With Cherries on Top

With Cherries on Top: Haiku from National Haiku Writing Month

Michael Dylan Welch, editor

In August of 2012, the National Haiku Writing Month (NaHaiWriMo) page on Facebook featured daily writing prompts from 31 different prompters. Each prompter selected at least five of his or her favourite poems written in response. Michael Dylan Welch selected from these poems to produce the online PDF book, With Cherries on Top: 31 Flavors from NaHaiWriMo. This book is available for free downloading or viewing with a PDF file reader (you can download the free reader from Adobe). This collection features 190 haiku and senryu by 81 contributors from around the world, with more than 100 photographs of fireworks by the editor. +


  • “NaHaiWriMo gets me writing every day.” —Johnny Baranski, Vancouver, Washington

  • “NaHaiWriMo is an endless inspiration!” —Kashinath Karmakar, Durgapur, India

  • “This is why I love NaHaiWriMo: challenge, inspiration, community, opportunity, learning, sharing . . .” —Stella Pierides, Neusäß, Germany


Explore the book (links go to the NaHaiWriMo website)


Free PDF ebook, 140 pages, 11 x 8½ inches, ISBN 978-1-878798-34-3


  • The photographs in With Cherries on Top are by Michael Dylan Welch. They are all handheld photos of fireworks, using a Nikon D90 on the bulb setting (the lens remains open for as long as the button is held down). The camera is deliberately zoomed, swiped, or jiggled, or moved in various combinations.

  • “NaHaiWriMo (National Haiku Writing Month) is a Facebook page [and website—see www.nahaiwrimo.com] that promotes daily writing through haiku prompts. In August 2012, a different prompter each day suggested themes such as star myths, birth, grass, and forgotten things. Thousands of writers responded, and from the selection, 190 haiku and senryu were chose and gathered in this “first of its kind ebook anthology.” Stunning photographs introduce each prompt and give the collection an electric charge. One of my favorite prompts was “Beatles song,” which inspired haiku and senryu such as: here comes the sun . . . / a list of seeds / to plant (Dawn Apanius); spider / in the kitchen / let it be (Terri L. French); and too tight the last dance his hey jude off key (Sheila Windsor). Don’t miss this free collection, along with inspiration to jump-start your writing practice.” —Francine Banwarth, from a review in Frogpond 36:2, Spring/Summer 2013, page 151 +