Jigsaw Haiku

About Jigsaw Haiku

Jigsaw Haiku comes from The Daily Baffle, a small maker of daily puzzles, and borrows its look from the letter-piece game Lettered. Every day has its own puzzle file: a short haiku in three lines, a board of letter cells and a watercolour painting tied to the poem's image, such as a frozen lake or icicles on a roof.

The haiku is split into irregular pieces, each carrying a few letters. You drag the pieces onto the board and fit them together so that the words make sense across the three lines. There is no clue beyond the shapes, the letters and the rhythm of a haiku, so you work it out like a jigsaw and a word puzzle at once.

When the last piece goes in, the poem is complete and the painting behind it shows through. Everyone gets the same haiku on the same day, and the puzzles are scheduled day by day in advance.

It suits people who like quiet, unhurried word games and short poems, and it takes a few minutes with a coffee. No account is needed.

How to play Jigsaw Haiku

1. Open Jigsaw Haiku to load the day's puzzle.
2. Look at the letter pieces and the empty board of three lines.
3. Drag a piece onto the board where its letters could start or finish a word.
4. Keep fitting pieces until all three lines read as a haiku.
5. Finish the board to reveal the watercolour painting behind the poem.

Tips

• Look for pieces that hold short common words such as the, of or into, and place those first.
• Remember the 5-7-5 shape of a haiku; the middle line is usually the longest.
• Pieces with a lone letter at an edge often sit at the end of a line.

Questions