{"id":7190,"date":"2025-08-15T16:24:50","date_gmt":"2025-08-15T20:24:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/anovelapproach.ca\/submission_calendar\/?post_type=tribe_events&p=7190"},"modified":"2025-08-15T16:24:50","modified_gmt":"2025-08-15T20:24:50","slug":"p-the-monthly-tricycle-haiku-challenge-perseids","status":"publish","type":"tribe_events","link":"https:\/\/anovelapproach.ca\/submission_calendar\/event\/p-the-monthly-tricycle-haiku-challenge-perseids\/","title":{"rendered":"P – The Monthly Tricycle Haiku Challenge: Perseids"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Illustrations by Jing Li<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

At seventeen syllables, haiku is the shortest poem in world literature. It is now also the most popular form of poetry in the world, written in nearly every language. And yet, as haiku has spread internationally, one of the most important aspects of the tradition has largely been lost\u2014the community of poets.<\/p>\n

In Europe and the United States, haiku is often regarded as the domain of literary elites, but this is not the case in Japan, where haiku is deeply rooted in communal activity.\u00a0Millions of amateur Japanese poets belong to haiku groups (clubs, really), which are sponsored by different \u201cschools\u201d of haiku, each with its own magazine. Most daily and weekly newspapers carry a haiku column featuring poems submitted by their subscribers, sometimes on the front page.<\/p>\n

To help bring back this social dimension, we are inviting our readers to participate in the monthly Tricycle Haiku Challenge. Each month, moderator\u00a0Clark Strand<\/a>\u00a0<\/b>will select three poems to be published online, one of which will appear with a brief commentary. Each quarter, one of these poems also will appear in the\u00a0print magazine<\/a>\u00a0alongside an extended commentary. In this way, we can begin to follow the seasons together\u2014spring, summer, fall, and winter\u2014and share the joy of haiku together as a community.<\/p>\n

Requirements:<\/b><\/p>\n

Anyone can submit haiku to the monthly challenge using the form below. To be considered for publication, your haiku must:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Be written in three lines of 5, 7, and 5 syllables:<\/b>
    \n<\/b>Getting the syllables of a haiku to sit naturally inside of its seventeen-syllable form is the primary challenge. Each haiku is a word problem in search of a satisfying seventeen-syllable solution.<\/li>\n
  2. Contain the \u201cseason word\u201d assigned for that month:<\/b>
    \n<\/b>A haiku isn\u2019t\u00a0only<\/i>\u00a0a word problem. To the seventeen syllables the poet must add a turn of thought that results in more than seventeen syllables of meaning\u2014along with a word that refers to one of the four seasons. How the poet uses \u201cseason words\u201d like\u00a0autumn sun<\/i>\u00a0or\u00a0dew<\/i>\u00a0will typically determine the effectiveness of the poem.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Part of the reason haiku appeals to so many people is that its rules are simple and easy to follow, yet it can take a lifetime to master them. Ten million people currently write haiku in Japanese. There is no reason why millions can\u2019t write haiku in English, too, provided they agree on the basics. The turn of thought you add to that simple formula of 5-7-5 syllables with a season word is entirely up to you.<\/p>\n

    Submissions close on the last day of the month at 11:59 pm ET, and the results will be posted the week after. Monthly submissions are anonymized and the winning poems are selected in a blind process.<\/p>\n

    To learn more about the history and principles of haiku, check out Clark Strand\u2019s online course with Tricycle, \u201cLearn to Write Haiku: Mastering the Ancient Art of Serious Play<\/span><\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

    \n

    This Month\u2019s Season Word:<\/b><\/h1>\n

    Submit as many haiku as you please using the submission form at the bottom of our home page.<\/strong> Just be sure to include this month\u2019s season word.<\/p>\n

    Summer season word:\u00a0<\/b>\u201cPerseids\u201d<\/p>\n

    perseid shower<\/em>
    \nmaybe the dark does require<\/em>
    \nan extra dipper<\/em><\/p>\n

    Submit as many haiku as you please on the season word \u201cPerseids.\u201d Your poems must be written in three lines of 5, 7, and 5 syllables, respectively, and should focus on a single moment of time happening now.<\/p>\n

