Links

Most of these links are about poems that combine Japanese haiku conventions with English-language haiku conventions. For a brief description of what this means, see What's a haiku?

Haiku Definitions

Haiku as a Way of Life

Gendai Haiku

Directories of Haiku Web Sites

Haiku Organizations

Haiku Editors

Haiku Journals

Haiku Art

Haiku with a Twist

Haiku Sites for Self-Study

Haiku Sites for Teachers and Children

Independent Haiku Sites

Haiku Society of America (direct link to the HSA site)

Senryu

Renku

Tanka

Rengay

Haiku Definitions

Discussions in Which Fixed Form Is Not Essential

• First, See Against Haiku Definitions.

• What's a haiku?, a concise definition and discussion by William J. Higginson, author of The Haiku Handbook, with Penny Harter.

• Contemporary Haiku: Origins and New Directions, an overview of contemporary haiku in English, by A. C. Missias, founder of Redfox Press, publisher and editor of the haiku journal Acorn. The article was originally published in Perhelion.

• Official Haiku Definitions and Related Terms from the Haiku Society of America (revised in 2004).

• Definitions, a list of links compiled by Paul David Mena, haiku poet and Webmaster for the The Heron's Nest.

• Haiku in English in North America, a concise history by George Swede, a leading haiku poet and critic.

• The American Haiku Movement Part I: Haiku in English, a concise history by Charles Trumbull, haiku poet, critic, former president of the Haiku Society of America, and editor of Modern Haiku.

• Matsuyama Declaration, a proposal for the Shiki Masaoka International Haiku Research Center, prepared by a group of internationally-known haiku poets and scholars. An overview of what haiku poetry has been and what it can be as the form becomes popular around the world. Translated from the Japanese.

• Haiku, an article from Wikipedia. An overview of the Japanese haiku tradition and trends in English-language haiku.

• haiku definitions from the Simply Tom Website. Tom Brinck is not a haiku scholar; he is a Web usability expert who also writes haiku. Even so, he has produced a handy collection of concise, mainstream definitions on an easy-to-use page.

• See the topics in the About Haiku section on this web site. See also the Senryu heading on this page.

Discussions in Which Fixed Form Is Essential

• The Ten Neo-classical Haiku Commandments (from the indefatigable Susumu Takiguchi, founder of the World Haiku Club. A good-humored but rigorous challenge to free-form haiku and to Western haiku conventions.)

• Judges commentary on the Kiyoshi Tokutomi Memorial Haiku Contest 2000, by Isamu Hashimoto. The contest was sponsored by the Yuki Teikei Haiku Society. See also Young Leaves, the Web site for the Yuki Teikei Haiku Society.

• Excerpt from Seeds from a Birch Tree, by Clark Strand (1997, Hyperion).

• See Pete Frengel's discussion of haiku form, on his website American Haiku. The site has an appealing collection of contemporary 5-7-5 haiku.

Haiku as a Way of Life

"The brevity of haiku is not something different from, but a part of the poetical life; it is not only a form of expression but a mode of living more immediately, more closely to life."

R.H. Blyth, Haiku Volume 3, Summer-Autumn (Japan: Hokuseido, 1952), v.

For a vigorous defense of this view, see the essays of J.W. Hackett, one of the founders of the haiku tradition in English. Search for the phrase "J.W. Hackett haiku" in your favorite search engine. See also the web site that is devoted to his work: The Haiku and Zen World of James W. Hackett. See also .

Gendai Haiku

Gendai haiku is modern Japanese haiku.

Dr. Richard Gilbert maintains the Gendai Haiku Web site, which features video interviews and translations of haiku criticism & poetry from acclaimed gendai haijin (contemporary-haiku poets), now living in Japan.

Roadrunner Haiku Journal. Roadrunner is a international quarterly online journal that publishes quality English-language haiku and senryu, as well as gendai haiku translations.

Directories of Haiku Web Sites

A directory is a list of links to other Web sites. The directories below are maintained by people who are familiar with literary haiku in English.

