AHS Summer Solstice Haiku String 2024

This String has now closed. Please enjoy the haiku posted in the comments. Thanks to all the poets worldwide who have contributed to this event. The event lasted eight days, from 12.30 am ACDT on 21 December 2024. The String closed at 12.30 am ACDT on 29 December 2024.

The Australian Haiku Society welcomes contributions from haiku poets worldwide to the Summer Solstice Haiku String.

We will be holding the Haiku String on the day of the Southern Hemisphere Summer Solstice, which occurs in Australia this year on Saturday, December ^21st. To accommodate international poets who may wish to participate, the String will remain open for contributions until Sunday, December ^29th, 2024. Contributions may be made on the website during these dates only (not before).

Haiku String – Instructions (please read all the instructions including formatting).

For many Australians summer means a relationship with water or the lack of it. Visits to the seaside or river to relax, swim or surf, precious dam storage, irrigation of crops, fighting bushfires, dealing with floods,  and the many other aspects of water are a part of summer.

This is the first verse of ‘The Days When We Went Swimming’, written by Australian poet Henry Lawson  in 1899.

The breezes waved the silver grass,
Waist-high along the siding,
And to the creek we ne’er could pass
Three boys on bare-back riding;
Beneath the sheoaks in the bend
The waterhole was brimming –
Do you remember yet, old friend,
The times we went in swimming?

Henry Lawson

The AHS invites you to share three of your original, previously unpublished haiku or senryu on the theme of your relationship with water during summer.  

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 Please contribute up to three of your best previously unpublished haiku or senryu.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 an original work by the poet making the post. Please include your name as you wish it to appear.
4. Formatting request. Because AHS aims to produce some e-books using a selection of haiku from these events, please enter your name below each haiku you post. This helps immensely when we compile the haiku for presentation in a book.

Posting your work in the AHS Summer Solstice Haiku String  2024 assumes the following:

Copyright of each haiku remains with the author. We request nonexclusive permission to publish your work on the AHS website and republish it online anytime.

Looking forward to your contributions.