    Be straightforward in your description and try to limit your subject matter. Haiku are nearly always better when they don\u2019t have too many ideas or images. So make your focus the season word* and try to stay close to that.<\/p>\n

    *REMEMBER: To qualify for the challenge, your haiku must be written in 5-7-5 syllables and include the word \u201cPerseids.\u201d<\/p>\n

    Haiku Tip:\u00a0<\/b>Learn What to Say When Someone Tells You, \u201cThat\u2019s Not a Haiku!\u201d<\/h1>\n

    Those who submit Formal Haiku to the English language specialty magazines (i.e., those devoted to haiku and related forms) are often told by the editors of those magazines, \u201cThat\u2019s not a haiku!\u201d Sometimes an editor will suggest a revision, removing up to half of the poem\u2019s 17 syllables to get something shorter. In the process, they will often also remove the season word.<\/p>\n

    How did it come to this? The answer could fill a book. But the long and short of it (pun intended) is this: If you regard haiku as a poetic form, you can agree with others about what a haiku is and turn your attention to writing good poetry in that form. If you regard haiku as a free verse poem, the spirit or techniques of which are its defining feature, you will be stuck arguing endlessly about what a haiku \u201cis\u201d or \u201cis not.\u201d English language haiku poets have wasted over a century doing exactly that. Like the sonnet, the haiku form is a vessel to be filled with whatever the poet has to say. That is how it functions in Japanese literature and how Japanese poets have always understood it. If we render our thoughts in 5-7-5 syllables and manage to include a season word, we have written a haiku. What remains to decide is whether what we have said is worth saying and how well we have said it\u2014not whether our poem is a haiku or not.<\/p>\n

    And so, the next time a haiku specialist tells you that your poem is \u201cnot a haiku,\u201d ask them to tell you what a haiku is. But don\u2019t let them go on and on. If they can\u2019t explain it simply, in a way that a six-year-old could understand, they will never get there. You\u2019d be better off starting a magazine of your own.<\/p>\n

    A note on the\u00a0Perseids<\/em>: About this spectacular annual event, season word editor Becka Chester writes: \u201cConsidered the best meteor show of the year by NASA, the Perseids begin in mid-July and peak in mid-August. Prime time for their viewing is just before dawn, with scattered sightings occurring from 10 pm onward. It is best to view them far from bright city lights.<\/p>\n

    \u201cThe showers occur yearly as the Earth passes through a cloud of dust particles from a comet called 109P\/Swift-Tuttle. The comet\u2019s particles become heated as they hit our atmosphere and appear as bright streaks across the heavens.<\/p>\n

    \u201cThe Perseid shower was named because the meteors seemed to originate from the constellation Perseus.\u201d<\/p>\n

    Note that this year the Perseids will peak just before dawn on Wednesday, August 13th , when you can view up to 100 meteors per hour under optimal conditions.<\/p>\n

    \n

    June\u2019s Winning Poem:<\/h1>\n

    Summer season word: \u201cSummer Lake\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n

    the heads of swimmers
    \n<\/i>the only things not swallowed
    \n<\/i>by the summer lake<\/i><\/p>\n

    \u2014\u00a0Marcia Burton<\/p>\n

    \"haiku
    Illustration by Jing Li<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

    You can find the honorable mentions, additional commentary, and June\u2019s haiku tips\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Submit as many haiku as you please on the season word \u201cPerseids.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"_tribe_events_status":"","_tribe_events_status_reason":"","footnotes":"","_tec_slr_enabled":"","_tec_slr_layout":""},"tags":[],"tribe_events_cat":[2],"class_list":["post-7190","tribe_events","type-tribe_events","status-publish","hentry","tribe_events_cat-call-for-submission","cat_call-for-submission"],"ticketed":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/anovelapproach.ca\/submission_calendar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events\/7190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/anovelapproach.ca\/submission_calendar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/anovelapproach.ca\/submission_calendar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/tribe_events"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anovelapproach.ca\/submission_calendar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/anovelapproach.ca\/submission_calendar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events\/7190\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7193,"href":"https:\/\/anovelapproach.ca\/submission_calendar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events\/7190\/revisions\/7193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/anovelapproach.ca\/submission_calendar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anovelapproach.ca\/submission_calendar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7190"},{"taxonomy":"tribe_events_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anovelapproach.ca\/submission_calendar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events_cat?post=7190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}