New to Haiku: Advice for Beginners–Michael Smeer

Today at New to Haiku, let’s welcome Michael Smeer. Michael is the founder of the My Haiku Pond Community, which offers free resources for haiku poets through My Haiku Pond and My Haiku Pond Academy. He is the author of two books of poetry and editor or co-editor of six ebooks of haiku and related forms from the My Haiku Pond Community. Two of these books, a splash from the pond and Spirits Up!, are available in the THF digital library. Michael is also a member of the British Haiku Society and an Honorary Member of the Africa Haiku Network. Thank you for sharing your haiku journey with us, Michael!

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, Michael! How did you come to learn about haiku?

I’ve liked reading and writing short form poetry since I started writing in my teens. In the early nineties, when I published my first book of English poetry, Do you think (1993), I found a book of haiku in the library which included a chapter about how to write haiku with guidelines. I was immediately intrigued, so I started to experiment and wrote my first haiku, or what I then believed to be haiku. Those first haiku, along with their Japanese translations, are in my second book of poetry, Sweetest Rapture (1996). Since that time, I have kept writing short-form poetry, with only a few exceptions.

Can you share with us about the haiku community in the Netherlands? How can a new haiku poet get involved? 

When a beginner haiku enthusiast wants to write in Dutch, the “Haiku Kring” (Dutch haiku society) might be a good option to join. Their Facebook page is “Haiku Kring Nederland”. They send out free newsletters and e-chapbooks. There are also some Dutch language Facebook pages where one can get some feedback or ask for help.

Being Dutch, I have been a member of the “Haiku Kring” for a few years, but I didn’t find a match there. The contacts I made were nice enough. Personally, I found the Dutch rules too rigid. The haiku guidelines are more neo-classical and focused on 5-7-5 syllables, etc. I prefer to write in English anyway. Since I first started to study haiku seriously, I have learned the American or British haiku guidelines.

Do you have a haiku mentor? What advice did they give you? Did someone else’s haiku greatly influence your own?

Throughout the years I’ve been writing haiku, I’ve had several poets and tutors helping me. I read a multitude of haiku by many poets and regularly ‘talked’ to some of them. The haiku themselves as well as those poets were my first real inspiration. As a member of AllPoetry.com I took part in many contests, mainly short-form and haiku. Learning more each time, I became more and more convinced that haiku are my poetic home. Several of those haiku contests were run by Emmanuel Jessie Kalusian, who later co-founded the Africa Haiku Network. He stimulated my haiku journey in a big way at that time. We became good friends and still are. I also got acquainted with Myron Lysenko (Australia) and Don Baird (USA) among several others. Don had played a big role setting up AllPoetry, and I believe Myron (co-) wrote the syllabus for the haiku classes in the AP Academy. I completed both The Beginner and The Advanced Haiku Class there. [Sidebar from Julie: AllPoetry now splits these classes into Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced.] I consider everything I read and everyone I talk to, to be my mentors.

When the teacher of the Advanced Haiku Class decided to step down, I was asked to take over that role, which I did with a passion, after first completing the required Teaching Class. The first haiku student I helped graduate that class was Albert Schepers (Canada), who is also still a good friend. We see each other almost every year, and talk about haiku and many other things . . .

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

It depends on the moment of inspiration. I don’t really have a fixed writing process, but when I do, I always find a quiet place with few distractions, somewhere I can quiet myself so I can really focus.

Often, I get inspired from reading other haiku, or from personal experiences and memories, from films, music, books, etc. Sometimes my imagination gets (overly) active and I write based on fictitious scenes and situations.

I write in my living room mostly and on my balcony. I mostly use a laptop but also pen and paper. Even at night, I sometimes write down scribbles or ideas in a notepad I keep on my nightstand. I also take a walk around the lake nearby sometimes, during which I occasionally take notes on paper or in my phone. At times I record them, so I can listen back and decide what to do with them.

Only few haiku get completed in the moment; most will go through revision later. I estimate about 40% of my ideas or first versions end up as a decent haiku or senryū. Even those may be revised before I use or submit them.

Aside from the ‘completed’ poems, I also keep the unfinished notes in my digital notebook. Perhaps for later use. Reading them back is always a good way to get inspiration going.

How do you approach reading haiku? 

Before I start reading, I preferably sit down somewhere quiet. Often at home, but this can be anywhere else, as long as I can focus on being quiet and not being distracted. My mindset for reading and writing is the same.

