Further Reading

Haiku Fundamentals

I particularly recommend the following content by other writers for anyone interested in the fundamentals of haiku poetry, especially regarding haiku form:       +

• Forms in English Haiku by Keiko Imaoka

• Haiku Lessons by Alison Williams

• What Is a Haiku—And What Isn’t by John J. Dunphy

• Haiku by the Numbers, Seriously by William J. Higginson

• An Introduction to Haiku and Senryu for New Haiku and Senryu Poets by Curtis Dunlap

• Haiku: A Whole Lot More Than 5-7-5 by Jack

• Haiku Without Counting by Al McDermid

• How to Write a Bad Haiku by KrisL

• How to Write a Haiku by Naomi Beth Wakan

• How to Write a Poem by Edith Bartholomeusz

• About Haiku by Patrick Gillespie

• Haiku Are Not a Joke: A Plea from a Poet Who Has Had It Up to Here by Sandra Simpson

  • Transplanting the Haiku by Donna Eisenstat

• Learning to Write Haiku: A Teacher’s Guide by Katherine Raine

• Some Notes on Writing Haiku by Rob Taylor

• Tontoism in American Haiku by Paul O. Williams

• The Question of Articles in Haiku by Paul O. Williams

• Engineered Serendipity: Epistolary Haiku by Paul O. Williams

• Engagement and Detachment in Haiku and Senryu by Paul O. Williams

• Haiku and the Art of Fiction by Paul O. Williams

• Loafing Alertly: Observation and Haiku by Paul O. Williams

• A Pre-Electronic View of the World by Paul O. Williams

• Preface to The Edge of the Woods by Paul O. Williams

For those new to haiku, also consider reading Jane Reichhold’s Bare Bones School of Haiku for step-by-step lessons that will give you a good introduction to various challenges in writing haiku (be aware that some of the links in its resources section are out of date). For an overview of haiku from a British perspective (but still relevant worldwide), please visit Haiku: Another Kind of Poetry. For children and teachers, I also recommend visiting Johnette Downing’s Two Dragonfiles site (now available only through the archived site linked to here). For more on the fundamentals of the sounds (not syllables) counted in Japanese haiku, and the genre’s history, see Japanese Prosody, Haiku, and Haiku in English on Wikipedia.

For a discerning discussion on the problem of pseudo-haiku and the love/hate relationship one might have with different kinds of haiku (that is, literary haiku versus mere syllable-counting), listen to Jacke Wilson’s 25 July 2022 podcast “On Matsuo Bashō, Haiku’s Greatest Master” (the haiku part gets going with 48:40 remaining in the podcast).

Advanced Haiku

For more advanced haiku writers, I recommend the following content:

• Beyond the Haiku Moment: Bashō, Buson, and Modern Haiku Myths by Haruo Shirane

• Toward an Aesthetic for English-Language Haiku by Lee Gurga

• Haiku as Poetic Spell by Martin Lucas (with my commentary in a postscript)

• Leaping the Chasm: An Interview with Virginia Brady Young by vincent tripi

• Magic–Mystery–Music: The Persistence of 5–7–5 in Haiku by Charles Trumbull

• Haiku by Alan Watts (with my commentary in annotations)

• The Honkadori Revisited: Have I Read this Before? Déjà vu in Haiku by Hans Jongman

• Review of A Haiku Path by Ce Rosenow

• Some Notes on Haiku Moments and Prepositions by Cor van den Heuvel

• A Concise History of Haibun in English by Cor van den Heuvel

• Why I Write Haibun by Rich Youmans

• The “Zeugmatic Effect” by Charles B. Dickson

• Asian Topics page by Columbia University

My Essays on Fundamentals and Haiku Form

For context or further assistance, if you haven’t already read my introductory essays on writing haiku in English, please visit the following pages:

• • Becoming a Haiku Poet

  • Haiku Seeds (for school children)

  • Jump Into Haiku

  • The Discipline of Haiku

  • The Heft of Haiku

  • The Burning Word: Getting Started with Haiku

  • Notes on Japanese Forms (definitions of haiku, senryu, haibun, haiga, rengay, renku, and tanka)

  • Why “No 5-7-5” (on my NaHaiWriMo website)     +

  • What Is a Syllable?

  • Go-Shichi-Go: How Japanese and English Syllables Differ

  • Haiku Checklist

See also Recommended Books on Haiku and A Survey of English-Language Haiku Activity. Also try exploring additional essays on my Essays page, and essays by other writers on “Selected Essays and Interviews from Woodnotes.” See additional haiku links on the Links page.

If you have any comments or questions, please contact Michael Dylan Welch.