Wild Words haiku competition result

An autumnal winner in our online poetry competition

During October, the Trust celebrated the connection between language and landscape with poems, prose, fiction and non-fiction, under the banner of #wildwords. As part of that, we asked our Twitter followers to contribute a nature-based haiku.

We had many fantastic contributions and we’ve included all of them below. After a quick staff vote, our very close favourite was Helen Raftery’s, below;

Gold crowns crisp leaf-crust.
While you looked the other way
Autumn stole the throne.
@HelenRaftery1

Helen will be receiving a big bundle of nature books in the post shortly! Many thanks to all for contributing, there’s some very evocative writing here…

Swept by wind and rain,
A bog takes a long, deep breath -
The carbon is safe
@Flowsresearch

Burnt orange and browns
The bracken, the Chestnut leaves
Announcing autumn is here
@fotobuni

first autumn leaves fall
redwings and fieldfares gather
to eat the berries
@craftygreenpoet

Winter dusk, ice moon
Full and white, yet a blackbird
Still sings in a tree.
@LittleKPQuotes

Softly rippling out
A silent grey circle that
Hosts a mallard pair
@Sinethegcat

kingfisher regal
still, silent, patient, watchful
flash! splash! fish is caught
@GazingAtTreesEarth

springs back to step.
Wind’s breath soft on Llyn Cwm Llwch,
Blackest peat guards time.
@maureen0kelley

Sunset clouds all around
No escaping fairy floss
Craving
@gentleanne 

I wonder where
the snail has gone –
autumn rain
@reklamekasper

Bright shines
the lantern flower
towards winter
@reklamekasper

Sighing sibilant,
Ash, sad for its slow demise,
A last autumn here.
@QigongLindsay

Stepping carefully
Down the tilted mossy steps:
A single earthworm.
@MichaelAntman

The Fall
Trees are wrecked in sky,
the weight of gold drowns
the leaves;
dark seas rise, and rise.
@VicHusband

I locked hands
With the roots of a tree
The wind gutted.
@FPassada

Pink is the dawning
Which offers hope to us all
Bring on the morning
@Kelley17Thorpe

Rambling over roots
of rowan, pine, ash and oak
autumn leaves rustling
@azimuten

Past nature's splendour
It overcomes my senses
I've stepped in something
@ewandwholelse

Two wood pigeons coo
Collecting wet nesting sticks
The people passing
@jackseffigy

My first ever haiku:
Autumn smell from leaves
Lichen covered gnarly trees
Death before new life
@elswhen

Meall a' Bhuachaille in Spring
Stiff backed pines drip frost
Warm emerald water steams
Life buds on scree peaks
@drceri90

Find out more about our month of Wild Words and explore some ideas linking language, learning and outdoor play for youngsters (of all ages!)