Welcome to Pure Haiku, the home of 5-7-5 syllabic haiku written in the English language.
Pure Haiku is a gallery of selected haiku that strike a chord with me. I don’t expect everyone to like everything that I post here. That would be unreasonable. But I hope that everyone finds something they like. I don’t explain why I choose haiku, as I don’t want to tell people what they should think or feel about the poetry. As in a real life art gallery, the response from the reader here is part of the artistic process. If, however, you read a haiku that upsets or angers you, please don’t leave a rant about it. Negative reviews are never published. Simply move on and find a haiku that you can comment on positively.
Pure Haiku usually opens to submissions in October and there is always a theme. Selected haiku are published here between 1st January and 31st March. Results are emailed by 31st December to contributors. AI generated haiku are not accepted.
Between April and September, I post reviews of poetry collections that I have purchased and read. I also suggest sites where readers of Pure Haiku can send in their poetry for publication!
Please feel free to like, comment and share any of the posts here on this site, and please follow the haiku writers you love to read! Comments are always moderated and can sometimes take a few days to appear depending whether or not I’m online. If you would like to leave a comment, please do so in PROSE. Any comments in poetical form (haiku or any other variety) won’t be approved. Please don’t use emojis. I don’t actually understand what any of them mean, apart from 🙂 If you could use words to express your appreciation of someone’s post, I would be most grateful. And if you can keep your comments short, that will prevent them from being marked as spam by WordPress!
Please be aware that Pure Haiku isn’t a place to critique other people’s work. I simply present syllabic haiku on a theme. Each haiku works for me as an individual haiku. But, at the same time, all the haiku selected for a theme also work together as a whole.
Who am I?
I’m Freya Pickard, the author of The Kaerling series and Vampirical Verse. You can find out more about my grim dark fantasy books at Nirunen, and more about my poetry and other writings at Freyan Rites.
I set up Pure Haiku in 2010 when too many editors rejected my haiku because they were constructed in the 5-7-5 syllabic form.
I don’t earn any money from running Pure Haiku. I do it because I love interacting with other poets. Should you wish to support my full time writing career, please consider purchasing one of my books!
Updated January 2026
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[…] curates two blogs; Dragonscale Clippings and Pure Haiku. Freya finds her inspiration in the ocean, the moors, beautifully written books and vinyl music […]
Good for you. I love writing traditional Haiku. Thanks you!
Dwight
Lovely to meet someone else who also loves writing traditional haiku! Thank you for visiting, Dwight!
You are welcome! Great to connect with you as well!
This is a lovely idea
Thank you, Ruth! And thank you for submitting your work!
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I’ve been poetry trolled because I offer traditional Haiku and Senryu in my challenges too. I’m thrilled to find someone and thinks about poetry like I do. Merril D. Smith referred me to your blog. I’m glad you’re here. ❤
it is strange, isn’t it? I can only put it down to envy because traditional forms take so much more thought and skill than not so strict forms. thank you for following!
Yes! Failed Haiku sent me some disquieting emails after I reblogged his challenge post. I was thrilled to find you and will promote your challenge with my participants. ❤️
Thank you very much, Colleen! It’s much appreciated!
Always, my friend. ❤️
A haikuist after my own heart. I have learned to write the modern haiku, but I love the discipline of writing 5-7-5. I used to compose many on my drives into work based on my experiences of what I was seeing on the road. Ah, to be able to do this again. Jules Paige referred me to the site…thanks to her, I’ll be back again.
Nice to meet you! I must remember to thank JulesPaige for recommending this site! There won’t be many posts here until mid-February when I’ll be posting selected haiku about Ocean!
I generally pass Haiku by purely because I think the modern form is often lazy and an excuse for poor poetry. The original form takes dedication and is a wonderful art-form – so totally Japanese, rather as Ikibana is to flower arrangement. A seemingly effortless and minimal result that takes extraordinary skill and work to produce. I am not a writer of Haiku though one day I might find myself dedicating time to trying to produce something worthwhile – if I do it will be in the 5-7-5 classical structure. I came to you via Jane Dougherty whose work I tremendously admire and I am glad to have found you 🙂
very glad that you like the haiku on this blog Osyth! hope to see you again soon!
I’m very sure you will. And thank you for following my blog …. I strive not to disappoint 😊
I have enjoyed writing haiku in 5-7-5 since I taught a little workshop for my son’s 4th grade class (one million years ago…). I love your site. And, thank you for the plural information (of the word haiku) – I could not get an answer and it was bothering me not to know or use it correctly. A small detail, but, I think haiku is about details, noticing them, and enjoying them! Thank you.
oh yes! I agree – haiku is about noticing the detail! thank you for your comments! They are much appreciated! xxx
I love your blog! I renewed my love of 5-7-5 haiku this past year. The challenge and pleasure of following this form grows and grows. Thank you for hosting this lovely blog.
Hi Freya, Nice to see your haiku blog. 🙂
thank you for visiting Somali! xxx
I’m so happy you followed me on Twitter, and that I have discovered your page here. I am really, really glad to make the acquaintance of someone else who enjoys 5-7-5 haiku. I also enjoy non-conforming, but rarely write it because the “practice” of the classic style is a special and daily endeavor. Thank you for this, and I look forward to reading your writing and that of your guests.
~Cindy aka haikuclouds
thank you so much for following me cindy! really nice to “meet” you! like you, I prefer the “practice” of traditional haiku. hope you enjoy the sphere haiku here over the next few weeks. I will be opening Pure Haiku to submissions at the end of March…!