Haiku about Nature: Week 5 of rewriting your well-being
Table of Contents
In nature, nothing is perfect and everything is perfect. Trees can be contorted, bent in weird ways, and they’re still beautiful.
Alice Walker
Say hello to week 5 of Haiku for You, where every week is about enabling you to write for your well-being!
If this is your first visit, there is no need to feel daunted. This is all about learning how to appreciate every moment as though it’s brand new. Please welcome what you are about to create for yourself. You can also take a look at my introductory post, which explains how these twelve weeks of writing prompts are here to help you mindfully unwind. Feel free to either begin with this week or any of the previous. The main thing is that you do what feels right for you.
For this session, I would like you to make sure all non-essential digital devices are switched off or put safely aside. Move your seat away from the hum of the washing machine, the drone of the microwave, or the constant tick of the clock. If you can, sit safely outside, or if not, at the very least, near a window. I will explain more, but it would be great if you could find a view of something real.
Have you found your spot?
If so,
take a slow, deep breath in …
…and then back out.
Now, we are going to turn over a new leaf and talk about
nature.
Thoughts about nature
Did you know that being truly immersed in nature can really improve our mental health and general well-being? Many people find that taking a step outdoors can immediately dissolve their stress and anxiety. This can be especially effective if it involves exercise, but even if we are taking a simple stroll, the atmosphere of a forest alone can make us feel as though we have flown to freedom!
Have you ever thought that just like us, nature might be speaking its own language? Perhaps it says hello through green shoots, knocks at our windows with rain, and whistles to us while we sleep. We must not forget the life that is going on beneath our feet. It can be calming to think about such wonders.
Why do we yearn for nature?
Those of you who struggled to find your space at the beginning of this session may already know the answer. Whether we live in an apartment in a busy city, or in a house on a main road, or just in a house dominated by an Alexa, the television or too many mobile phones, nature can feel like a stranger in our lives.
Many of us spend a frightening amount of time on the Internet or using digital devices on a daily basis. We can find that our eyes grow weary from yet more screen-time where we are always paying attention to something. Ironically, studies show that focusing on all these devices at once can drastically shorten our overall concentration span. Instead, we need to rest our eyes, our ears and our minds all at once.
We need to pay attention to ourselves.
Where can you find nature?
This will be different for everyone depending on your lifestyle, but if you can, search for the green. By this, I mean, anything that grows! This could be your patch of grass, a visit to a nearby park, a ramble through the woods, or simply watering the flowers on your windowsill.
Spend some time breathing in all that free oxygen. Trace your hand along the brittle bark of trees, smell the sweetness of cut grass in the air or the ground after rain. Escape into the garden and start growing those tomatoes you’ve been meaning to. Root your hands in earth and find your foundation.
If you can’t always venture out of the house, don’t worry, you can always bring the outside indoors. Nurture a houseplant and watch it flower or notice how the birds serenade you every morning. The main thing is that each day, you are finding a moment to breathe and touch nature with a kind hand. It’s funny, when we pay more attention to nature, we realise we are also beginning to grow.
Learn to nurture yourself
We often talk about nature very broadly, as though it is something very separate from us, and yet, we are an ideal example of it. We need sunlight, we need water, we need to be nourished daily and we certainly thrive in a comfortable environment. And guess what? We need to feel cared for in order to happily survive.
Learn to see your imperfections in the same way you would look at a plant. It is original! Our bodies, like nature, are not the same every day. We are not man-made objects, but humans who change at the mercy of circumstance.
So, learn to love how your eyes scrunch up when you smile, or how your body wobbles while you walk. See any wrinkles as evidence of a life well-expressed, and your body as a map of many memories.
Haiku about nature: Some examples of my own
Released from Lockdown trees aren’t coloured with crayons, birds still sing Disney.

Cut grass, barbecues, the smell of a Lockdown breeze on the longest day.

Barren back garden, potting a million flowers, weeds bring up old dirt.

