Poems About Haiku

The following selected poems explore 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, and 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! 

Haiku ambigram by John Langdon.

Reading and Writing Haiku

These poems speak of haiku aesthetics or techniques, or simply reading and writing this poetry.


Bashō


Chiyo-ni, Buson, and Shiki

We clearly need more poems written about Chiyo-ni, Buson, and Shiki.


Issa


About Haiku

These 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.


Miscellaneous

Most of these poems talk about haiku and haiku-related subjects, doing more than merely mentioning haiku.


Mentioning Haiku

These poems typically just mention haiku (or hokku), which may be seen as an act of respect and appreciation.


For Fun

These poems offer jokes or humour relating to haiku, or about haiku, sometimes based on misperceptions of haiku. Bad puns may occur.


Metaku

These 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.       +


Parodies

These poems offer haiku-related parodies of songs or other existing texts, for a bit of fun.


Note: If you know of other poems about haiku, please contact Michael Dylan Welch—thanks!