Hello,

My home is in Australia’s national capital city: Canberra. The Capital Region has an active arts scene spanning poetry, sculpture, painting, theatre, music and more.

On this site, you’ll find poetry by writers from Australia and other countries around the world. The poems include Japanese poetic genres such as haiku, tanka and haibun as well as free verse and other contemporary poetic forms.

I’ve been writing haiku and longer forms of poetry for more than 20 years.

During that time, my haiku have been awarded Third Prize in the Irish Haiku Society International Haiku Competition, Second Prize in the ‘Kusamakura’ International Haiku Competition (Japan) and First Prize in the New Zealand Poetry Society’s International Haiku Competition. Other prizes for my haiku include a Touchstone Award from The Haiku Foundation (USA), an International Sakura Award in the Vancouver Haiku Invitational (Canada), Winner (twice) in the Basho-an International English Haiku Competition (Japan) and Winner in the Haiku Trailblazer Contest.

My haiku appear regularly in major international haiku journals and have been included in anthologies such as:

. Haiku 21: an anthology of contemporary English-language haiku;
. Haiku in English: The First Hundred Years;
. A Vast Sky: An Anthology of Contemporary World Haiku;
. Nest Feathers (selected haiku from The Heron’s Nest);
. The Wonder Code;
. The Awakened One: Buddha-Themed Haiku from Around the World;
. the Fourth Australian Haiku Anthology: under the same moon; and
. Double Horizon: an international haiku anthology. 

I also write longer forms of poetry including free verse and prose poetry. These works have appeared in journals and anthologies such as Westerly, Meniscus, StylusLit, Authora Australis, Poetry d’Amour, Poetry for the Planet, Neologism Poetry Journal, The Canberra Times, Creatrix, Communion Arts Journal, Verity La, Vine Leaves Literary Journal, Shot Glass Journal, The Best Australian Poems (Black Inc.) and the Australian Poetry Anthology.

My poetry was awarded joint First Place in the WB Yeats Poetry Prize for Australia and has been recognised in various other competitions including the National Cherry Festival Poetry Competition, the Liquid Amber Poetry Prize and the New Zealand International Poetry Competition.

My haiku collection, titled breaking my journey, was published by Red Moon Press in 2020. Previously, I collaborated with Vanessa Proctor from Sydney in writing Blowing Up Balloons: baby poems for parents (Red Moon Press, 2017).

I hope you enjoy the poetry on this site.

Gregory Piko

[Many of the photos featured on this website were taken at Mulligans Flat Nature Reserve in Canberra and at Surf Beach, Narooma. The content on this site is protected by Copyright. Please seek permission before using any images or text.]