Paris Haiku

I had a wonderful opportunity to help judge a haiku contest this month. My co-judge, Scott Wiggerman, and I are delighted to announce the six winners of the 2026 Nicholas A. Virgilio Haiku & Senryu Contest for Students in 7th through 12 grade (co-sponsored by the Haiku Society of America). Congratulations to these young haijin! Here's the link to the winning poems with our commentaries:

2026 Haiku Society of America Student Haiku Awards Ah, mixtapes!  Decades before anyone curated playlists on Spotify, young people recorded carefully chosen sequences of songs on cassette tapes, often directly from the radio. They (we?) brought mixtapes to parties and shared them with friends. This tiny poem is an effective example of how readers m...

April 17 is International Haiku Poetry Day! I have one new haiku in this anthology, which was just released today. (My gratitude to editor Katie Dozier for including my poem.)

ONE ART’s 2026 Haiku Anthology ONE ART’s 2026 Haiku Anthology Editor’s Note: As I pause to think about all that went into our third annual anthology, I’m overcome. I don’t mean in terms of our curational efforts—though Mark Dano…

Terrific guide to writing modern, English-language haiku (ELH) by a lion in the haiku community, Jim Kacian. He is also the founder of The Haiku Foundation, and he owns/operates a top haiku press called Red Moon Press. It's free to read online and well worth your time if you want to improve your haiku:
https://thehaikufoundation.org/omeka/files/original/144e48a5d222480b6c1534e3cb516569.pdf?fbclid=IwY2xjawPkqHFleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETF5ZTdwQ0phcW1HR3J0UTZhc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIwMDg5MgABHnjST5qEjS0J5PvGxzu5eMfaHozM-7WwKftchc9E7vGL5w4XU3yqjDybgFtS_aem_MfUSHsySgsWITd-OhyGvHA

thehaikufoundation.org

I'm happy to share my latest published haiku (or senryu), published in "tinywords," online:
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the market value
of my childhood . . .
antiques fair
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tinywords.com the market value of my childhood . . . antiques fair

Here's an excellent opportunity for students in grades 7-12 to enter a top-notch haiku contest (now through March 20, 2026):

Guidelines for Entering the HSA Student Haiku Awards Competition 2025 All haiku or senryu must be previously unpublished, original work, and not entered in any other contest or submitted elsewhere for publication. Please follow the guidelines carefully. Publication is defined as an appearance in a printed book, magazine, or journal (sold or given away), or in any onli...

It's finally here! My first haiku collection was self-published on Amazon and IngramSpark a couple of weeks ago. Discover 101 haiku published in almost twenty haiku journals over a decade---and, appropriate to share with kids in classrooms, too. (I'm saving the haiku on more mature and difficult topics for a later collection.) Check it out:

https://www.amazon.com/Little-Acorns-Discover-Classroom-Children/dp/1968966560/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&dib_tag=se&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.qJKnflbp0bb75TMJjTNEhXgvQDl5hbBdu_Kxkgoz9FeqPR0cfimkLk_YFkpQwGr7Jeyhhh5Ktfg3X2SXj25w63CLrrysSulJEVBcoA0IbjT9XF-2LmrANpvWDwVYc_8W0uyWX88XXs_LP6P1P1EHM1BbSW1AbINS6ruq7l1439PJVe9cyfOB_xIejfRBiqECFM_bbSdGROJh4Pu8fe1RPP70xnN_8ROR9-JzAzPBjDI.9vLthzAxSIadjHQSQvuSV6BINcmDsmlroGVUy3k0B-c&qid=1761340071&sr=8-4

Very happy to share this new haiku just published in "Modern Haiku," Vol. 56:3, Fall 2025; with my gratitude to the editor, Paul Miller.
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what's your name, singing bird?
and yours, flowering tree?
. . Bumblebee's, I know
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Subscribe to "Modern Haiku" here: https://www.modernhaiku.org/

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Happy to share another published haiku with you from the latest issue of "Presence," a top haiku journal from the UK ( #82, July 2025):
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there are no stars
above these skyscrapers . . .
and yet, what a moon!
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Read an excellent haiku daily! This wonderful resource is from Cornell University's Mann Library (enjoy!):

Mann Library’s Daily Haiku | Featuring one guest author per month

Wonderful old recording of Robert Spiess (a lion in the haiku community, now passed) defining haiku! From The Haiku Foundation:

The Haiku Foundation Master Clips: Robert Spiess on the Essence of Haiku Robert Spiess was erstwhile editor of Modern Haiku, the flagship journal for English-language haiku. This recording gives his views on what haiku is, and is ...