May 25 2026

"Haiku Spew" - a guest post by PoetKen Jones

I’m trying to catch up, so today I present PoetKen Jones’s haiku post!

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Celia’s recent Friday Funnies post serves as the prompt for this impromptu haiku lesson. Right out of the gate, Kate, Michelle Styles, and Mr. Karg expressed some negative energy about the form, so let’s see if I can offer some brief comments to dispel the darkness.

As the memes stated, haiku is a form derived from classic Japanese poetry. Its most admired practitioner was Basho (late 17th century), so revered in Japan that a subway station statue of him sits near the stop for the world-renowned Tsukiji Fish Market. (I believe they shut it down recently, but Diet Coke Partner insisted we go after reading guidebook advice that it was “great to visit at 5 a.m. on your first day to cure jet lag.”) I went for Basho…and breakfast sushi. 🍣

Contemporary portrait of Matsuo Bashō by Morikawa Kyoriku - Source: Wikipedia

As memes also pointed out, traditional haiku differs from the bastardized version most American elementary school students are forced to try. The reasons relate to the fact that Japanese poesis stems from syllabics rather than metrics but that’s a bit too “Grad School” for me to elaborate on here now.

I suspect many were turned off by that indoctrination approach, which emphasizes 3 lines and the 5-7-5 ‘beat.’ You were probably also taught haiku must be about Nature—not Tennyson’s “red in tooth and claw” version, but the bucolic Japanese Zen garden typified by Basho’s famous one about the frog 🐸 plopping into the pond. Many translations exist (and if any are here thank Celia as she does all the background research. I just spew these unedited first takes).

Into the ancient pond
A frog jumps
Water’s sound!
- Translated by D.T. Suzuki

The old pond
A frog jumped in,
Kerplunk!
- Translated by Allen Ginsberg

Within aging pond
frogs jumping vibrate the calm
water’s resonance
- Translated by Sarah Isbell

More translations here.

When I write haiku, I write four or five on one page, usually on the same topic (the Japanese also have long forms derived from haiku, such as renga). I find maybe one is a keeper, though occasionally an editor will publish them as a group. I don’t stick to Nature but simply follow our Americanized form to discuss any subject. I have had some interesting debates and pissed some traditionalists off with that approach, but you know by now that’s just catnip for me.

An interesting 21st century variant is the “Haiku Death Match,” which took off in the late 90s at spoken-word venues in Chicago and NYC. People sign up on an open mike list, then try to top each other in instant haiku written and read at the venue. We used to have one at Kick Butt Coffee for the Austin International Poetry Festival, but one of my core beliefs is that art isn’t a competition…so, much like poetry slams, I only watch from the wings.

In that spirit, I now challenge the JiP community to give it a shot and respond below with YOUR haiku attempt. No grades, no pressure, just HAVE FUN! I’ll start us off:

Another summer
find a cold deep swimming hole
Jump in! Water’s fine.

Peace and Thanks 🙏 PoetKen Jones

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PoetKen Jones is an award-winning poet, playwright, songwriter, and more, who looks forward to retiring on four acres outside the Come-and-Take-It town of Gonzales in his native Texas. FMI www.poetken.com