The author of the week is Masaoka Shiki, a major figure in haiku poetry. Despite his short life (he died of tuberculosis in 1902, at the age of 34), Shiki’s style started a new era of haiku and tanka poetry, by adding realistic observations of nature and the language of everyday life to genres that were mainly based on imagination. If you wish to find out more about Shiki, I recommend this article written by The World Haiku Review for the centenary of his death.
DEADLINE: 8th June
Poem by Masaoka Shiki
Picture by Amy Zirkle