What Haiku Is—And Isn’t

by Ryan Stone

Haiku isn’t a puzzle to solve.

It’s not about syllable-counting contests, or clever tricks, or

squeezing big ideas into tiny spaces.

Haiku is about being present.

It’s about noticing the small shifts in the world—

the breath between crows,

the way dust lifts after rain,

the exact shape of a fence line at sunset.

It’s a way of saying:

“I was here, and so was this.”

Nothing more.

Nothing less.

From Three Lines to the Horizon: An Outback Haiku Journey, Mystic Lake Press, 2025, page 175.       +