• Haiku and Related Forms, edited by William J. Higginson. A selective set of links with helpful descriptions.

• Links to Haiku Sites, edited by Mark Alan Osterhaus, award-winning haiku poet.

• Haiku Poetry Links, Guide to Internet and Print Resources, edited by Michael P. Garofalo. A comprehensive set of links with helpful descriptions.

Haiku Organizations

Local and Regional Haiku Organizations

In Japan, there are thousands of small groups where people learn to read and write haiku under the watchful eye of a haiku master. In the United States, we may be too democratic to follow that model, but our local and regional haiku organizations still have a lot to offer the haiku poet.

• Boston Haiku Society

• Haiku Poets of Northern California

• Haiku Times — A haiku group out of Boulder, Colorado. Nice integration of haiku practice, a web site, and a PDF broadside of haiku, photographs and art.

National Haiku Organizations

• British Haiku Society (see the back issues of the BHS journal, Blithe Spirit)

• Haiku Canada

• Haiku New Zealand

International Haiku Organizations

Most haiku organizations are international in some way, but the following organizations focus on publishing haiku by poets from many different countries.

• World Haiku Club

• temps libres / free times

• World Haiku Association

• Haiku International Association

• Yuki Teikei Haiku Society — "The Yuki Teikei Haiku Society of the United States and Canada was founded in San Jose, California, in 1975 by Mr. Kiyoshi Tokutomi and Mrs. Kiyoko Tokutomi. The purpose of the founders was to nourish and foster the art of writing Haiku in English using the traditional guidelines developed by haiku poets in Japan, where haiku originated. As explained by Mrs. Tokutomi, in Japanese "Yu" means "having", "Ki" means "season", "Tei" means formal", and "Kei" means "pattern". Therefore in the founders' view, "yuki teikei" haiku with a season word and in the three-line 5-7-5 pattern of syllables are the proper rendering of the haiku form in English. "

See Also

• Haiku Associations page on the Haiku and Related Forms site, edited by William J. Higginson

Haiku Editors

"These editors have given to readers and writers more pleasure and insight into the art of haiku than they could ever know or imagine," writes Nina Wicker, long-time member if the NCHS. We supplemented Nina's list with a few more names and added links when appropriate links could be found. The list contains a mixture of information about haiku people, magazines, and presses.

Randy Brooks, founder of Brooks Books and the haiku journal Mayfly.

Lorraine Ellis Harr, editor of the haiku journal Dragonfly from 1972 to 1984. Famous for her list of haiku do's and don'ts. For an overview of Harr's contributions to North American haiku, see her web page in the American Haiku Archive.

See also Jane Reichhold's description of Lorraine's contribution -- as well as the contribution of others mentioned below -- in Haiku Magazines in the USA.

Christopher Herold, founder and Managing Editor of The Heron's Nest.

Cor van den Heuvel, editor of The Haiku Anthology (third edition, 1999, W.W. Norton and Company, Inc.), the first major anthology of haiku in English. Past president of the Haiku Society of America.

William J. Higginson and Penny Harter, authors of several well-known books about haiku, including The Haiku Handbook (1985, Kodansha International Ltd.). See also his directory of haiku Web sites, Haiku and Related Forms.

Jim Kacian, former editor of Frogpond and founder of Red Moon Press. Founding member of the World Haiku Association.

George Klacsanzky, editor of Haiku Zasshi Zo, which has ceased publication.

Elizabeth Searle Lamb, former editor of Frogpond. See Jane Reichhold's description of Elizabeth's contribution in Haiku Magazines in the USA.

Kenneth Leibman, former editor of Frogpond.

A.C. Missias, founder of Redfox Press, publisher and editor of the haiku journal Acorn.

Jane Reichhold, founder of AHA! Press and of the AHA! Poetry Web site. Author of Those Women Writing Haiku.

Frederick A. Roborg, Jr., editor of Cicada.

