11 haikus to celebrate the end of lockdown

Haikus have a long, rich history. Once used as the opening stanza of a longer Japanese poetry form called renga, by roughly the late 19th Century they were established as an independent form, usually used to evoke a place and feeling. 

Today, haikus are written around the world, in dozens of languages; they can be poignant and zen-like or, according to the translator of The Penguin Book of Haiku, "funny, crude and mischievous”. They can also be painfully British.

Each year, the haiku – typically a 17-syllable structure poem, organised across three lines of five, seven, and five – is celebrated worldwide on 17 April on International Haiku Poetry Day. To mark the occasion, we thought we'd have a go at writing some that capture life after a year of lockdown. What would yours say?

‘Best laid plans’, I think,
Striking from my to-do list,
‘Write lockdown novel’

•

Ah, sweet normalcy
The park hums with life again
Until it rains, obv

•

Do you remember
How we used to socialise?
One of us has to

•

The takeaway pint
Proffers one big takeaway:
Sitting down was nice

•

Brave the toilet queue?
Or do we travel home, and back
Duration: the same

•

Ah! My friend, from Zoom
I didn’t recognise you
Sans your glitchy voice

•

Meet you in the pub
As long as you booked it – please,
Tell me you booked it

•

What’s a holiday?
Is it sitting, with a book,
Like home, but on sand?

•

Oh, you’ve made a meme?
How clever of you to write,
‘Nature is healing’

•

What is confidence
If not a fresh new haircut
Not, thank god, self-done

•

How long now, until
We return to normal, and
I cancel some plans?

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Image: Mica Murphy / Penguin