Haiku of Day Theme September 2026: Haiku About School Days

School Days. I think of the old song from Goodbye, Mr. Chips and how school days could be both the best of times and the most brutal. I mostly enjoyed school—the denim notebooks, the fat pencils, the shiny stickers in the shape of stars. I remember that eager and sometimes shy look on parents’ faces as they entered the classroom with trays of Valentine cupcakes. With nostalgic fondness, I recall teachers wiping chalk dust from their hands, library time in the fantasy world of my secret cubicle, and the intoxicating smell of the textbooks that year they were new. But I remember, too, the bullies, the boredom, and the tragedies. I remember crouching next to a row of lockers in the tornado of ‘74. I remember the death of my schoolmates. We all remember the violent attacks on schools by both individuals and national leaders. In this month’s selection of haiku, our writers explore the complexities of school days.

The Haiku of the Day feature displays a new haiku each day at the top of our home page. See also our Haiku of the Day Archive.

— Darlene O’Dell