hazy yellow sun

in a forest fire sky

giving no quarter

This haiku is an example of one that contains a fragment and a phrase. Because haiku do not contain full sentences, the parts are labeled, fragment and phrase. “giving no quarter” is a fragment of a sentence. It’s as if there were a longer sentence and part of it was removed and used elsewhere. The fragment is always just one line. “hazy yellow sun in a forest fire sky” is a phrase. It’s almost a full sentence, but not quite. The phrase is two lines long. The phrase and the fragment should be easy to tell apart and yet they should still be connected in a way that makes the haiku whole. The phrase and fragment have to be related. Here’s another example:

pink wispy clouds

abide in a pale blue sky

forty-three degrees

Can you pick out the fragment and phrase in this one? How are they related?

As with other haiku, no explanation is giving as to the meaning here. The reader is free to make of it what they will, Which, in my opinion, is always fun because it gives you a kind of ownership over the haiku. Part of it is yours!