About HaikuQuest Play

What this is

HaikuQuest Play is a browser version of the HaikuQuest poetry-craft app. Write short poems — haiku, tanka, cinquain and limericks — with a live syllable meter, meet the four craft friends who each teach one poetry skill, and practice counting, forms, season-words and trimming.

The syllable meter uses the same friendly rule the app does. English syllables don’t follow one perfect rule, so the meter says “about N” — always trust your own ear over the number.

Your privacy

• Everything runs on your device. Your poems and progress are saved only in this browser.
• No accounts. No ads. No tracking. Nothing you write leaves your device.
• Clear your poems any time from the Anthology, or by clearing this site’s data in your browser.

A note on the poetry traditions

Haiku and tanka come from Japan; the cinquain is American (Adelaide Crapsey); the limerick is Irish-English. We teach the Japanese terms — kigo (season-word) and kireji (cut) — as part of that tradition, and name historical poets (Bashō, Shiki, Crapsey, Lear) as the real people who shaped these forms.