Per Diem for October: Urban Haiku

Peggy Heinrich chooses a direction that is increasingly apparent in the development of haiku in English. She writes:

Haiku are usually defined as poems of nature. Looking to cities for haiku may seem contradictory but the same sky that drifts over the plains looms above the city. Birds fly, animals caper, flowers and trees bloom, offering many opportunities for fine haiku. In the midst of all the cement and concrete are multitudes of humans by the thousands, and where there are humans, a poignant or ironic scene awaits the perceptive poet. Along with true haiku, many that appear this month are senryu, the haiku of human nature.

If you live in a Manhattan highrise or a mountain cave, you’ll appreciate these reckonings from the inhabited sphere all month via Per Diem, on the THF website.