Haiku has proved to be a very popular form of poetry here on WOL, and there are quite a few football supporters too, so what could be better than a project that seeks to combine the beautiful game during the World Cup 2010 in South Africa, with your beautiful poetry? And what’s more – you could get paid for it!

The Football Haiku World Cup Project wants your haiku about any aspect of this year’s world cup, or any previous world cup. It doesn’t matter if you have never written a haiku before, the beauty of the haiku is its simplicity and flexibility, have a go! There is a guide to writing haiku on the Haiku World Cup website, and if you need some inspiration you can see examples of World Cup football haiku they have received so far there too.

You can write your haiku in any language, though it would be helpful if you can also send an English translation, the aim is that eventually, the book will be translated in to several different languages, including Esperanto.

The book will be offered in the first instance, as an e-book, which will be available to download as soon as a suitable number of haiku have been received. Those downloading the e-book will be invited to pay whatever they wish for it, based on the way  that Radiohead offered their album ‘In Rainbows’. After that, the haiku will be compiled in to a book, together with specially commissioned illustrations, which will be available in shops at a set price.

You can find out more details, of both this competition and haiku in general, at:

http://haikuworldcup.blogspot.com/

Whilst they were putting the finishing touches to their Facebook Fanpage, the organisers of the Haiku World Cup were offered the following from another World Cup Haiku Fanpage (author not supplied):

If it’s good enough,

maybe your haiku can win

the Haiku World Cup.