The following selected poems explore the nuances of haiku aesthetics or haiku history, and provide an alternate way into haiku as a genre of literature. They are all about haiku in one way or another, or connected to haiku. A few are not much more than jokes (and sometimes even misunderstand haiku), but most of them are serious, mostly written by poets other than me (for other favourite poems, see also Poems by Others). I’ve arranged these poems by category, and then alphabetically by each poet’s last name. You can also read selections of my own haiku and senryu as well as longer poems. Enjoy, and please let me know if you know of other poems about haiku! Reading and Writing HaikuThese poems speak of haiku aesthetics or techniques, or simply reading and writing this poetry.if there is — Stephen Addiss How to Write Haiku — Kyle D. Craig Presence — Jim Kacian [untitled] — Charles F. Kennedy [untitled] — Michael Ketchek Releasing the Animals (the anti-haiku) — Marsh Muirhead On What Is Haiku — Sydell Rosenberg The Haiku for Me Is — Sonia Sanchez Just as They Are — Sonojo How to Write a Haiku — Naomi Beth Wakan How to Respond to a Haiku — Michael Dylan Welch Naming Haiku — Michael Dylan Welch Seventeen Ways of Looking at a Haiku — Michael Dylan Welch Haiku Is — Sheila Windsor Bashō (2013) — David Young + Bashō[untitled] — Robert AitkenFrogments — Gary Barwin and derek beaulieu Aging Well — Robert Lee Brewer While Reading Bashō [excerpts] — Hayden Carruth Rock Hunting with Bashō, Dallas Road, February — Terry Ann Carter The Bashō Story — Cid Corman Great and Small — Milan Djordjevic After Bashō — Margaret Dornaus + In the Footsteps of Bashō — Beverley George, ML Grace, Michael Thorley, David Terelinck,Catherine Smith, Robert Miller, Carmel Summers, and Lynette Arden Old Pond — Allen Ginsberg Along the Way — Judy Halebsky A Breaking Word — Judy Halebsky Bristlecone Pine — Judy Halebsky The Kite Maker [excerpt] — Judy Halebsky A Left-Branching Language — Judy Halebsky Motel 6 — Judy Halebsky Walk the Line — Judy Halebsky Zen Monks Talking Big — Judy Halebsky Conversation with Bashō — Peggy Heinrich Engraving: World-Tree with an Empty Beehive on One Branch — Jane Hirshfield Note to Bashō — Mark Kaplon [untitled] — M. Kei At the Grave of Bashō — James Kirkup Bash (fourteen versions of furuike ya) — Bill Knott Mizu No Oto — Bill Knott Old Pond — Alfred H. Marks Reading Bashō in Our Valley — Terry Martin Bashō Variations — Steve McCaffery (three poems) Sylvan Pool — Dave McFadden Bashō’s Child — W. S. Merwin Poor Bashō — Marlene Mountain Frightening Things — David Mura John Cage’s Mushroom Haiku . . . Mesosticized — Stefano Pocci And the Gauchos Sing — Mike Puican Narrow Road to the North — Mary Ruefle “Living the Cretive Life” [excerpt] — Philip Salom On Bashō’s Frog — Sengai To Bashō [I] — Nyogen Senzaki To Bashō [II] — Nyogen Senzaki Thinking About Bashō — Bracha K. Sharp 33 Translations of One Bashō — Chad Sweeney On Reading Diane Ackerman — Naomi Beth Wakan Bellwether — Ronald Wallace [untitled] — Karma Tenzing Wangchuk Bashō, Glimpsed — Mike White Thyme Flowering Among Rocks — Richard Wilbur Passing Scenes (While Reading Bashō) — Franz Wright Three Bashō Haibun — Franz Wright Bashō (1986) — David Young + Buson and ShikiWe clearly need more haiku written about Buson and Shiki, and how about Chiyo-ni?A Doing Nothing Poem — Robert Bly Japan — Billy Collins IssaWith Issa — Nelson BallWhat Issa Heard — David Budbill O Snail — Jane Hirshfield Out of the Gate — Judy Halebsky Something Small — David G. Lanoue Issa’s Child — Joan Logghe Taking a Walk with Issa — Hannah Mahoney Reading the Japanese Poet Issa (1762–1826) — Czesław Miłosz [untitled] — Gregory Orr (“Could it all be said”) [untitled] — Dale Pendell Poem Written with Issa [“The kids fighting”] — Matthew Rohrer Nammu, Nammu — Hiroaki Sato Issa on the Pequod — Ron Starr On Reading Issa Each Morning — Naomi Beth Wakan Song of Myself — Ronald Wallace Dear Issa — Michael Dylan Welch Flowers on the Roof of Hell — Michael Dylan Welch Issa’s Last Poem — Franz Wright Imitated from the Japanese — W. B. Yeats About HaikuThese poems typically do not mention haiku at all, but may be considered to be about haiku to the extent that they present values and perspectives in keeping with a haiku spirit and practice.As the Poems Go — Charles Bukowski Little Things — Julia Abigail Fletcher