Bruce Ross, past president of the Haiku Society of America; editor of Haiku Moment (1993) and Journey to the Interior: American Versions of Haibun (1998). Rutland: Charles E. Tuttle Company, Inc.

Robert Speiss, former editor of Modern Haiku, the longest continuous English-language haiku magazine. (Charles Trumbull is the current editor.)

Richard Straw, editor of Pine Needles, a North Carolina haiku journal which has ceased publication.

Elizabeth St. Jacques, Editor of the Poetry in the Light Web site.

tony suraci, Editor of the old pond, which has ceased publication.

vincent tripi, a poet known for his spiritual haiku. Here is Jane Reichhold's review of his chapbook, between God & the pine.

Michael Dylan Welch, founder of Press Here press and Tundra, The Journal of the Short Poem.

Phyllis Walsh, editor of Hummingbird.

Paul O. Williams, past president of the Haiku Society of America. Author of The Nick of Time, Essays on Haiku Aesthetics (Press Here, Foster City, 2001). Here is a Web page for his book, Outside Robins Sing: Selected Haiku.

Virginia Brady Young, past president of the Haiku Society of America.

Haiku Journals

In addition to the publications listed under Haiku Editors, here are some other good haiku journals.

• bottle rockets, a journal edited by Stanford Forrester, publishes haiku, senryu or related poems. Follow this link to see a photo of: Stan and Dave.

• Contemporary Haibun Online, edited by Jim Kacian, Ken Jones, and Bruce Ross. Ray Rassmussen is the Managing Editor and Webmaster.

• Simply Haiku: An E-Journal of Haiku and Related Forms, Founder/Owner-Managing Editor, Robert Wilson.

• Upstate Dim Sum, a biannual anthology of haiku and senryu from the Route 9 haiku group: Hilary Tann, John Stevenson, Tom Clausen, and Yu Chang. All haiku are by the Route 9 group and a guest poet. Read how this journal came to be.

• World Haiku Review, the journal of the World Haiku Club. Susumu Takiguchi, Managing Editor.
  

Don't forget to look at the publications listed under Haiku Editors above.

Haiku Art

Japanese haiku have been incorporated into paintings for over three hundred years. Today, haiku are combined with paintings, photographs and computer graphics.

• Brooks Books Online Collections, edited by Randy Brooks.

• Floating Stone, the Haiku and Art of Susumu Takiguchi.

• Haiga Online, a journal of painting and poetry, edited by an'ya. The site design is distracting, but press on to find the haiga.

• Haiku and photography, a haiku & photography web site featuring haiga, art-haiku, photo-haiku and haibun. Site design and photography by Ray Rasmussen.

• Haiku Painting and Artwork by Zolo and With love, Zolo.

• Reeds: Contemporary Haiga, edited by Jeanne Emrich, well-known haiga artist and haiku poet.

• see haiku here, a digital haiga gallery by Kuniharu Shimizu. Includes haiku from contemporary haiku poets from all over the world.

• Subway Serenade: A Marriage of Urban Haiku & Photography, by Paul David Mena and Mary Melodee Mena.

• twenty haiku by pc muñoz, a collaborative performance that combines 20 haiku with brief, improvised responses by 20 different musicians. As you might guess, the work owes more to performance poetry than to the classic Japanese haiku tradition. These haiku, which consist of enigmatic comments in the familiar 5-7-5 syllable pattern, are intriguing when combined with the music. Each musical composition is brief, unique to a particular haiku, and surprisingly self-contained.

If you would like to work with other people who want to combine images and haiku, see Ray Rasmussen's Haiku Dreamworks site.

Haiku with a Twist

And now for something completely different . . .

• Fleur-de-Lisa is one of the first, if not the first, a cappella groups to sing songs based on haiku in English.

• tinywords.com, a service that delivers one haiku every day, for free, via e-mail, cell phone, pager, or any other Internet device. Edited by D. F. Tweney. The site includes this mission statement: "tinywords' purpose: humanize technology, spread haiku worldwide." Not all of the haiku are of the sort one would expect to see in mainstream haiku journals such as Frogpond and Modern Haiku, but it can be fun to see a haiku pop into your email box each day.

