Established in 1969, Modern Haiku is one of the world’s longest running English-language haiku journals. The most recent issue of Modern Haiku, Volume 52.2 (Summer 2021), included a review of my collection, breaking my journey (Red Moon Press).

In part, Modern Haiku reviewer, Michele Root-Bernstein, had this to say about breaking my journey:

Gregory Piko presents some one hundred haiku that radiate with sensual appreciation for the prime of life. There are joys here, as well as shadows, and still so much remains to be fully lived. With Piko as our guide we feel again how imperative it is to “learn again to be a child”, “warm to a stranger”, “straighten the Southern Cross”, make love, make poems, dwell.

Each finely observed moment has us remembering our own “butterfly, still safe / under his steel pin”.

a week at the beach
she learns again
to be a child

another summer
the butterfly, still safe
under his steel pin

I was delighted Michele found my haiku radiate with sensual appreciation for the prime of life. Those are not my words, but I would like to think my haiku shine a light on those moments of beauty, joy, sadness, solitude and togetherness we all experience in life. Here are a few more poems from breaking my journey:

folds of silk burst
from his pocket petals
of white magnolia

picking mulberries
your lips more blue
than the lizard’s tongue

the sparkle
in our conversation
sunshine on your knees

You can purchase a copy of breaking my journey here or, if you live in North America, you may wish to purchase a copy direct from the publisher, Red Moon Press.