The Australian Haiku Society Winter Solstice Haiku String 2024 has now closed for entries. Thanks to all the poets for their contributions. Please enjoy the haiku!
The Australian Haiku Society welcomes contributions from haiku poets worldwide to the Winter Solstice Haiku String 2024.
We will be holding this Haiku String on the day of the Southern Hemisphere Winter Solstice, which occurs in Australia this year on Friday, June 21st, 2024. The string will remain open for contributions until Saturday, June 29th, 2024, to accommodate international poets who may wish to participate.
Haiku String – Instructions
The AHS invites you to share three of your original, previously unpublished haiku or senryu on the theme of ‘winter warmth’. Typical associations with winter are cold, darkness, frost, rain, bitter winds, storms, etc. Snow is a relatively rare occurrence for Australian poets. In many parts of our country, days during the winter months can be mild, and in the tropical north, the dry season is often a lot more comfortable than the wet season.
We invite you to explore a multiplicity of ideas in the String. The haiku will be linked by subject and theme. We also welcome response haiku written in reply to others already published in the string.
1. Please contribute up to three of your best previously unpublished haiku or senryu.
2. Haiku should be posted in the comment box at the end of the post.
3. Each poem posted must be original work by the poet making the post. Please include your name below as you wish it to appear.
Posting your work in the AHS Autumn Equinox String 2023 assumes the following:
Copyright of each haiku/senryu remains with the author. We request nonexclusive permission to publish your work on the AHS website and republish it online at any time.
Theme: Winter Warmth
skinks and I
warming our backs
shortest day
Leanne Mumford
(first published Modern Haiku 51.3 2020)

from V.G. Derry June 25, 2024
June garden
dying hydrangea
has green buds
marble sky
trees wait silently
for warm Spring rain
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winter sun
huddled by the heater
we book a holiday up north
shortest day
wrapping myself in
my longest scarf
fluffy slippers
opening the curtains
to a wall of fog
Louise Hopewell
LikeLiked by 3 people
shortest day –
I brave the winter frost
holding a lantern
I skinny dip
warmth in my heart
longest night
southern solstice –
in the escaping warmth
finding new ginkgo trails
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wintertime-
a bouquet of dried roses
still keeps her warm
another birthday
he spots a strand of grey hair
-early winter frost
first snowfall-
traces of yesterday
slowly vanish
Melissa Laussmann
LikeLiked by 2 people
snow flavour
it was warm
the last Kiss
frost night
so many breaths
before leaving
winter
i feel in day like this
the warmth of your presence
Fatma Zohra Habis/Algeria
LikeLiked by 3 people
a monarch
sipping grevillea nectar
lazy noon
strawberry moon
dining with the children
by the campfire
farewell message—
a bouquet of clivia
in the front porch
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the distant sun
elicits the twitters of
the cold sparrows this morning
a walk through the snow
nobody decorates
as nature does
a chilly morning
just in one twitter
has greeted the sun
Mile Lisica, Bosnia and Herzegovina
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