FAVOURITE HAIKU
I have a special fascination for learning, reading, and writing contemporary English language haiku. Here are some personal favourites. They are poems which stunned, stopped, and moved me when I first came across them. They are memorable poems which return to my mind every now and again and make me want to go and read them over again and again and again.
Many of these poems can be found found at -
https://thehaikufoundation.org/haiku-registry/
+ + +
pregnant again
the fluttering of moths
against the window
JANICE M. BOSTOK
The Haiku Anthology, Simon & Schuster, New York, 1986
+ + +the same moon
the ant and I
Frogpond 41:2 Spring-Summer 2018
+ + +
the empty bird table
buried under snow
RACHEL SUTCLIFFE
The Heron’s Nest Vol. XX Number 4, Dec, 2018
+ + +
house clearance
room by room by room
my mother disappears
Winner, Touchstone Individual Poem Award for 2016
+ + +
together as we dry there is the listening to rainMARLENE MOUNTAIN
Global Haiku, Mosaic Press, Canada, 2000
+ + +graveside vigil standing alone in his rainMARIETTA McGREGOR Presence #62, September 2018+ + + bombed breadfruit tree — somewhere about an infant islander cries hidan no pan no ki tōmin no akago naku atari KANEKO TOHTA Selected Haiku, Part 1 (1937-1960) by the Kon Nichi Translation Group, Red Moon Press, 2011; Trans., Gilbert et al+ + +washed jeans― his love note still dirty SUSAN BURCH Honourable mention 4th Annual Senryu Contest, Sonic Boom July 2018
+ + + peace negotiations― a refugee child collects the bullet shellsHIFSA ASHRAF hedgerow #127, Spring 2019
+ + +ahh rainbow! the light passing through meSVETLANA MARISOVA
+ + + spring breeze— the pull of her hand as we near the pet storeSimply Haiku (Summer 2012MICHAEL DYLAN WELCH Woodnotes 19, 1993+ + +blossom wind my sick wife holds my hand tighter CHEN-OU LIU Winner, Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival's 2021 Haiku Invitational Contest+ + +tern's shadow darts across the beach herring cloudsMAYA LYUBENOVA
+ + +Frogpond 31:2, 2008shining cobwebs the weather report forecasts continuing falloutEMIKO MIYASHITA
+ + + spring melt all my regrets pulled out to sea12 Haiku, Stockholm Sweden June 26, 2018MICHAEL REHLING
+ + +A Hundred Gourds 2:4 September 2013after a word at war afterwardsHANSHI TEKI Bones 8, November 2015
+ + +my grandfather’s face
we try to read
between the linesDEBBI ANTEBI
The Heron’s Nest XVIII:1, 2016+ + +
the neighbour's unkempt lawn... all these butterfliesPOLONA OBLAK+ + +
First Place, Shiki Kukai (July 2010)fading light her child’s name fills the street DAVE READ Presence 57, 2017 + + + high noon the black dahlia leans toward the scissors REKA NYITRAI
Under The Basho July, 2018
+ + +
frisbee…
the puppy returns
with a human femur MARINA BELLINI
Otoroshi 1, Spring 2021 + + +Colours Haibun
I was an orphan growing up in several foster homes. They labeled me as 'troubled', I guess they're right.
I remember one foster mom, a very nice woman, my troubles began with her plastic flowers...
3 big yellow sunflowers with 5 red roses. She placed them all mixed in a crystal vase. It isn't right! The colours fight. So I put red roses aside. The first time I did that she was laughing but told me not to do that again. After a few times she was not amused and gave me a stern warning.
I really didn't want to upset her but at night while everybody's sleeping, I heard those red roses' screaming. I had no choice, I hid those red roses in my drawer, they're safe... and the next day I was sent to another foster home.
ugly duckling
one less curveball
to deal with
ELISA THERIANA
Under the Basho 2018
+ + +
midnight blue a grandma-shaped crater on the moon HEMAPRIYA CHELLAPPAN Bloo Outlier Journal Winter 2021 + + + milky way she cried a different star GREG LONGENECKER Heliosparrow Poetry Journal 17 Sept 2020 + + +dead end street I walk away from my mind GABRIEL BATES Otata 27, March, 2018 + + + last embers falling from the incense... end of autumn
CHASE GAGNON
Editor's Choice, Cattails, Winter 2013 + + + Hole in the ozone my bald spot. . . sunburned
GARRY GAY
San Francisco Haiku Anthology (1992)+ + + hospice window a halo for every street lampELIZABETH ALFORD
Failed Haiku vol. 4, issue 44 (2019) + + + cold night a beggar and his dog share shadowsBILLY ANTONIOFirst Place, Shiki Kukai [Free Format] (December 2014) + + + cherry blossoms I tell my lover a pink lie
ROB SCOTTroadrunner haiku journal VIII:2 (May 2008) + + +So far, this is my current Top 30 list of favourite contemporary haiku/senryu, mostly, ELH. I will add some of my all time favourite Japanese haiku as well. .夕月や大肌ぬいでかたつぶり yûzuki ya ôhada nuide katatsuburi in evening moonlight going bare-chested... snailIssa
Translated by David G. Lanoue
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