• The Electronic Poetry Network, poems from across the nation and around the world are displayed on a Web page, and also on electronic message board on the first floor of the Main Library in Shreveport, Louisiana, USA. Edited by Carlos Colón.
  

Haiku Sites for Self-Study

• The About section of The Heron's Nest site. Scroll down to the Guidelines heading.

• The begin haiku section of the haikuworld site, edited by Gary Warner. You might want to start with Michael Dylan Welch's Ten tips for writing haiku.

• A Resource Page for Haiku Writers, by Ray Rasmussen. Ray's exercises and brief articles help you to discover some essentials of haiku composition. You might want to start with his Review of Contemporary Haiku Basics.

• The Art of Haiku, a guide to haiku, senryu, tanka, haibun, sedoka, sijo and
  other related genres, edited by Gerald England, published by New Hope International. Also a series of Web pages supporting and expanding on the material in The Art of Haiku. Gerald also moderates Haiku Talk,  a general discussion list for writers and others interested in haiku and related genres. A forum for news and views

• Haiku Clinic columns from past issues of Simply Haiku, by William J. Higginson. Higginson takes submitted haiku through a number of revisions and explains the rationale for the revisions. #3 is especially valuable for its commentary on one-line haiku. See Haiku Clinic #1, Haiku Clinic #2, Haiku Clinic #3, Haiku Clinic #4.

• The Disjunctive Dragonfly: A Study of Disjunctive Method and Definitions in Contemporary English-language Haiku, by Richard Gilbert. A rigorous exploration of 17 ways that haiku evoke shock, surprise, and/or a reversal of expectation.

• Haiku section of the Aha! Poetry site that is maintained by Jane Reichhold. Jane's informal discussions of haiku techniques are especially helpful. Good for self study.
  

• Introduction to Senryu, a brief essay by Alan Pizzarelli, the Senryu Editor for Simply Haiku. Here is a sample from his essay:
  
  ". . . Unlike haiku, senryu are not reliant on a seasonal or nature reference, but they DO occasionally use them. When they do, it is secondary to the human comedy or drama underlying the poem."

• Senryu, a clear and cogent essay by Anita Virgil, from the Autumn 2005 issue of Simply Haiku. Describes the unique origins and characteristics of senryu. Here is a sample from her essay:
  
  ". . . Senryu reflected—celebrated—the self-absorption disallowed elsewhere in Japanese society. Avenues opened up offering new material for the poets to explore that haiku (with its emphasis on nature rather than man) tended to exclude."
  

• World Haiku Club forum: Renku Seminar 2000 (by Paul MacNeil)
• Renku Home (links edited by William J. Higginson)
• HSA Bernard Lionel Einbond Renku Collection

• Modern Japanese Tanka (Makoto Ueda, translator and editor. Columbia University Press, 1996; an important book for those who want to understand the possibilties of contemporary tanka)
• the tanka anthology (Michael McClintock, Pamela Miller Ness, and Jim Kacian, editors. Red Moon Press 2003)
• Tanka (links edited by William J. Higginson)
• Tanka Society of America
• American Tanka (a journal edited by Laura Maffei)

According to Garry Gay, the inventor of the form:

" . . . a rengay is a collaborative six-verse linked thematic poem written by two or three poets alternating three-line and two-line haiku or haiku-like stanzas in a regular pattern or form. "

Here are some links about rengay:

Three rengay by Garry Gay and others (Brooks Books)

Garry Gay on Rengay (notes from a talk that Garry gave about rengay)

Poetry Form - The Rengay, by Joan Zimmerman

As you read the example rengay above, try to discern the nature of the link between one verse and the next. The goal is to somehow link to the previous verse, but shift the meaning, the context, the tone, and so on. The following topic is about “linking and shifting” in renku, but the principle is similar in rengay:

Link and Shift, A Practical Guide to Renku Composition, by Tadashi Shôkan Kondô and William J. Higginson