In February 2021, through the Oxford Poetry Library Twitter account (@OxPoetryLibrary) we ran an experimental collaborative writing game. We began by writing one haiku, and invited our followers to write a new haiku, using our final line as their first line. People could then use the first line of that haiku as their new first line, to create a growing tree of haikus.
We weren’t too stringent about the proper haiku rules – we asked for the 5-7-5 syllable structure, but weren’t too fussy about anything else. Poems could be on any subject, and we particularly enjoyed those that took things off in new directions.
The below tree is what came from it – click on the thumbnails to see the full images.
Thank you to everybody who took part!