What would The Trials of Apollo be without haikus? In celebration of National Poetry Month here at Read Riordan HQ, we perused the books of the series for our favorites. And we promptly decided that they were all our favorites, so we went with those that either celebrated or bemoaned the challenges of poetic structure.

THE HIDDEN ORACLE

Here’s some bemoaning. Chapter 14 of the book that started the trials begins with Apollo’s bitter realization that Meg McCaffrey is a daughter of Demeter. We can practically hear Apollo sputtering with the dread of having his suspicions confirmed.

You’ve got to be kid—

Well, crud, what just happened there?

I ran out of syl—

DARK PROPHECY

We love this gem in Chapter 22. Apollo takes a breather after defeating a serpent to prove there’s plenty of room for sarcasm in the literary form.

I wax poetic

On the beauty of sewers

Real short poem. Done

THE BURNING MAZE

Things are not looking good for Apollo as we start Chapter 42. He’s in chains; Medea is about to flay his mortal form; Grover and Meg are suspended over the lava-like ichor of Helios. We can’t expect him to drop some profundity on us. Still, he makes the haiku work for him.

You want prophecy?

I’ll drop some nonsense on you.

Eat my gibberish!

THE TYRANT’S TOMB

You didn’t think we forgot, did you? We have two new haikus available to us, thanks to the recent chapter excerpts we tore through in early March. Head to this link to check them out, but be careful. They both sting a little. On the upside, they also kick off some rip-roaring action that keeps us from wallowing in our grief.

Read the rest of the new haikus when The Tyrant’s Tomb goes on sale September 24, 2019!