What is Haiku Commentary?
A publication to help people learn more about haiku and related forms, and to discover the greatness of perhaps the smallest type of poem. We share commentary on poems from both living and passed-on poets.
Haiku, senryu, tanka, haiga, haibun, and shahai are selected and written about in-depth and posted here with the permission of authors, who retain their full copyright. Poets can submit their poems and have them commented on, or submit their poems with their own commentary. See our “Submissions” page for more information.
Our Staff
Editor: Nicholas Klacsanzky
Nicholas has had poems and essays published widely in journals, books, and websites. He has also collaborated in creating the following books: Zen and Son, Beyond Emptiness, and How Many Become One. His solo haiku book, Transported, was released in 2022 through Red Moon Press. At present, he is a haiku and senryu editor of Frogpond journal. He is a teacher, editor, and social worker by profession. Nicholas has won over 25 awards for his poetry, including the Touchstone Award for Individual Poems. See the full list of awards here.
His father was George Klacsanzky, a pioneer in the American haiku scene. His publication, Haiku Zasshi Zo, was one of the first haiku journals in the Pacific Northwest. Nicholas wants to carry on his father’s legacy by promoting haiku further. He lives in Seattle with his wife Linda.
To see a selection of his work, you can visit his summary of published poetry.
Editor: Hifsa Ashraf
Hifsa Ashraf is an award-winning multilingual poet, author, editor, and social activist based in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. She is one of the pioneers in Pakistan of Japanese-form English micropoetry and is internationally recognized for her work, with publications in more than 200 literary venues worldwide and numerous prestigious international awards.
She is a member of the Pakistan Japan Cultural Association (PJCA), Islamabad, and served as Editor & Curator and Urdu Translator of Pakistan’s first International Multilingual Haiku Anthology (2026), as well as Coordinator for Pakistan’s first International English Haiku Contest—both organized by Pakistan Japan Cultural Association in collaboration with the Embassy of Japan in Pakistan.
Her published work includes six individual and four collaborative micropoetry collections. She received the Touchstone Award for Individual Poems (2021) from The Haiku Foundation (USA), and was shortlisted and longlisted again in 2022 and 2025. Her collection Her Fading Henna Tattoo received Honourable Mentions in the Touchstone Distinguished Books Award (2020) and the Haiku Society of America Merit Book Awards (2021).
She was one of 17 international poets whose haiku were featured in the Haiku Music Festival 2022, where composers from Northern Illinois University (NIU) created original compositions inspired by selected poems. In the same year, her haiku were also included in a video haiga project by a student from New Trier High School, Illinois, USA.
In 2024, she delivered bilingual (English/Urdu) lectures on micropoetry at a Manchester school and at the Urdu Department of the University of Manchester, UK.
Her latest collaborative mystical haiku collection, Beyond Emptiness, co-authored with Jacob D. Salzer and Nicholas Klacsanzky, received an Honourable Mention in the Haiku Society of America’s 2026 Merit Book Awards.
Blog: hifsays.blogspot.com
Social: @hifsays
Poetry Collections by Hifsa Ashraf
Beyond Emptiness is a collaborative poetry collection by Hifsa Ashraf, Jacob D. Salzer and Nicholas Klacsanzky.
ISBN: 9781257969029
USA: www.lulu.com
Infinity Strings is a recent collaborative poetry book by Hifsa Ashraf and R.C.
ISBN: 978-1-3999-9308-1
UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1399993089
US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1399993089
Across the Ravi is a collaboration poetry book by Arvinder Kaur and Hifsa Ashraf
First edition published by Red River Press India
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0F5BN9HF9
ASIN: B0F5BN9HF9
Format: Kindle Edition
hazy crescent moon
ISBN 978-1-912773-52-7
UK: http://www.albapublishing.com/
her deep-rooted scars
ISBN 978-1-912773-38-1
UK: http://www.albapublishing.com/
Wildflowers
ISBN 978-1-912773-45-9
UK: http://www.albapublishing.com/
Running After Shadows
ISBN 9781951675059
Human/Kind Publishing Press, USA
https://thehaikufoundation.org/omeka/items/show/6152
An award winning book, Her Fading Henna Tattoo is Hifsa’s first full length poetry collection.
