Haiku of the Day Theme for July: Socio-Political Ku
In a world brimming with uncertainty—of war and climate crisis, forced migrations, widening social inequities, and increasing polarization—the smallest poem can still bear great weight.
This month, I invite you into the charged and often uncomfortable space of socio-political haiku: poems that resist silence, that mourn, protest, and bear witness. These haiku offer a kind of clarity—a stillness that quiets the noise outside, inviting us to turn inward, reflect, and consider our place in the world we now inhabit.
While curating this feature, I reached across cultures and countries, seeking haiku that feel urgent, necessary, and unafraid. I hope these poems will stir thought, deepen empathy, and open new ways of seeing the world and each other.
Please journey with me through these voices.
The Haiku of the Day feature displays a new haiku each day at the top of our home page. See also our Haiku of the Day Archive.
— Ganesh R.
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turncoat
a catcher in the rye
switches politics
Alan Summers
guns and roses
a few flowers made it
to the maidens’ hair
harbour seal
moving so easily
between tides
a beach cafe
the last straw
for so many
history
once more a prisoner
of deranged men
From just before WWII onwards socio-political topics and how they are approached is volatile and still highly problematic. While a popular old rock/pop legend a few days ago might say indirectly he supports someone who is seen as extremely dangerous in many quarters, and it’s seen as amusing, younger musicians face severe prison terms for crude protest, and Japanese poet Shimada Seihô (1882-1944) “only” wrote haiku and died under torture under the Secret Police in 1940s Japan.
The G-force of Blue | Touching Base with Gendai haiku by Alan SummersÂ
pub. Lakeview International Journal of Literature and Arts Vol.1, No.1 February 2013
Also:Â
https://area17.blogspot.com/2013/07/the-g-force-of-blue-touching-base-with.html
The article is in memory of Shimada Seihô (1882-1944) who died from torture by Japanese Secret Police due to his protests against his country entering WWII.
Fairly recently I created a gonzo-style haibun, with haiku that were constantly turned away, and published them in Pan Haiku Review. Thankfully Contemporary Haibun Online accepted an essay containing my controversial haiku in its “Press Release formulated gonzo-style format haibun” that I’d invented as a carrier for them.
Two Favorite Haibun: Unsettling Clashes
https://contemporaryhaibunonline.com/table-of-contents-20-3/articles-reviews-20-3/alan-summers-two-favorite-haibun/
and
https://www.callofthepage.org/blog/
.
Today’s opening socio-political on the Daily Haiku THF home page banner is a wry but also serious response to the boxes we have to tick or be ticked to be allowed entry as a human. It’s also a nod and allusion to Fay Aoyagi’s haiku, the wonderful former Japanese and now Japanese-American haiku poet, and a former Haiku Society of America President.
political election
my application to be
a) human
Alan Summers
First publication credit:
Haiku News Vol. 2 No. 24: (2013) ed. Dick Whyte & Lawrence Stacey
Anthology credit:
naad anunaad: an anthology of contemporary international haiku
ed. Shloka Shankar, Sanjuktaa Asopa, Kala Ramesh (India, 2016)
After Fay Aoyagi’s
cold rain —
my application
to become a crab
Fay Aoyagi
Chrysanthemum Love
Blue Willow Press (2003)
unread manifesto
a girl
opens her lunchbox