Kelly Lunes

The Kelly lune is a 3-line, syllabic form created by Robert Kelly (1935–present). It's one of several attempts to create a formal equivalent to haiku, adapted for the English language. The lines have 5/3/5 syllables, for a total of 13.

An alternative form also called the lune was created by Jack Collom.

Poems

  1. 2026-01-28

    through a blinding mist
clear as day
the builders' music

  2. 2026-01-25

    freeze-thaw on the bridge;
graffiti
spelt in rust and moss

  3. 2026-01-04

    towers to the sky
keeping watch
all-ways and nowhere

  4. 2026-01-02

    churning winter air,
dense with breath
and murmured longing

    Also thought about starting this one “heavy winter air”, but I liked the more active framing (even if the phrasing's a little clunkier).

  5. 2025-12-28

    where birds once built nests,
witch's broom
sweeps over the trees

  6. 2025-12-27

    our Earth, drained of light—
by nightfall,
only roads remain

  7. 2025-12-26

    black empty windows
devouring
chain-gang Christmas lights

  8. 2025-12-25

    up the icy dusk,
contrails—
tattered flags of sun—
defiant,
and doomed to the dark

    A variant on the Kelly lune structure.

  9. 2025-12-22

    the last sun of earth
bows its head
to the last winter

    Similar idea to another Kelly lune from the same day.

  10. 2025-12-22

    the last sun of earth
slouches down
to rest its tired eyes

    Similar idea to another Kelly lune from the same day.

  11. 2025-12-22

    the last kings of old:
regicide
is a sacred act

    The first line comes from a translation of a caption of a comic panel (I think) by Dino Buzzati.

  12. 2025-12-22

    the haunt electric
climbs lightning
to reach black heaven

  13. 2025-12-22

    city sodium
stains the sky
of our long half-night

  14. 2025-12-22

    between mist and cloud
cold red lights
stand sacred apart

  15. 2025-12-20

    neither frost nor life
survives long
on the trodden path

  16. 2025-12-20

    imitation spring;
pale dawn
melts night's frost to dew

  17. 2025-12-16

    vivisecting chill
leaves me mute,
without brain or heart

  18. 2025-12-12

    on the maple's arms,
rain gathers
into drops of sky

  19. 2025-12-05

    a pummelling rain
grounds the birds
and raises the worms

  20. 2025-12-03

    branches and moonlight
reveal
dark clouds' true colours

    I paced this with morae instead of syllables. Same idea as a haiku from the same day.

  21. 2025-12-02

    we silent strangers
speak in clouds
on the frozen bus

  22. 2025-11-30

    old leaves disappear,
revealing
hungry new machines

    Based on a recent haiku with the same theme.

  23. 2025-11-26

    some lost dignity
slithers free
from the mirror's cracks

  24. 2025-11-26

    pierced by the ice queen
in her keep,
the sea dog whimpers

  25. 2025-11-23

    past the wall of night,
something screams
brighter than lightning

  26. 2025-11-22

    thrashing the windows
on all sides,
the storm fills the house

    Followed up on the same theme with a Crapsey cinquain and a haiku a few days later.

  27. 2025-11-22

    after the rainstorm
children play;
ripples in the sky

  28. 2025-11-21

    light footfalls crumple
frost-crisped leaves;
contrails catch the sun

  29. 2025-11-20

    as the mountain hums,
the glacier
taps its dancing feet

  30. 2025-11-19

    brief shadows of warmth
dissipate
lingering white chill

  31. 2025-11-16

    nestled in the dusk,
little clouds
lay tomorrow's brood

  32. 2025-11-13

    vast societies
glow below
lichen-bearded trees

  33. 2025-11-09

    the old propellor
shreds the air
unfazed by neglect

  34. 2025-11-05

    worms dance joylessly
in the rind
of the universe

  35. 2025-11-04

    low constellations
bleeding slime
where careless feet fell

  36. 2025-11-02

    the handbag-seller
thinks aloud:
“what strange-shaped gators!”

  37. 2025-11-02

    staring at the sun—
a black dot
lurks inside the light

  38. 2025-11-01

    the sky's last daydreams
march ragged
toward the sunset

  39. 2025-10-31

    floodlit tunnels sigh—
nobody
comes back up alive

  40. 2025-10-30

    see remortgaged teeth
clack and rot
in your bosses' mouths

    Could also start “your remortgaged teeth”.

  41. 2025-10-30

    each window a well,
each lost frog
sharing the same moon

  42. 2025-10-29

    the light of love of
knowledge burns
when used for torture

    Don't create the Torment Nexus… also kinda trying to blend two overlapping sentences, one ending at the end of the second line and the other starting at the start of the second line.

