

Konishi Raizan was a famous haiku poet of the Genroku period (1688-1704). He was a disciple of Nishiyama Sōin, and after his death, his works were anthologized in Imamiyagusa, which was published in 1734. He wrote this poem after the death of his only son.

Haiku by Konishi Raizan

Picture by USGS


spring dream_naviarhaiku596

Pause a moment. Feel the warm air move through the maple leaves.

A Summer Breeze

2025-09-24

on a butterfly's wing

an autumn nightfall
the skeleton of a huge fish
drawn back by the sea.

Saitō Sanki (1900 – 1962) was a dentist who discovered his passion for haiku poetry in his mid-thirties, when his colleagues at the hospital in Soto Kanda convinced him to write a haiku for a collection. Later, he became one of the most important exponents of wartime haiku: he was imprisoned in 1940 during the government’s World War II persecution of controversial artists, and was officially forbidden to write until the end of the war.

haiku by Saitō Sanki

Picture by John Jason

Submission deadline: 5th November 2025
To find out more and participate, visit https://www.naviarrecords.com/haiku-music-challenge/

Fishbones (NaviarHaiku617)

naviarhaiku617 – an autumn nightfall
October 29, 2025

an autumn nightfall
the skeleton of a huge fish
drawn back by the sea.

by: Saitō Sanki

Saitō Sanki (1900 – 1962) was a dentist who discovered his passion for haiku poetry in his mid-thirties, when his colleagues at the hospital in Soto Kanda convinced him to write a haiku for a collection. Later, he became one of the most important exponents of wartime haiku: he was imprisoned in 1940 during the government’s World War II persecution of controversial artists, and was officially forbidden to write until the end of the war.

Catfish (naviarhaiku617)

The haiku prompt for this:

an autumn nightfall
the skeleton of a huge fish
drawn back by the sea.

Naviar haiku challenge 617, details here:  https://www.naviarrecords.com/haiku-music-challenge

I have my field recording of the sea so I had a starting point; everything else was made with VCV Rack. I started with the sequences then added the synthetic waves, mixed with the real ones towards the end of the track. Wanting to keep the rest quite sparce and minimal I then made a simple chord sequence and a simple self generating melody.   

With a rough plan for the overall form I was going to follow I set up physical controls and multi track recording, hit record and mixed/modulated all the elements in one live take.

While the sea recording is my own it has been uploaded to freesound, find it here: Waves_on_a_Shingle_Beach by Mr_Lamppost -- https://freesound.org/s/800900/ -- License: Creative Commons 0 

Drawn Back By The Sea - (naviarhaiku - 617)

the harp player
moves under cover
market day

kjmunro cultivates poetry on the traditional territories of the Kwanlin Dün First Nation & the Ta'an Kwäch'än Council in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, Canada. She founded & facilitates ‘solstice haiku', a monthly haiku discussion group in Whitehorse, & manages a weekly blog feature for The Haiku Foundation called Haiku Dialogue. She is the recipient of the 2023 Borealis Prize – The Commissioner of Yukon Award for Literary Contribution, her work has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, & her debut poetry collection is contractions (Red Moon Press, 2019).

haiku by kjmunro

Picture by Indira Tjokorda

The Naviar haiku music challenge invites artists to make music in response to a weekly assigned haiku poem. Participation is free and there are no limitations in the songs’ length or genre. To find out more and participate, visit https://www.naviarrecords.com/haiku-music-challenge/

SONG 125 - NaviarHaiku618 - The Harp Player

almost black
deepening purple
ripe grapes

Regarded as the father of contemporary haiku, Masaoka Shiki was a poet and literary critic during the Meiji period Japan.

He advocated realistic observation by “sketching” (shasei) poems and going out into nature with notebooks, thus abandoning the traditional subjects of haiku of the time. His advice for an aspiring poet was, “Use both imaginary pictures and real ones, but prefer the real ones.”

Haiku by Masaoka Shiki: https://mypoeticside.com/poets/masaoka-shiki-poems

To find out more and participate, visit https://www.naviarrecords.com/haiku-music-challenge/

more halF unusuaL

halF deepeninG [naviarhaiku619]

An electronic composition combining eight sequences created in real time using Pure Data.

More on the 724th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Work It — The Assignment: The year’s almost over. Do that thing you’ve been meaning to do — at https://disquiet.com/0724/.

Ad Hoc (disquiet0724)

root conductor

This one started as a simple electric-guitar-and-bass progression, just a rough idea that wasn’t really going anywhere. This week I expanded it with several synth layers and some floating eBow lines.
Funny enough, the little gimmick in the middle section ended up giving the track its shape — a kind of slow, climatic crescendo that finally brought it to life.

I re-recorded that line as an intro today. The whole track is still a floating, meandering, blurry ambient groove, but there’s a certain beauty in that haze.

Inspired by this naviarhaiku620 poem:

some starlight
spared from being scooped up
four-handed net


Haiku by Kinsha
Picture by NASA


spring dream_naviarhaiku596

Debroc