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"The Country of Eight Islands" Burton Watson
"The Haiku Anthology 3rd Edition" Coe van de Heuvel
"The Deep End of the Sky" Chad Lee Robinson
"A Drop of Pond" Brad Bennett
"The Art of Haiku" Stephen Addiss

Jim Kacian's book is great.

Anything by Raymond Roseliep or Stanford M. Forrester, Alexis Rotella, Chad has a free chapbook in the digital library called "Rope Marks"

Hi, Everyone!

I have always used the m dash, but I'm wondering about the use of the colon.

Lately, I've found that I might use one or the other to achieve a different result... I started this thread thinking many people on the site have been writing longer than me, and might have a more ready defense for one or the other... or could articulate a preference. I suppose writing this thread is also making me work through what I think, haha.

For me, the m dash is about immediate juxtaposition, or fragmentation, or further explanation of a second subject in line two that differs more distinctly from the first subject in line one--it also serves as the "cutting word" in English-language haiku in the same way an ellipse, !, comma, or colon does, too.

Now the colon: I have only recently encountered the colon reading Nick Virgilio's work. It seems to me he is using the colon over the m dash to the same purpose as the m dash. I don't often see him employ the m dash, and it appears to me to be just a stylistic concern for that reason. I also often find the Japanese Masters (Basho, Issa, Buson, Shiki) are translated with an m dash, though I believe Nick Virgilio's body of work is as meritorious as the best of the Japanese Masters.

In my own writing, I have not been consistent. With this thread I aim to change that. If I want to separate or provide a "cutting word" for a juxtaposition of images, I think, first, is my image drastically different, or similar? For example, I wrote a haiku comparing snowflakes to stars using the m dash:

the spider hanging
snowflakes from the eve--
Orion's Belt

Whereas, in a different haiku, when wanting to provide for that juxtaposition of images, but where the second image in mind functions almost like an explanation of the first, I would use a colon:

Mother's Day:
we wait at home
for our florist

What do you think? Do you prefer the m dash or colon? Is there a difference, or is it about style? Should we use them to different purposes? If editors are reading our haiku, what are they thinking when they see an m dash over a colon, or vice versa?

All best,
Jack