For some reason, I was feeling poetic today.  I started making up poems in my head on my way home from work and made excellent progress on a multi-stanza educational poem about dragonflies I might share with you sometime.  But I also came up with a series of haikus, inspired by the changing seasons and some of the insects I’ve seen recently.  Without further ado, I give you five illustrated insect haikus!

Little fuzzy worm
Brown and black on the dirt road
Winter is coming

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Green stick-like mantid
Lurking in the tall prairie
As fall quickly comes

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Black caterpillars
Munching on a pipevine leaf
At the summer’s end

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Shorter summer days
Bring a swirl of dragonflies
Over goldenrod

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Whirligig beetles
Dart on the water’s surface
A riot of life

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I love writing haikus!  Anyone want to add to what I’ve started here?  I welcome original insect haikus in the comments, or post one on your blog and paste the link to it below.  Remember, haikus follow a 5-7-5 syllable structure and traditionally were about nature and the seasons.  My whirligig haiku is, for example, not a traditional haiku because it is all about the beetles and doesn’t address how they are tied to a season.  I’d love to see what other people can come up with, so I hope some of you will take me up on my haiku challenge!

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