Think haiku is all about simple language? Come along as we unpack how the juxtaposition of poetic and common diction energizes haiku, and how 20th-century English-language poets got it wrong by mistaking the poetic for the prosaic.

Contact the Haiku Theory Podcast by Emailing Us Here. This episode's soundscape was recorded by Graham on a subway car in Tokyo, Japan in June 2025.

Hiroaki Sato's On Haiku can be purchased here.

Haruo Shirane's Traces of Dreams can be purchased here.

Koji Kawamoto's The Poetics of Japanese Verse can be purchased here.