  43. 2025-10-27

    the wind plods between
gazing birch
clumsy and ashamed

  44. 2025-10-27

    the cat hunts the sun—
relaxing
can be such hard work

  45. 2025-10-27

    acorns line the shore—
listen close
and hear the earth's voice

  46. 2025-10-26

    rot-black blossom drifts
through autumn
apocalyptic

  47. 2025-10-25

    our dismemberers
playfully
dance hand in red hand

  48. 2025-10-23

    Vichy haute couture
recycles
crematory black

  49. 2025-10-22

    warm-hearted streetlights
caress leaves 
untouched by the sun

  50. 2025-10-20

    a fencepost lazes
in soft mud,
but still gestures true

  51. 2025-10-16

    the treetop streetlight
glares in vain
at its captor leaves

  52. 2025-10-11

    Rayleigh scattering
off the tears
of our doomed planet

  53. 2025-10-11

    a flash of lightning,
black on white
from an inverse world

  54. 2025-09-29

    life's experiment
concluded,
our souls go AWOL

  55. 2025-09-27

    the acorns attacked
overnight
in suicide ranks

  56. 2025-09-27

    “rum and sodomy!”
people cry,
forgetting the lash

  57. 2025-09-27

    mist crystallises
a squirrel
riding empty air

  58. 2025-09-27

    cruel garden fencers
guard the land
from society

  59. 2025-09-26

    smash Halley's Comet
to splinters—
a billion wishes

  60. 2025-09-25

    the buried tree sulks,
hair of leaves
carpeting the earth

  61. 2025-09-24

    our disasters live
in all things
each peak an abyss

  62. 2025-09-23

    immortal plastic
fragments shine
where the moss dies back

  63. 2025-09-20

    a froth of fungus
bubbles up
from the tire tracks

    I'm counting both morae in “tire” to round out the last line to, effectively, 5 syllables. I could add a 1-syllable adjective to the last-line to do things more “official”, though. Also: second use of the “froth fungus” wording I first used in an earlier poem.

  64. 2025-09-19

    the sky's saliva
dribbles down
weather-eaten bricks

  65. 2025-09-10

    the red vesseltree
swallows hard
barbed wire and gristle

  66. 2025-09-06

    cloudsun brings to life
a driftlong
haze menagerie,
gargantics
of lost Atlantis

    Wanted to make up some terms. Also, I know it's not 100% in the form since it has the extra two lines (I guess it's the Kelly lune's tanka equivalent), but I'm not gonna make a “Kellelly lulunes” page just yet.

  67. 2025-09-02

    the migrating rain
eagerly
sings and drums on me

  68. 2025-09-01

    dry leaves at twilight
embracing
silhouette cocoons

    Same subject as a haiku the same day.

  69. 2025-08-29

    twinkling in the sun,
our wet earth
blacker than the night

  70. 2025-07-17

    through beams of gold dust
a lost breeze
rejoins the wheat field

  71. 2025-07-13

    netherside of leaves
green aphids
walk on fields of light

  72. 2025-07-06

    how does the house feel
to hold us
trapped in its black guts?

  73. 2025-06-24

    long summer stillness
and same-ness—
minds don't grow like grass

  74. 2025-06-23

    wind drums on the trees—
phantom rain
dances on the leaves

  75. 2025-06-22

    black cats' eyes glimmer
in dark holes
where they shouldn't be

  76. 2025-06-11

    footsteps of dry leaves
follow me
up to the hilltop

  77. 2025-06-11

    fertiliser bags
and beer cans
guard the dawn garden

  78. 2025-06-08

    the hot dogshit bin
overflows
with good intentions

  79. 2025-06-06

    beneath the ashphalt,
the demon
eats the suburb's bliss

  80. 2025-06-06

    a rusty oildrum
sings off-key—
trapped rainwater cries

  81. 2025-06-04

    a breeze through the leaves
down the lane—
or a speeding car?

  82. 2025-06-01

    young forest shades sway—
the sunlight
brings the ground to life

  83. 2025-05-30

    suburban gutters
suck nitrous—
guilt makes the high rise

  84. 2025-05-30

    everyone's afraid
of foot truck—
loco for motor

  85. 2025-05-28

    through telescope eyes
we see truth
in strangest colour

  86. 2025-05-26

    dark detached houses
tut and leer
over car-crash lane

  87. 2025-05-13

    the lost motorway
speaks its truth
through cracked tarmac tongues

  88. 2025-05-13

    dusty small sorrow
on the floor—
what's left of the moth

  89. 2025-05-12

    grey clouds fall to earth
revealing
more clouds overhead

  90. 2025-05-11

    photocopiers
suffering
claustrophobia

    Just kinda wanted to make a Kelly lune with three words.

  91. 2025-05-11

    drown in suffocating
climate kitsch—
painting light in smog

  92. 2025-05-10

    tacky plastic birds
guard the pond
in mute jealousy

    Same inspiration as a haiku I wrote the same day.

  93. 2025-05-10

    scent of wood shavings
and petrol—
Venus on Terra

  94. 2025-05-05

    the motorway snarl
concealing
beasts in the margins

  95. 2025-05-03

    new forget-me-nots
springing up
far from the gravestones

  96. 2025-05-03

    beneath the golf course
a lone tent
flickers in the dark

  97. 2025-04-07

    “I want all these forms
triplicate”
said Dracula's ghost