How to write your own haiku about nature
Exercise duration: approximately 30 minutes
- If you can, venture outside. If not, find a view from a window or close your eyes and remember a time you were in nature. Observe your surroundings and tune into all your senses. What does the air smell like? What can you hear? Who or what can you see?
- Note down at least three colours from your natural surroundings. Notice the patterns.
- If you were to take a photograph of this moment, what would stand out most?
- Is the air cool? Are you feeling warm? Is it raining? Is there sun, or a light breeze?
- Come back to the present moment, always holding on to what comforts you most.
- If haiku is your language, how would you express what nature is trying to tell you?
Just remember, it’s three lines of 5-7-5 syllables! Refer back to How to write Haiku guidelines.
So, close your eyes and take another deep breath in …
and then out …
Once you have written your haiku about nature, how do you feel?
Isn’t it reassuring to be part of something so vastly miraculous? It can almost feel like re-entering nature’s community; a landscape of beautifully different faces.
I hope this session is a warm reminder that nature, different from our fast-paced lives, moves so slowly that we might forget that it’s evolving into something extraordinary. Think of how the clouds pass over you. Listen to the wind blow. Look at the branches of the trees, and how they wave at you. Notice how quickly the grass grows while you are asleep, and how flowers can bloom over the space of a single hour. Nature is wonderfully subtle in its craft.
Thank you for allowing me to plant some seeds of inspiration. I hope you now feel able to nurture them, allow them to see some light, and encourage them to grow a little more every day.
Remember, you will always feel more powerful when you allow yourself to be at your most natural.
Now, let’s haiku away!
If you are happy to, please leave your beautiful haiku about nature in the comments section below this post.
See last week – Week Four: Haiku about Touch.

Carolyn Jones
Haiku About Nature
Garden waste, compost and worms
Planting and hoping —
Now see the flowers blooming!
Georgia
A perfect little image of hope and positivity growing with patience from an unpredictable earth. 🙂 This is great! Thank you, Carolyn!
Wendy Evans
NATURE
Vast space around me
Feeling closer to my mum
My head in the clouds
Georgia
It’s fascinating what a bit of space can do. This is extremely touching.
So much said in so little words. I found personally found this quite emotional too. Thank you, Wendy.
Chris
Forget me nots spent
Mildew coated leaves and stems
Scattered seeds asleep.
Georgia
Forget me nots – a perfect symbol during these difficult times. Such subtle metaphors of loss and rebirth too. This speaks to so many. Thanks so much, Chris.
Anita Bacha
Garden deserted
Spring blossoms fell off branches
New buds peak the tree
Georgia
Hello, Anita! A big welcome to week 5, and thank you so much for your haiku! 🙂 I can really see the theme of hope shining through some of these. It’s so lovely. Nature and life in all its seasons.
Peter Gaskell
Act not as masters
So Nature pleads, dance to my tune
And one with me be
Georgia
This has truly given nature a powerful voice. We can really hear its strong and persuasive character! It’s definitely lovely to listen to nature, and so worth it for its capacity for calming us. 🙂 Thanks, Peter!
Chris
Peter Gaskell
I love your haiku-
I found it really moving and thought provoking
I’ve read it several times now, Really enjoying it.
If only everyone was at one with nature ,
Chris
(Roses after rain)
Path of pink petals
Roses take a final bow
Fragrance lingers on.
Georgia
Chris, this is an ideal haiku, and again, so vividly capturing the senses! Such a pleasant image in animation, as well as displaying a path to a gentle and real positivity. Thank you! 🙂
Peter Gaskell
That’s so appealing to my nose and eyes, Chris, well written, And thanks too for your feedback, and Georgia too..
Aware that my haiku about Nature is more metaphysical than about sensory observation, I’m glad it appeals
Chris
Thank you Peter and thank you Georgia for your heart warming comments. x
I keep scribbling away then re reading my latest haiku and thinking how trite it sounds.
If sharing with my husband he says ‘it does nothing for me’
My son described haiku as ‘weird Japanese poems’. He did however point me in the direction of James May haiku written on a trip to Japan and although they are car/bike themed, I do like them.
I shall look out the relevant programmes now!!!
Thank you for these lovely pages!
Vivienne
Small in this landscape
Overwhelmed by the beauty
As nature explodes
I am really enjoying reading everyone’s Haiku.
Georgia
Ooo, I think this could be capturing how overwhelmed a lot of people could be feeling at the moment, even though it’s through the image of nature. I love the contrast and the changing sense of space and safety. Thanks! 🙂
Chris
Vivienne
I love your haiku.
I walked down my garden and was overcome by the beauty of my foxgloves and roses. They have done amazingly well this year. An explosion of colour. i was overwhelmed and privileged
Vivienne
Chris
Thank you for your comments.on my haiku. I am very much enjoying yours.
Lotte Williams
I’ve been looking at how fast our veg plot has been coming along, hence this haiku… Plus I love reading all the supportive comments from everyone taking part. It’s a lovely community here xxxx
Twisting and reaching
The runners strive to be first
Conquering the canes
Georgia
Thank you for this, Lotte. I can really sense the competition between those runner beans! Effective alliteration too. I’m glad you think it’s a lovely community. I’m really happy everyone is so forthcoming with their haiku and general interaction. Thank you again, and keep going with that vegetable plot. 🙂
Katrina
Feather soft and white, floating on the summer breeze, angel by my side
Georgia
Hi Katrina,
I love the last line of this! It’s such a bright and sentimental spin! So many words of gentility too. It makes the reader feel like they are floating. 🙂 Thank you!