Being a Buddhist, I firmly believe in the metaphor exemplified in the famous Zen tale about the monk and the tea cup. A full tea cup can no longer be filled. First it has to be emptied, or it will overflow. Pointing out that when we are full of our own ideas and feelings, we can’t really absorb (or retain) anything until we have first made room for it . . . empty the cup, so to speak.

I briefly meditate to quiet my mind. Sometimes it takes me a while, but other times it’s a mere matter of seconds. As my thoughts and inner voice fade, I can focus on nothing but the poem––ready to observe and experience the moment with all my senses. For me, this peace of mind––this inner silence––is essential to read poetry.

When I read a collection of haiku, I approach them poem by poem. I hardly ever read a set, journal, or book from the first until the last poem. I usually select poems at random. Sometimes I spend one minute on a haiku and other times this can add up to half an hour or more. Sometimes I take notes on what stands out. In principle, I later return to a collection to experience more special moments.

You volunteer your time as a haiku tutor. What are some key lessons you wish new haiku poets would learn from you? What do you enjoy about being a haiku tutor?

What I believe about haiku is, there is no shortcut to becoming a good haiku poet. It might take ‘a lifetime’ before one is able to write a memorable and outstanding haiku. Allegedly, Matsuo Bashō has said near the end of his life, that he only wrote a handful of good haiku. Perhaps it was modesty, but he has become the most famous and well-respected haiku poet of all. Just think of this famous hokku:

古池や蛙飛こむ水のをと
Furuike ya  kawazu tobikomu  mizu no oto

 

– Matsuo Bashō (1686)

 

The original old pond hokku as a haiga by Bashō.

Fu-ru (old) i-ke (pond) ya,
ka-wa-zu (frog) to-bi-ko-mu (jumping into)
mi-zu (water) no o-to (sound)

 

– Translated by Fumiko Saisho

 

The old pond—
a frog jumps in,
sound of water.

 

– Translated by Robert Hass

What I enjoy about being a tutor is learning from each other. Sharing knowledge is often a two-way street. I also love to see the resulting improvements in a student’s writing as well as my own.

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

It’s important to realize that English language haiku are not defined by strict rules. Nowadays most guidelines are considered hints, contrary to what is often told. For example, a haiku is not an exercise in counting 5-7-5 syllables. Nevertheless, I do recommend beginners to study the haiku guidelines and how to apply each one, until they become second nature.

A good basic list of guidelines for writing haiku by William J. Higginson can be found here, but there are many good once out there.

A helpful tool to check if your haiku meets the guidelines, is a checklist. It’s advisable to keep a checklist with you when writing, or analyzing a haiku. This is an example of a good one.

Once you start writing according to the guidelines and using your checklist, it will become obvious that it’s impossible to follow all the guidelines in just one haiku. This brings us to the question: What is not essential and what defines a haiku?

In my opinion there are some guidelines that need to be treated as rules—I call them core elements. These must be observed to make sure you are writing a haiku by definition.

Earlier, I wrote a short article describing the defining core elements. I’d like to mention two more pages that I put together more recently. I’m sure they’ll be helpful to all haiku poets, especially beginners: Haiku Basics and the MHP submission guidelines page.

Only when we have learned the core elements and guidelines and know how to apply them, we can start to discover our own path. We can consciously decide when, where, and why we deviate from the guidelines, while we still observe the core elements that define haiku.

For any beginner, as well as the more experienced haiku poet, I would also recommend taking a haiku class. There are three free haiku classes at AllPoetry.com you could join (all you need is a free AllPoetry account). I really enjoyed those, when I wanted to learn more about haiku poetry and improve my own writing. Another good way to learn is by joining a haiku group (near you, or online).

Further advice I’d like to give is to read, read, read! The My Haiku Pond page on Facebook features selected haikai poetry, and posts many related items, about the publication of good online journals, contest results, etc. You could start by reading those.

Of course, there are many good books about and containing haiku. I’ve comprised a shortlist of recommended ‘essential’ haiku books. Perhaps for your Christmas list? (Note: I suggest you first check which titles are best suited for your level when you are planning to shop for books.)

• The Haiku Handbook – William J. Higginson
• Haiku World – William J. Higginson
• Haiku Moment – Bruce Ross
• The Essential Haiku – Robert Hass
• The Haiku Anthology – Cor van den Heuvel
• Haiku Mind – Patricia Donegan
• Haiku: Japanese Art and Poetry – Judith Patt
• Issa and the Meaning of Animals – David G. Lanoue
• The Disjunctive Dragonfly – Richard Gilbert (advanced)

You’ll also find a good list of books at Michael Dylan Welch’s website Graceguts.

