Famous Haiku Poems by Famous Poets

These are examples of famous Haiku poems written by some of the greatest and most-well-known modern and classical poets. PoetrySoup is a great educational poetry resource of famous haiku poems. These examples illustrate what a famous haiku poem looks like and its form, scheme, or style (where appropriate).

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Ploughing the land

by Yosa Buson
 Ploughing the land--
not even a bird singing
in the mountain's shadow....Read more of this...

How admirable

by Matsuo Basho
 How admirable!
to see lightning and not think
 life is fleeting....Read more of this...

Haiku

by Jack Kerouac
 Birds singing
 in the dark
—Rainy dawn....Read more of this...

New Years Day

by Kobayashi Issa
 New Year's Day--
everything is in blossom!
I feel about average....Read more of this...

The willow leaves fallen

by Yosa Buson
 The willow leaves fallen,
the spring gone dry,
 rocks here and there....Read more of this...

Buying leeks

by Yosa Buson
 Buying leeks
and walking home
 under the bare trees....Read more of this...

Man

by Richard Brautigan
 With his hat on
he's about five inches taller
than a taxicab....Read more of this...

Seen

by Kobayashi Issa
 Seen
through a telescope:
ten cents worth of fog....Read more of this...

Haiku

by Jack Kerouac
 The low yellow
 moon above the
Quiet lamplit house...Read more of this...

Heat waves shimmering

by Matsuo Basho
 Heat waves shimmering
one or two inches
 above the dead grass....Read more of this...

Distressed Haiku

by Donald Hall
 In a week or ten days
the snow and ice
will melt from Cemetery Road.

I'm coming! Don't move!

Once again it is April.
Today is the day
we would have been married
twenty-six years.

I finished with April
halfway through March.

You think that their
dying is the worst
thing that could happen.

Then they stay dead.

Will Hall ever write
lines that do anything
but whine and complain?

In April the blue
mountain revises
from white...Read more of this...

Listening to the moon

by Yosa Buson
 Listening to the moon,
gazing at the croaking of frogs
in a field of ripe rice....Read more of this...

Under the image of Buddha

by Kobayashi Issa
 Under the image of Buddha
all these spring flowers
seem a little tiresome....Read more of this...

In spring rain

by Kobayashi Issa
 In spring rain
a pretty girl
 yawning....Read more of this...

A snowy morning

by Matsuo Basho
 A snowy morning--
by myself,
 chewing on dried salmon....Read more of this...

Spring rain

by Matsuo Basho
 Spring rain
leaking through the roof
 dripping from the wasps' nest....Read more of this...

Asked how old he was

by Kobayashi Issa
 Asked how old he was,
the boy in the new kimono
stretched out all five fingers....Read more of this...

Sparrow singing

by Yosa Buson
 Sparrow singing--
its tiny mouth
 open....Read more of this...

Not very anxious

by Kobayashi Issa
 Not very anxious
to bloom,
my plum tree....Read more of this...

Before the white chrysanthemum

by Yosa Buson
 Before the white chrysanthemum
the scissors hesitate
 a moment....Read more of this...

Winter garden

by Matsuo Basho
 Winter garden,
the moon thinned to a thread,
 insects singing....Read more of this...

A bee

by Matsuo Basho
 A bee
staggers out
 of the peony....Read more of this...

Hes on the porch

by Yosa Buson
 He's on the porch,
to escape the wife and kids--
how hot it is!...Read more of this...

Midfield

by Matsuo Basho
 Midfield,
attached to nothing,
 the skylark singing....Read more of this...

Dawn

by Yosa Buson
 Dawn--
fish the cormorants haven't caught
swimming in the shallows....Read more of this...

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