The black swan is common across large areas of southwestern and eastern Australia. As I was watching the quiet progress of one such bird on Yerrabi Pond in Canberra, the words of this poem began to form in my mind. The poem was subsequently published in Issue 7 of the Sydney-based online journal, Authora Australis.… Read More Black Swan
Over the past ten years, African poets have shown a growing interest in haiku with their poems often appearing in journals around the world. One of the leading African haiku poets is Adjei Agyei-Baah from Ghana whose collection, Tales of the Kite was published earlier in 2023 by Buttonhook Press. You can read the entire… Read More Adjei Agyei-Baah: Tales of the Kite
In 2000, John Bird and Janice Bostok (1942-2011) co-founded the Australian Haiku Society. Sadly, John passed away in May 2022 after many years spent promoting haiku, supporting haiku writers and encouraging the use of Australian subjects and seasonal references in haiku. Every two years, the Australian Haiku Society conducts the John Bird Dreaming Award to… Read More 2022 John Bird Dreaming Award
Japanese haiku writers often reference locations by name, thereby inviting the reader to bring their knowledge of place into the poem. Take, for example, this haiku by Masaoka Shiki (1867-1902): biting into a persimmona bell resoundsHōryū-ji While Shiki did not write this haiku at the Hōryū-ji Temple, it’s thought he referenced the temple because it… Read More Aboriginal Place Names in Haiku
The Poetry Editor and publisher of StylusLit, Rosanna Licari, kindly selected my poem, Radiant Arrows, to appear in Issue 13 of the journal. StylusLit is an online literary journal that publishes poetry, short stories, interviews and reviews. You can read Issue 13 here. Radiant Arrows was written in response to the painting, Composition, by Lyubov… Read More Radiant Arrows
The first Haiku Down Under conference was held via Zoom in October 2022. You can find details of the conference including background on the New Zealand and Australian conference organisers here. Haiku Down Under was a great success. Registrations, which exceeded 200, included poets from Australia, New Zealand and around the world. To commemorate the… Read More Haiku Down Under Anthology: 2022
Each year, Red Moon Press produces an anthology showcasing some of the best haiku published in the previous twelve months. The 2022 Red Moon Anthology of English-Language Haiku: skipping stones was released in February 2023. Editor-in-chief, Jim Kacian, and a team of 10 staff review haiku from books, print journals, online journals and haiku competitions… Read More Red Moon Anthology: skipping stones
Western Australian Poets Inc. (WA Poets) were kind enough to include two of my poems in the December 2022 issue of their online journal, Creatrix (#59). Peter Jeffery and Mike Greenacre were the selectors for this issue. My two poems were titled We Met in a Valley and Potential Energy, with the latter poem being… Read More Potential Energy
Gregory Piko 