With the core elements and guidelines of haiku as second nature, you can best analyze the haiku that you read, discover what it shows and what it makes you think or imagine, how it makes you feel, and perhaps what it alludes to or what it means. You can determine the structure[s], how it works, which techniques have been used, etc. Understanding how other poets write haiku will increase your appreciation, as well as improve your own writing.

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

The more I got into haiku, the more I found my Zen self in poetry. For me it requires a meditative approach to read, as well as puts me in a meditative state of mind when I’m writing. Discovering how special simple and ordinary things can be. To experience the present to its fullest. To enjoy the extraordinary in daily life.

I also enjoy the modestly humorous nature of haiku, and the possibly overt humor in senryū. Reading many classic and contemporary haiku, I found numerous that amused me. Some even made me laugh out loud.

A few of the first haiku I loved and still very much enjoy are these classic hokku by my favorite haiku Master. Guess who?

“Don’t worry, spiders,
I keep house
casually.”

 

New Year’s Day—
everything is in blossom!
I feel about average.

 

The snow is melting
and the village is flooded
with children.

 

All the time I pray to Buddha
I keep on
killing mosquitoes.

 

– Kobayashi Issa (Translations: Robert Hass)

These wonderful hokku have shown me that you can use subtle and overt humor in haikai, which I regularly also try to do.

You play, or have played, a wide variety of instruments, including trumpet, piano, guitar, and bass. How does your musical background influence your haiku? (Have you started the shakuhachi yet?)

I have always enjoyed music. Learning to play an instrument demands persistence and discipline. Also, it teaches enhanced focus and makes you experience your feelings. Playing with others teaches you to listen and be open. Those traits are all very helpful when reading and writing haiku.

From this month onward, I will be allotting a daily slot of time to study music again, picking up my guitar and keyboards, but first I want to start playing my electric bass guitar, finally making use of the lessons I bought.

As for the shakuhachi, I realize I should first orientate myself on which type of flute suits me best. Also, I’ll have to save up for one, since they can be quite pricy, like any good musical instrument. Finally, of course, I need time to be able to practice. I think and hope it’ll be something to do next year.

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

It’s hard to pick only a few of my favorites from the 5000+ titles I have written over the years. The first haiku I’d like to share is a very personal one in honor of the paternal grandfather I never got to know.

camp memorial
my warm pebble settles
on granddad’s name

 

– Michael Smeer

Dedicated to my granddad, Aron Smeer
Amsterdam 1911 – Mauthausen*, Austria 1941

Prune Juice – War Special, July 2016

In this haiku I picture myself standing at the Memorial on location, putting a pebble at the name of my grandfather. According to Jewish tradition we honor those who have passed away by laying a small stone or pebble on their gravestone. Sadly, my grandfather doesn’t have a grave I could visit.

* Official records show my granddad died at Mauthausen Concentration Camp. However, historian and researcher Wally de Lang discovered only a few years ago, that my grandfather was one of 389 Jewish men who were arrested during the first German mass raids in Amsterdam, on February 22 and 23, 1941. After being imprisoned in three camps, he was most likely killed in August of that year in Hartheim Castle, Alkoven, Austria. The castle housed an experimental gas chamber and crematorium. Only two men from the initial group survived the war. Another, poignant fact about the two mass raids is that they incited the first widespread strike (in Europe) starting with the Amsterdam dockworkers, in protest of the oppression and mistreatment of the Jewish people by the Germans and their Dutch sympathizers. Each year now, on February 25th, there is a memorial service at the statue of The Dockworker in the old Jewish quarter of Amsterdam.

The Dockworker (De Dokwerker), with the
Portuguese synagogue in the background

The second haiku I’d like to share here is this much lighter one. It was written in response to the theme of the anthology, based on an imagined haiku moment.

zen garden
a shakuhachi fills
the midday heat

– Michael Smeer (Mikō)

Temple – The BHS Members’ Anthology, 2021

* A shakuhachi is a traditional Japanese bamboo flute.

My third haiku was inspired by a clip of a little girl, gently touching her sick mom’s bald head.

tiny fingers
keep tracing her scars
kintsugi doll

– Michael Smeer

hedgerow #130, April 2020

* Kintsugi (金継ぎ: ‘golden connection’), also called Kintsukuroi (金繕い: ‘golden reparation’), is the Japanese art of repairing broken ceramics with gold- or silver-colored lacquer.

