New to Haiku: Advice for Beginners – John S Green

Today at New to Haiku, let’s welcome John S Green. John is a facilitator for both Komo Kulshan Haiku and Bellingham Haiku Group. He is also the registrar for the Seabeck Haiku Getaway. (The next retreat is coming up this fall from October 23-26, 2025.) His poetry has been published in contemporary haibun online, bottle rockets, Clover, The Heron’s Nest, Kingfisher, Modern Haiku, Prune Juice Journal, and Skylark, among others. Thank you for sharing your haiku journey with us, John!

In Advice for Beginners posts, we ask established haiku poets to share a bit about themselves so that you can meet them and learn more about their writing journeys. We, too, wanted to learn what advice they would give to beginning haiku poets. You can read posts from previous Advice for Beginners interviewees here.

Welcome to New to Haiku, John! How did you come to learn about haiku?

In 2016 a poetry friend asked me to join him at a free haiku workshop during a cherry blossom festival. Michael Dylan Welch was the presenter, and he famously said, “Be careful because you might get bitten by the haiku bug.” Luckily there was a local haiku group in Bellingham that met monthly. I got bitten, and I am forever grateful.

How do you approach reading haiku?

First, I read haiku for enjoyment. However, I do pay attention to haiku that reverberate within me, and I’m not afraid to mark up a journal with notes. I study these closer to see how the poet structured the words, how the sounds work together, the possible layers of meaning. I note the author and begin to recognize their style. All this adds to my own writing.

Where do you write most often? Do you have a writing process?

I keep a small notebook and pen in my pocket, and go for intentional slow walks, sitting on a bench to observe the activities around me. Being a poet is being a noticer of details. Look up, look down, zoom out, zoom in, listen, take photos, short videos. Nature, people, animals, colors, movement, silence. The eagle circling, an ant carrying a leaf, a sailboat on the horizon, the bark on the tree, children playing, the elderly couple holding hands. I also write at night with all devices turned off, collecting my thoughts, but I have no schedule. I only write haiku when I am inspired.

What are your favorite haiku that you have written? Can you share a story behind one or more of them?

Cherry blossoms are used as a prompt for haiku incessantly, so I wrote this one that came from a different angle:

allergies blossom
cherry cough drops
in my pocket

The best haiku are written from true experiences. This really happened to me:

fortieth reunion
she looks at my nametag
and walks past

This one won a contest which was judged blindly by Michael Dylan Welch. The strongest haiku often contain an element of mystery, so I won’t explain this one.

pieces
of sunlight
visiting hours

In 2020, you published your children’s poetry collection, Whimsy Park and you chose Early Childhood as your theme when you curated a collection for THF’s Per Diem in May 2022 (Note: you can view this collection here; scroll to the middle of the page.) How is writing children’s haiku different from writing haiku for adults? How did you get your pen name, Papa Green Bean?

I’m glad you asked me this, Julie. Early childhood education is my number one passion. I have a Montessori degree and wrote a blog, Papa Green Bean, for first-time parents for a few years. My daughter, wife, and I came up with the name for the blog, but now I’m Grandpapa Green Bean with two grandsons! Children’s haiku is not different for me. I tend to write more about human relations than nature. It is always exciting when I read a childhood-ku, and I mark my favorites for reference. I believe you have written some excellent haiku from your own experience as a mother. (Thanks, John!) I’d like to read more of those, Julie. As my haiku journey has evolved, I now plan to use haiku in a book I’d like to write for first-time parents.

What are some of the fun ways that you have used or experienced haiku in your life?

A few times, I have preformed a haiku sequence in front of a live audience where I held a djembe drum around my neck. After opening with a short solo, a partner would randomly pull one strip of paper out of a bowl holding ten strips. Each slip had the first line of a three-line haiku. My partner would read the one-line fragment. I would repeat the line, and finish the poem by reciting the next two lines, or phrase, by memory—then play another short drum solo. This was repeated until all ten haiku had been performed. It’s a unique and captivating show.

I enjoyed your 2021 short film for the HaikuLife Film Festival, Pandemic Haiku and Drum Sequences. Can you share your thoughts while putting it together? You really captured that sense of isolation during the pandemic.

Thanks, Julie. I’m glad you watched it—it was a fun project. First, I wanted to alternate haiku with drumming in 17-second increments seventeen times. That’s 4 minutes and 49 seconds total. I started and ended with drumming—a total of nine drum solos and eight haiku. I found that if I recited a haiku twice it would take very close to 17 seconds. I chose my favorite pandemic-ku and voila.

For those just starting out, what advice would you give?

First, I would join the Haiku Society of America. A one-year membership includes three Frogpond journals, and one member anthology of which you are guaranteed to have one haiku included. Reading each Frogpond cover to cover and making notes of which poems resonate will guide you towards your own haiku. Second, I would join a local haiku group in-person, and look to join Zoom meetings. In my opinion, Michael Dylan Welch’s Haiku Checklist, with its list of ten guidelines for haiku, is a tremendous resource.

Anything else you’d like to share?

Haiku has many positive aspects to life. It can change your perspective—helping you to be more aware of the moment, more perceptive of the nuances happening in the present. Time slows down, every situation becomes interesting. You become a Noticer. Finally, relax and enjoy your haiku journey.

John S Green, author of Whimsy Park: Children’s Poems for the Whole Family, is widely published in all styles of poetry—especially Japanese-form poetry. John lived in Europe before moving to the United States at age thirteen. His daughter cooks with spice, and his wife still laughs at his jokes.

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