Poll: who is your favorite english language haiku poet?

[Chase Gagnon]

If you could only pick one, who would it be?

[Chase Gagnon]

I dont think I will ever have a favorite. But im reading a lot of Aubrie Cox right now.

[AlanSummers]

There cannot be one alone for so here's three to start with!

Fay Aoyagi: http://www.haijinx.org/IV-1/reviews/liveagain.html
John Stevenson: http://www.haijinx.org/IV-1/reviews/liveagain.html
Johannes S H Berg: http://www.cyberwit.net/publications/295

[John McManus]

I'd say it is very hard to pick a favourote with so many talented poets around, but a few I regularly read are

Roberta Beary, Peter Yovu, Paul m and Paul Pfleuger.

warmest,
John

[Vida]

I have to add Alexis Rotella. What she writes is probably senryu and kyoka, but I can't imagine the  English haiku scene without her :))

Best,
Vida

[Julie B. K.]

Roberta Beary.  And because I tend toward speculative haiku, I frequently bump into wonderful poems by LeRoy Gorman and Deborah Kolodji.

Julie B K

[S.M. Abeles]

Polona Oblak, Chen-ou Liu, John Hawk, Peter Newton. Many others of course.

[martin gottlieb cohen]

For me it starts with the late William J. Higginson who got me interested in haiku, then the haiku of Yu Chang, Cor van den Heuvel and so many more... 

[PaulaB]

Roberta Beary if I have to pick one. But I really like the John Stevenson that was posted.

[AlanSummers]

Welcome Paula!   :)

I don't know if you went to the Haiku North America 2013 event on the Queen Mary in Los Angeles at all?   Roberta is indeed a fine haiku writer, and has a keen sense of humor and great company.  I haven't met John Stevenson in person, but a big fan of his work.  Here's a review of one of his haiku collections:  http://www.haijinx.org/IV-1/reviews/liveagain.html

Roberta's website can be found at: http://www.robertabeary.com/

I wonder if you might like Fay Aoyagi and Peter Yovu?

Fay:
http://www.modernhaiku.org/bookreviews/Aoyagi2004.html
http://www.modernhaiku.org/essays/Lanoue-FayAoyagiHaiku.html
http://simplyhaiku.com/SHv4n1/haiku/Aoyagi.html

Peter Yovu:
http://www.poetrysociety.org.nz/node/426
http://www.poetrysociety.org.nz/node/400
http://www.modernhaiku.org/bookreviews/Yovu2010.html

Roberta Beary if I have to pick one. But I really like the John Stevenson that was posted.

[PaulaB]

Thanks for all the links, Alan. I really enjoyed them.

[moonrise]

So many wonderful poets...Jane Reichhold would be my favourite


my very fav of hers

moving
a handful of moonlight
the owl's wing

which should be centred but i don't know how in this forum.

Dawn

[Tracy]

It was fun reading these lists.  There are some on there --Alexis Rotella in particular -- who are rare in that they have a truly distinctive voice within haiku.  I think that's true of Fay as well.  I would be able to pick one of her poems from a mixed group anytime.

I'd like to mention Carolyn Hall. Her meticulous poems continue to surprise me with totally accessible yet fresh imagery.  But what makes her really special, to my mind, is the way she addresses the condition of being a woman.  She manages to be simultaneously frank and full of awe.

[Don Baird]

Gene Murtha ... Mike Rehling ... Ron Moss ... so many fine poets.  I'd prefer to name 'most' of them.  Sheila Windsor ... Johannes Bjerg ... Lorin Ford ...

[AlanSummers]

I guess one of the reasons I loved haiku was that it wasn't about the names, but more that there was a growing body of work from a global perspective.

My first introduction to haiku was Local Seasonings, from Brisbane and highly respected Queensland and Australian poet Ross Clark:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ross_Clark

Title   Local Seasonings: A Haiku Journal
http://www.austlit.edu.au/austlit/page/C221651
Volume 1 of Sweetwater poets. Blue series
Authors   Ross Clark, American Haiku Archives
Publisher   SweetWater Press, 1993
Length   20 pages

I appreciated the inclusivity of those haiku, and the fun when I caught Ross Clark's book launch where he performed the haiku, and they were performed completely differently from the manner in which I'd read them to myself.   I was hooked from then on.

Popping into a small branch library in Ipswich, Queensland I was amazed to come across two copies of a book called The Haiku Handbook.  I immediately borrowed the book and read it cover to cover twice over three days, and again before I took it back.

The next big book was stumbling across one of the earlier Haiku Anthologies, the one that featured Janice Bostok's work (The Haiku Anthology, edited Cor van den Heuvel).

As much as I admire single author's work, it's the overall atmosphere of reading haiku day after day (regardless of whom it's by) that thrills me.  But I still delight in being caught offguard by a single haiku, reminding me that, despite its brevity, it can still take your breath away, and resonate long after.

I could give a long list of names starting from Janice Bostok and Ross Clark, but it's really the entire body of work (in English) that is my favorite English-language haiku poet.

warm regards,

Alan