Carney Ordinary Lives — William Martin (translator) To Look at Any Thing — John Moffitt To the Poet — Marianne Monaco Instructions for living a life — Mary Oliver Praying — Mary Oliver Three Things to Remember — Mary Oliver When Death Comes [excerpt] — Mary Oliver Now You See It — Ron Padgett Whatever It Is — Ron Padgett [untitled] — Margaret Stawowy [untitled] — John Vieira Lacking Duende — Naomi Beth Wakan The Uses of Tanka (really a poem about haiku) — Naomi Beth Wakan Writing a Tanka (also a poem about haiku) — Naomi Beth Wakan MiscellaneousThese poems talk about haiku and haiku-related subjects, doing more than merely mentioning haiku.It Is Not Much — Frank Ankenbrand, Jr. In Haiku — R. D. Armstrong Classic Haiku: A New Zealand Perspective — Nola Borrell Three Brautigans — Richard Brautigan Banteay Srei — Terry Ann Carter Way of Haikai — Terry Ann Carter Haiku — Henri Cole Reading the Biographical Notes in a Haiku Anthology — Billy Collins Orfordville — Lisa Fishman Distressed Haiku — Donald Hall Poem to Be Entitled Five Haiku — William J. Higginson Samurai Angels — Judyth Hill 5 & 7 & 5 — Anselm Hollo The Haiku Masters of Japan Drop In for a Visit — David Lehman Falling Apart, or New Delhi Haiku Blues — Kevin Murphy I Wrote a Little Haiku — Les Murray Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Haiku — Ron Padgett Lilliputian — Steven Ratiner Haiku — James Shea The Haiku Master — Elizabeth Spires Luther’s Narrow Road — Ron Starr Unfinished Haiku — Jessica Tremblay Processing the News — Naomi Beth Wakan Seven Tanka on Haiku — Naomi Beth Wakan Sex After 70 — Naomi Beth Wakan Summer Haiku Meet — Naomi Beth Wakan Mentioning HaikuThese poems typically just mention haiku, which may be seen as an act of respect and appreciation.Holding Radium [excerpt] — Diane Ackerman I found a geophysicist — Christopher Arigo [Rain that Imitates Anne Waldman] — John Burgess [poem starts at 6:00-minute mark in video] the library of t-shirts — joanne burns More Than a Moment Ago — John Bigler Crow Figures — John Elsberg and Eric Greinke A Haiku for Mars — Nikki Giovanni With Only a Vague Outline [excerpt] — Jeff Hardin Songs to Survive the Summer [excerpt] — Robert Hass Near Miss Haiku — Anselm Hollo Haiku Corner: On Charlie Rose — Garrison Keillor Haiku — Elizabeth Kirschner Confectionery Text — J. I. Kleinberg Putative Poem from Samurai Era — Bill Knott Japan — Rudi Krausmanm The ABZs of Poetry — Noelle Levy Rock Climbing with Snyder — Billy Marshall-Stoneking not an ode to haiku — Marlene Mountain Being Born, Then Dying — Elizabeth Oakes Haiku — Ron Padgett Letter to Toyota — Geoff Page Impossible to Tell — Robert Pinsky The Perfect Haiku — William M. Ramsey Negation — Philip Salom [untitled] — Nick Smith On the Circuit — Vivian Smith Amorphous Me — Naomi Beth Wakan An Organised Life — Naomi Beth Wakan Brevity — Judith Wright Changing Genres — Dean Young Three Poems — Andrea Zanzotto
For FunThese poems offer jokes or humour relating to haiku, or about haiku.Limerick — Anonymous Limericku — Anonymous Subversive Haiku — Anonymous Knock, Knock — Attributed [untitled] — Dave [untitled] — Ellen DeGeneres Captain Haiku vs. the Arch-Villanelle — Ed Gaillard The Problem with Haiku — Michael S. Glaser Three Acts in the Form of Bashō’s Famous Haiku — Martin Ingerson Palindrome Haiku — Alice Lam [untitled] — Cameron Malcher Limerick — Alfred H. Marks Haiku Degree — Marlene Mountain Limerick — Michael Dylan Welch MetakuThese poems seek to define haiku by trying to be haiku about haiku, all too often with misunderstandings of haiku. The Ron Padgett poem, however, is intentionally ironic.[untitled] — John Cooper Clarke Not a Haiku — Gerald England Fun-ku — Seren Fargo The Only Problem with Haiku — Roger McGough Haiku on Haiku — Marlene Mountain Three Ku — Marlene Mountain [untitled] — Rolf Nelson Haiku — Ron Padgett [untitled] — Christopher Provost A Long Haiku — Rob Shore Knock, Knock — Hoi Sta Why Do Haiku? — Steve ParodiesThese poems offer haiku-related parodies of songs or other existing texts, for a bit of fun.Ku Contemplator — Terri L. French and Raymond French Psalm for Haiku Poets — Tombō / Lorraine Ellis Harr The Haiku Chicken — Richard Tice Do You Want to Write a Haiku? — Michael Dylan Welch Note: If you know of other poems about haiku, please contact Michael Dylan Welch—thanks!
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