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By Bill McCann

Contributing Writer

In celebration of April’s National Poetry Month, the Winchester Sun challenges its readers to send us your favorite original haiku. Between now and April 7, send up to five haiku – whether previously published or not to warren@winchestersun.com and we will publish many of them as space allows.

The quantity and quality of those received will determine how many are published. This is not a contest. Still, we will seek to publish the best haikus received. Decisions of the judges – Sun Associate Editor Warren Taylor and columnist Bill McCann –  are final and non-appealable.

Children and adults may both submit haiku for possible publication.

If a haiku has previously been published, please say where it was published so that we can acknowledge the first publisher of your work.

According to “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Writing Poetry,” haikus are a “fun short Japanese form” of poetry of three lines with a syllable count of 5-7-5.

“Non-Japanese writers of haiku generally use the 5-7-5 syllabic structure; poets writing in Japanese do not count syllables, they count sounds,” the book reads.

Typically, haiku are concerned with “capturing a single strong image or moment, usually of the natural world,” though they do not have to do so.

Good luck, poets