Hokku are poems of a long tradition.  While they were primarily introduction poems to longer works, they came to be known as stand-alone poems during Basho's era. Today, they and variations of them, are more often written on their own than as introductions.

Under the Basho editors look for the following qualities:

• phrase/fragment - a comparison, juxtaposition or disjunction.
• cut-marker (kireji)
• season indicator through kigo or zoka ... zoka being the cause of seasons, all activities of nature, and the original source of kigo.  This includes festivals and other annual events that take place regionally - not just in Japan.
• short/long/short line format - three lines (we will make an exception at our discretion  if we feel the hokku warrants it)
• poems that include Basho aesthetics such as zoka, koto, ma, yugen, wabi, sabi, kokoro, makoto and so forth (these are poems of the old generation aesthetics)

Hokku - poems about nature; while they are not "nature poems" they are poems about nature, about the Tao, about the activities of the Universe - the comings and goings of all things - the cosmic tide. 

Example:

teetering grass . . .
just moments ago
a dragonfly

                                                  don baird

Under the Basho is a journal gathering under one "umbrella" present day variations and developments of the verse form that, under Basho's stewardship, was transformed into a high art.

Everyone who comes to write such short form poems is on some tributary or other of the path that Basho was travelling and, following his example, such writers adjust their approach as they too progress along the ever-changing needs of true poetic expression.

Into the 21st century the descendants of Basho's hokku multiply daily into various styles of poetic expression but all bearing still a scent of the Basho hokku dna.  While the family resemblances may sometimes seem tenuous, those examples of high seriousness and individual accomplishments of poetic expression deserve to be appreciated.

Little could Basho have known in his insular Japan that the short form verse form that he raised to high art would become a world wide phenomenon with millions of haiku poems written every day in most nations.

The five styles that Under the Basho embraces for publication are listed above in the titles bar.  They are:

• Traditional
• Stand-Alone Hokku
• Modern Haiku
• One-Line Haiku
• Concrete Haiku.  

Please glance through them to become familiar with their particular qualities as envisioned by the editors/owners of Under the Basho.