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.
Paul Chambers' The Dry Bones looks beneath familiar landscapes to find moments shaped by time, loss, memory and renewal. Its haiku move between moorland, rivers, animals, childhood and empty rooms, allowing ordinary images to acquire unexpected depth.
Cherie Hunter Day's A House Meant Only for Summer moves between memory, family, nature and loss, pairing expansive prose with haiku and tanka that open new spaces within each remembered moment.
What happens when philosophy becomes the raw material for haiku? Adam T. Bogar's The Vanishing Mediator discovers twenty monoku within Slavoj Žižek's philosophical writing, creating an intriguing meeting between found poetry, philosophy and Japanese short form.
Tapan Mozumdar's at my doorstep transforms pandemic isolation into haibun filled with humour, vulnerability and sharp observations. Moving between family life, social anxieties and the natural world, the collection shows how a small moment can open into something much larger.
Haiku Harvest 2000–2006 brings together seven years of international haiku writing, offering a fascinating glimpse into a tradition that embraces close observation, personal experience, humour, social realities and experimentation in English.
Ravi Kiran’s seasoned with salt brings together haiku shaped by rivers, footprints, flowers, birds and small creatures. The poems find unexpected connections between environmental change, human experience and the details of everyday life.
Written across continents, one-line twos brings together Kala Ramesh and Marlene Mountain in an inventive collaboration of alternating one-line haiku. The collection demonstrates how a single unbroken line can open multiple possibilities of rhythm, meaning, and shared poetic discovery.
In Fiddle in the Floorboards, Ben Moeller-Gaa brings music and haiku into quiet conversation. Drawing on jazz, blues, and folk traditions, the poems explore memory, improvisation, and the rhythms that continue to resonate long after the music has ended.
John Martone's dogwood & honeysuckle invites readers into a world where birds' nests, clay pots, woodland paths, and garden plants become occasions for careful observation. Blending haiku, prose, and visual experimentation, the collection rewards slow and attentive reading.
What happens when a butterfly, a firefly, or a caterpillar becomes the centre of a poem? Insect Haiku, translated by Harold J. Isaacson, invites readers into the intricate world of classical Japanese insect haiku, where close observation transforms the smallest lives into enduring poetry.
In Haiku: A Chapbook, Dan Campbell brings together haiku, monoku, and haiga that find wonder in everyday moments, balancing wit, compassion, and imaginative insight with remarkable economy of language.
Bringing together the work of several Italian poets, Cuccagna celebrates the art of senryu through poems that are witty, poignant, and sharply observant. From family dynamics to moments of loss, these poems reveal the comedy and complexity of ordinary life.
In Petals on the Wind, Cezar Ciobîcă transforms blossoms, birds, village landscapes, and family memories into haiku of quiet emotional depth. This bilingual collection reminds us that the most enduring poetry often emerges from attentive observation and heartfelt simplicity.
In tiny droppings, Zane Parks moves between tenderness and grit, gathering poems about family, city life, addiction, weather, and memory. This Book of the Week explores how seemingly small moments accumulate into a vivid portrait of contemporary experience.
More than a collection of poems, Monkey’s Raincoat introduces readers to the collaborative art of renku. Through Bashō’s celebrated anthology and Maeda Cana’s insightful translation, the book offers a rich glimpse into the foundations of Japanese short form poetry.
Spanning nearly three decades of writing, Grant Caldwell’s blue balloon brings together haiku and senryu shaped by Melbourne streets, travel, daily observation, and moments of wit and contemplation.
Presented in English alongside Twi and French translations, Between Two Dates by Kwaku Feni Adow explores funerals, memorials, and human loss through haiku and senryu marked by tenderness and restraint.
Presented in English alongside Irish and Scots versions, Cricket Song by Ludmila Balabanova gathers haiku that move through memory, war, family, and seasons while exploring how poetry changes and endures through language.
Lafcadio Hearn’s Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things is more than a collection of ghost stories. Through haunted landscapes, folklore, and lyrical prose studies on butterflies, insects, and myth, Hearn reveals a way of seeing rooted in attention and atmosphere. This Book of the Week explores why Kwaidan remains an essential and inspiring read for haiku and Japanese short form writers.
In Too Small For Meat, Barnabas I. Adeleke pairs haiku, senryu, and his own photographs to explore hunger, devotion, humor, and moments of tenderness shaped by contemporary Nigerian life.