Publishing Credits: Heliosparrow September 18 2026
haika ~ a five-line matrix composed of overlapping haiku that evolved from tankaku. Its sequences read as 1,2,3; 2,3,4; 3,4,5; and 1,3,5. Lines 1,2,3 and 3,4,5 form two standalone haiku sharing line 3 as a hinge or pivot. Lastly, lines 1 and 5 triangulate with the poem as a third point, while what appears between them establishes or expands their relationship.
A visual example of how haika reads—here’s the breakdown:
not breathing
I notice
4Hz
this flowering
inside nothingness
Starting with lines 1,2,3:
not breathing
I notice
4Hz
Next: lines 2,3,4:
I notice
4Hz
this flowering
Onwards to lines 3,4,5:
4Hz
this flowering
inside nothingness
Closing this sequence are lines 1,3,5:
not breathing
4Hz
inside nothingness
The double stand-alone haiku are in lines 1,2,3; 3,4,5:
not breathing
I notice
4Hz
4Hz
this flowering
inside nothingness
The third line repeats itself as the hinge for the double haiku which may be a kakekotoba (pivot) to the poem.
Lastly, lines 1,5 triangulate with what’s in the poem:
not breathing
inside
nothingness
The earliest example of haika existed in 2019, however the sequence line-reading was not completely there:
quietly fishing
for carp
this stillness
while hummingbirds
surround me
a tight line
the beauty of
letting go
(Otata 46, October 2019)
In this example, the sequence readings exist that I didn’t notice until much later:
a wind gust
as leaves fall
never to meet
the freedom I feel
from our distance
shorter days
the echo of summer
in this silence
(Atlas Poetica 38 (later moved to issue 40), 8 September 2019)
Notice how the haika is followed by a haiku. It’s because haika is part of another poem I created named “tankaku” which is a tanka-haiku eight line hybrid poem, first peer reviewed in the Haiku Sanctuary, founded by Richard Gilbert, before work was submitted and published in the journals mentioned above, thus providing the earliest documented record of the form.
Six years later, after a hiatus from writing, I focused mainly on haika. The initial goal in 2019 was to write a tanka purely with haiku techniques focusing on a double-haiku embedded within it. After much experimentation, I don’t consider this style of poetry to be my own anymore but as a collaboration, because Clayton Beach found and pointed out the reading in lines 2,3,4 and Richard Gilbert in lines 1,3,5— further compressing a five line poem into a greater expansion of itself.
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