon
knowing her free-spirit
Laurel swimming back

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Spring rain
cacti shaping leaves
to the same needles.

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Blazing sun
anticipated this
the cicadas’ wall of sound.

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Entering dusk
a nun slips into
the priest’s confession.

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Zen garden
steel rusts
on the resting rake.

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And so ! tucked into bed
she asks for the story
her kitten likes too.

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sudden spring showers
Laurel’s laugh ahead
all the run back home

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