 

The online community you founded, My Haiku Pond (MHP), is celebrating its 10^th year. Congratulations! What would you like new poets to know about the MHP page and the group MHP Academy? What future plans do you have for MPH?

Initially, the My Haiku Pond Facebook page was my way to reach out into the world . . . to find other English language haiku poets. It is focused on the appreciation of haiku and related poetry, Japanese culture, art, nature, etc. Since its foundation I have been posting updates almost every day, such as featured haikai poetry or art or photos, news items, forthcoming publications, calls for submissions, contest announcements and results, award events, and members’ birthday wishes. Also, there have been a number of columns, series and contest events. As its number of followers grew and people kept returning, MHP became a large and world-wide community. At the moment the page has more than 4.6K followers. I am proud to say that along the way, the MHP page has become a resource for any haikai enthusiast to make a daily stop.

The MHP community also includes the My Haiku Pond Academy group, which now consists of almost 1000 people. The group is for enthusiasts like me, who are more serious about haiku-related poetry. Its purpose is to gather and exchange knowledge. It is set-up as a private Facebook group for members only*.

By providing a safe and inspiring environment, the Academy gives members (a.k.a. Pondies) the chance to study haiku-related materials, workshop their poems, ask questions and share thoughts, join or organize contests and many other activities. There is also a group-wide “Pondie Chat”.

If you have or get a free profile at Medium you can read “A brief history of My Haiku Pond” as well as a page entitled “My Haiku Pond related weblinks”. Indeed, the entire MHP community is free and without ads. We do not post or promote commercial contents. Everyone at the MHP community volunteers their effort and time. We highly appreciate any support and donation.

* I run the MHP Academy almost single-handedly. That’s why applicants first need to answer a question about their haiku story and level before they can join, to give me some idea about their self-reliance. To remain realistic, I had to accept that I cannot tutor more beginners than presently in the Academy group. This may all change over time or when we get more help from other enthusiasts, who have time to invest and would like to join the MHP Team.

What haiku-related project are you currently working on that brings you joy? What do you like about it?

Recently I have opened a perpetual call for submissions for the “Today’s Feature” column at the MHP page. Poets are invited to submit previously published and edited haikai poems, winning poems from adjudicated contest, or that won an award. Emmanuel Kalusian and I select the best submitted haiku-related poems and feature them in the column.

At the time I am writing this, MHP community has just closed the 10^thAnniversary MHP Haikai Contest (2025) to end this special year. We invited all poets to submit up to three music-themed haiku or senryū. The contest will primarily be judged by guests Sherry & Zoe Grant, but after they have selected their (ca.20) favorite poems, we will discuss them and select the final top 3 winners and maximum 7 commendations. In October we’ll announce all 10 winners and feature them at the MHP page. Also, they’ll be recited at the Scriabin Music & Poetry Festival, planned to take place in January 2026.

With enough high-quality submissions and available time, we hope to select the best poems into a new (illustrated) eBook, to appear around March 2026 as part of the 10^th Anniversary of the MHP Academy. I really enjoy the process of selecting, editing, and judging haiku. It makes me analyze the poems and experience both the presented haiku-moments and immerse myself in a meditative state of mind.

Finally, we are considering the launch of a MHP Beginners Class to teach about haiku up to a level of understanding which will allow them to join the MHP Academy. The Academy will continue to be open to more experienced haikai poets predominantly. Talks about the beginner class are underway with some poets who have extensive editing and tutoring experience, but this is currently in its early stages. We hope to start a pilot sometime in 2026 and aim to provide the class for free, in accordance with all of the MHP community.

Michael Smeer (pseudonym Mikō) was born in Amsterdam, The Netherlands in 1963. He was musically trained (trumpet, piano, and [jazz] guitar). He is a Buddhist, a poet, and a former software engineer. Since 2012, the English language haiku and senryū are his preferred forms. Michael was a teacher of the Advanced Haiku Class at AllPoetry.com and the Vice President of the European Haiku Society. He is the founder of My Haiku Pond community (MHP page & MHP Academy). Publication has never been his priority. Nevertheless, he has been published in various well-known online and printed journals and books.

Recently Zoe Grant from Haiku Journey, a haiku journal for children in New Zealand, did a short interview with Michael. You can find it here.

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