Her Fading Henna Tattoo received special mentions both in the Touchstone Distinguished Books Award 2020 and in the Haiku Society of America Merit Book Award 2021.
ISBN 9781951675066
Human/Kind Publishing Press, USA
https://thehaikufoundation.org/omeka/items/show/6153
Working with Demons is Hifsa’s first e-chap micropoetry book.
Proletaria, Singapore
https://proletaria730964817.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/working-with-demons.pdf
https://thehaikufoundation.org/omeka/items/show/6249
The Comfort of Crows is a collaborative echap book by Hifsa Ashraf and Alan Summers.
Editor: Jacob Salzer
Jacob D. Salzer enjoys writing haiku, tanka, and haibun. He was the past managing editor of Frogpond: The Journal of the Haiku Society of America (2023-2024).
He is the editor of 4 haiku anthologies:
Desert Rain: Haiku Nook: An Anthology (Lulu, 2022) (dedicated to haiku poet Martha Magenta)
Half A Rainbow: Haiku Nook: An Anthology (Lulu, 2020) (dedicated to haiku poet Rachel Sutcliffe)
New Bridges: The Portland Haiku Group Anthology (CreateSpace, 2018) (dedicated to haiku poet Johnny Baranski)
Yanty’s Butterfly: Haiku Nook: An Anthology (Lulu, 2016) (dedicated to haiku poet Yanty Tjiam)
He is the co-author of:
Mother’s Womb: Goddess Rengay (Lulu, 2023)
Returning: Tanka Sequences (Lulu, 2022)
Echoes: A Collection of Linked-Verse Poetry (Lulu, 2020)
How Many Become One: A Haiku Sequence (CreateSpace, 2017) with Nicholas Klacsanzky
His most recent solo collections are:
A Lost Prophet: Haiku & Tanka (Brooks Books, 2024)
Metal & Rain: Selected Tanka (Lulu 2023)
Origins: Haibun (Lulu, 2021), 2nd edition
Mare Liberum: Haiku & Tanka (Lulu, 2020)
Jacob’s haiku, tanka, and haibun have been published in the following journals, anthologies, and blogs:
A Hundred Gourds, Atlas Poetica, Bones, Cattails, Chrysanthemum, Contemporary Haibun Online, Drifting-sands-haibun.org, Eucalypt, Failed Haiku, First Frost, Frogpond, Haiku Canada Review, Haiku Commentary, Hedgerow, Heliosparrow, Is/Let, Kingfisher, Kokako, Laurels, Mayfly, Modern Haiku, Password. Very Short Poetry, Presence, Prune Juice, Ribbons, Right Hand Pointing, Seabeck Haiku Anthologies (2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023), Skylark, Take5 Journal, Tanka Origins, The Art of Tanka, The Haiku Foundation, The Heron’s Nest, Trash Panda, Tsuri-dōrō, Under the Bashō, Wales Haiku Journal, and Whiptail: Journal of the Single-Line Poem.
Awards:
- A Lost Prophet: Haiku & Tanka is a recipient of the 2024 Brooks Books HIGH/COO Chapbook Award
- Runner Up, the IAFOR Vladimir Devidé Haiku Award 2017
- Honorable mention, the Mt. Fuji Tanka Grand Prix 2018
Jacob is currently working on a new collection, A Stormy Sea: Selected Tanka (to be released in 2025).
He is a member of the Haiku Society of America, the Tanka Society of America, and the Portland Haiku Group.
He is also the founder and editor of the Haiku Poet Interviews blog: https://haikupoetinterviews.wordpress.com/
To read free samples of Jacob’s poetry, please visit: https://jsalzer.wixsite.com/mareliberumhaiku
