While haiku does not have to only cover natural subject matter, it is most often used as a celebration of nature.

"The Fire"

I was in that fire,
The room was dark and somber.
I sleep peacefully.

That alarm then rang,
The sound annoying and loud,
But it saved my life.

I had woken up
Scared, confused, and sad alike.
I knew what happened.

My shelter burning;
My bastion fiercely falling,
I, at just age four.

I'll never forget
The face of mother possessed;
The look of pure fear.

Her light pajamas.
Her dark and rustled "bed-head."
She soon yanked me up.

Along with my rest,
My sister, brother, and dad
Ran out of the blaze.

My pets, left behind,
Found the inevitable.
They live now above.

Out we stand, post-haste;
The cold and wet post-storm land.
We stand, soles chilling.

Approach the neighbor,
Seemingly calm and relaxed
Amid the inferno.

She asked our well-being.
We had no reply to give.
She left with a sulk.

All possessions lost,
We drove far away, love lost
To live for years more.

Ice cream

Ice cream

dripping, sweet

melting, sticky, smacking

So messy to eat

Yummy

Example ~I watched on her journey; the one she’d make alone;
Down roads of pain and solitude on toward her final home.
My mind went back those many years when we were both still young;
The warm and endless summers long before our songs were sung.

A pair of little tomboy girls with missing teeth and braids:
Tattered jeans and sunburned arms with plans yet to be made.
Far journeys that would take us to adventures each new day.
Traveling through our summer world, exploring on the way.

We swam in rivers dark and cool: ate berries picked with care.
From prickly bush we’d snatch a few, but did not dawdle there.
For there was much that must be seen and much more to be done,
As we enjoyed the freedom that with summer seems to come.

But mostly I remember the closeness that we shared.
Secrets, dreams, a lasting bond; to each our soul we bared.
And when the time for sleep would come we’d lie in sagging bed,
With fresh air whispering on our cheeks, stars twinkling overhead.

Each drifting off to well earned rest with plans for coming dawn,
When once again our world would be all shiny, bright and warm.
And we would walk dirt roads again, bare feet encased in grime,
As summer days passed slowly and our greatest gift was time.

But time turns out to be deceit: betrays us in the end.
And we must face the awful truth; time never was our friend.
I saw this as I watched her make her pilgrimage alone.
I wanted so to help her on her lonely journey home.

But we are each in solitude, at birth as well as death,
And thus it’s all alone we are, when drawing our last breath.
It’s then I felt such sadness, for she’d left our mortal shore,
She’d slipped into a great unknown, her presence felt no more.

The good Lord had then guided her through to her journeys end,
She waits within a far off place , my uncle’s child . .  my friend.
And when I step from out this life, to one that’s yet to be,
Perhaps lost days of summer are still there for her and me.

Example~

Summer, those peaceful nights. Chilling in the front porch . Having a cold drink. Maybe in the backyard with friends, roasting marshmallows sharing laughs with the people you love. Forgetting about some negative things that might be in your life. Creating memories that you keep with you forever.

includes the use of over-exaggeration for the purpose of creating emphasis or being humorous, but it is not intended to be taken literally

Ex~

A noiseless patient spider,
I mark’d where on a little promontory it stood isolated,
Mark’d how to explore the vacant vast surrounding,
It launch’d forth filament, filament, filament, out of itself,
Ever unreeling them, ever tirelessly speeding them.

And you O my soul where you stand,
Surrounded, detached, in measureless oceans of space,…….
Till the bridge you will need be form’d, till the ductile anchor hold,
Till the gossamer thread you fling catch somewhere, O my soul.

Example~

“The two knitting women increase his anxiety by gazing at him and all the other sailors with knowing unconcern. Their eerie looks suggest that they know what will happen (the men dying), yet don’t care”

Ex: Zipping down the water slide, Splash !

What a rush ! Sounds of laughter and kids screaming of fear. Nothing can compare to these summer days.

Example~ His house is in the village though - a
He will not see me stopping here - b
To watch his woods fill up with snow -a