the sight of green leaves
a mountain cuckoo
the first bonito
– Yamaguchi Sodo
Our Latest Posts
Haiku Writing Prompts, Dialogue and Information Curated by The Haiku Foundation’s Passionate Team of Contributors
04May 2026
Haiku for Healing
Haiku for Healing Interview – Shobhana Kumar
Finding a sanctuary in haiku and haibun
04May 2026
HaikuLife
HaikuLife 2026 Reprised: Marjorie Pezzoli
Enjoy the offerings of the HaikuLife Haiku Film Festival a second time . . .
04May 2026
Featured Content
Book of the Week – Grandmother’s Milk by Penny Harter
In Grandmother’s Milk, Penny Harter’s poems explore desire, care, loss, and inheritance, grounding emotional experience in the physical realities of the body.
03May 2026
HaikuLife
HaikuLife 2026 Reprised: Jamie Wimberly
Enjoy the offerings of the HaikuLife Haiku Film Festival a second time . . .
03May 2026
Featured Content
haiku::photo 6 voting ballot suchness
The newest Haiku Foundation interactive feature is haiku::photo, curated by internationally renowned photographer M.H. Rubin.
02May 2026
HaikuLife
HaikuLife 2026 Reprised: Christina Chin & Paul Callus
Enjoy the offerings of the HaikuLife Haiku Film Festival a second time . . .
02May 2026
Touchstone Awards
Crystal Simone Smith — Touchstone Distinguished Books Honorable Mention 2025
Crystal Simone Smith is the recipient of a Touchstone Distinguished Books Honorable Mention for 2025
01May 2026
Touchstone Awards
Nominations are OPEN for Touchstone Awards for Individual Haibun!
Nominate your favourite haibun of 2026
01May 2026
HaikuLife
HaikuLife 2026 Reprised: Shloka Shankar
Enjoy the offerings of the HaikuLife Haiku Film Festival a second time . . .
01May 2026
01May 2026
re:Virals
re:Virals 553
Sudha Devi Nayak — one moment telescoping into another : commentaries on “milk bubbles / from a straw this universe / & that & that” by Joyce Clement
01May 2026
Touchstone Awards
Terri L. French — Touchstone Distinguished Books Honorable Mention 2025
Terri L. French is the recipient of a Touchstone Distinguished Books Honorable Mention for 2025
Feature Overview
Book-of-the-Week
Delve into the history of English-language haiku in the most direct way possible: by reading its poets. The Book-of-the-Week series presents a new, digitized version of a book of haiku, recent or classic, drawn from The Haiku Foundation Digital Library and other holdings. Host: our digital librarian, Vidya Premkumar.
EarthRise Rolling Haiku Collaboration
The EarthRise Rolling Haiku Collaboration is the world’s largest annual collaborative poem. It's part of International Haiku Poetry Day (April 17), and plays out like an extended renku — the literary drinking game of feudal Japan. We look forward to your participation! Host: Jim Kacian. View the EarthRise Archive.
Education Resources
There’s so much to learn about haiku — and not just for students. Visit The Haiku Foundation’s Education Wall, where you’ll find lesson plans and educational tools for teachers and students alike. All age groups and experience levels will find something of interest to sharpen their approach to this surprisingly complex genre.
Events
Our Events page lists haiku-related awards, competitions, and events curated by our host. Hosted by Valérie Rivoallon.
Haiga Galleries
Each month The Haiku Foundation will add a new gallery of work devoted to haiga and related visual arts, and feature it on the THF site. You will find traditional approaches to haiga alongside more current trends like photo haiku. Host: Jim Kacian.
Haiku Bridges
Haiku Bridges is a periodic feature designed to encourage and communicate significant haiku outreach initiatives to new audiences. Host: Scott Mason.
Haiku Dialogue
Haiku Dialogue offers a triweekly prompt for practicing your haiku. Posts appear each Wednesday with a prompt or a selection of poems from a previous week. Comments are encouraged — join in the discussion! Host: kjmunro.
Haiku for Healing
This feature looks to explore the potential of haiku as a tool for healing in a range of diverse circumstances such as physical illness, bereavement, estrangement and displacement. Hosted by Sonam Chhoki.
Haiku of the Day
Haiku of the Day (formerly Per Diem) is one of our most popular offerings. Guest editors are invited to create thematic galleries of poems which are then prominently featured on the site and are gathered into the Haiku of the Day Archive. Host: Shloka Shankar.
Haiku Registry
The Haiku Registry offers brief curriculum vitae for haiku poets from around the world. Host: Marta Chocilowska.
haiku::photo
haiku::photo is a visual kukai. We invite anyone with a camera to explore the application of haiku principles to the craft of photography. For details, see haiku::photo Overview.
Host: M. H. Rubin
HaikuLife
HaikuLife is The Haiku Foundation’s haiku film festival, the only event like it in the world — the Sundance of Haiku. Each year auteurs from around the world submit films, from brief video haiga to feature length treatments, all based on and around haiku. Host: Jim Kacian.
Haikupedia
Haikupedia is the most ambitious haiku-centric resource ever attempted, The Haiku Foundation’s encyclopedia of haiku. Definitions, biographies, famous places and important books from around the world, we’ve got it all covered here in one place. View the Haikupedia site. Senior Editor: Charles Trumbull.
International Haiku Poetry Day
April 17 is the day the whole world honors haiku. International Haiku Poetry Day features the HaikuLife Haiku Film Festival, the EarthRise Rolling Haiku Collaboration, and the announcement of the results of the Touchstone Awards. Host: Jim Kacian.
Juxtapositions
Juxtapositions, The Haiku Foundation’s journal of haiku research and scholarship, is the only vehicle of its kind dedicated to academic, peer-reviewed haiku research and criticism. MLA Standard. Indexed. Senior Editor: Ce Rosenow.
Librarian’s Cache
Librarian's Cache is an occasional series that features journals, videos, and other assets from The Haiku Foundation Digital Library and other holdings. Host: our digital librarian, Dan Campbell.
New to Haiku
A space specially designed for those of you just starting out on the journey of haiku. First things to read, study, look at and try yourselves, without judgment. We remember — we all start somewhere. Host: Julie Bloss Kelsey.
re:Virals
re:Virals is an interactive feature which offers commentary on selected haiku each week. The supplier of the best commentary each week gets to choose the next week’s poem. An updated version of Virals, an early interactive feature of THF. co-hosts: Shawn Blair, Melissa Dennison, Susan Yavaniski, and Keith Evetts (managing editor).
Renku Sessions
The Renku Sessions was created to offer a participatory activity that honors historical traditions while actively engaging contemporary practice. Poets participate in 12, 20 and 36-link renku, moderated by the leading Western sabaki of our day. Host: John Stevenson. See our Archive of Completed Renku.
THF Monthly Kukai
The THF Monthly Kukai invites poets from around the world to craft a poem to the month’s theme, and then to assess the roster of poems by others on that theme. Winning poems become part of the THF Monthly Kukai Archive. Winners also receive books of their choice from the THF Hard Copy Library extra copies catalog. Host: Tom Borkowski.
Touchstone Awards
In 2012 The Haiku Foundation created the Touchstone Awards — the highest awards in the field — to reward excellence and innovation in the genre. Award categories are best individual haiku/senryu, best individual haibun, and best haiku publications. Overview: THF Touchstone Awards | Host: Bruce Feingold.
The MISSION of The Haiku Foundation is threefold:
to SEEK active exchange with other haiku languages and cultures around the world