Southern California Haiku Study Group

share our love of haiku

Our featured haiku

at the margins
of a forever home
foster child

~ Carol Judkins

Kelp Forest 2024 SCHSG Anthology,
Failed Haiku: A Journal of English Senryu
Volume 9, Issue 100, June 2024

announcements

December 20, 2025 Mary McCormack Reading/Presentation
December 2025 SCHSG Anthology
January 11, 2026 SCHSG Annual Holiday Gift Exchange
January 17, 2026 SCHSG Anthology Reading
Kelp Forest: 2024 SCHSG Anthology is still available

CURRENT ANNOUNCEMENT DETAILS

DECEMBER 20, 2025 Mary McCormack Reading & presentation

Mary McCormack’s ‘Playfulness in Haiku’ workshop will explore the process of creating a haiku in a relaxed and informal way. This workshop will delve into the subconscious, revision, and abstraction. Mary will also do a reading from her book Trying on the Night Sky. There will be an opportunity to write and to share work with the group.

Mary McCormack is an award-winning writer and writing teacher who especially enjoys haiku and fantasy. Her poetry has been widely published in journals such as Presence, Mayfly, and The Heron’s Nest. She has published five books of haiku, the latest of which is Trying on the Night Sky, and she is currently at work on a novel. When she isn’t reading or writing, she enjoys walking in the woods, dancing, and traveling.

Website: www.marymwriter.com
Instagram: @haiku_mary

Books:
Trying on the Night Sky
All the Words Kept Inside
Touching His Scar
Brushstrokes
Tastes of Sunlight

rhubarb sunset
another porch party
comes and goes

– The Heron’s Nest
Volume XXVII, Number 2: June 2025

PAST ANNOUNCEMENTS

DECEMBER 6, 2025 LA Zoo Lights Ginko

CANCELED
LA Zoo Lights Ginko
We are having a ginko walk at the LA Zoo Lights on December 6th from 6-8 pm. Come and join us to check out the holiday lights at the zoo and write/share your poetry with the group. We will meet at 5:50 pm at the LA Zoo Lights entrance.
Below is information for the LA Zoo Lights.

L.A. Zoo Lights FAQ

NOVEMBER 21-23, 2025 Haiku Society of America’s Virtual Conference

Haiku Society of America’s Virtual Conference: On the Edge
SCHSG is hosting this conference for HSA with Yvette Nicole Kolodji as the Conference Coordinator and Marjorie Pezzoli as the Program Coordinator.
Since we are hosting it, the SCHSG members and HSA members are able to attend for free.

November 21st -23rd, 2025
See complete details:
2025 National Virtual Conference

NOVEMBER 15, 2025 SCHSG ANTHOLOGY

2024 ANTHOLOGY IS STILL AVAILABLE HERE
Order form for current and past anthologies HERE
Thank you for supporting our group.

2025 SCHSG Anthology In-Progress
Kathabela Wilson is our 2025 SCHSG Anthology Editor and Jayasri Hart is our 2025 SCHSG Layout Designer.

OCTOBER 18, 2025 KUKAI

Hello Friends!
SCHSG October 2025 Kukai
Submissions will close Wednesday, October 9

https://forms.gle/xPEdjtXJoyNQj9Tv7
Use the link above to access the form to submit your entries for the SCHSG October 2025 Kukai.
Submit TWO recent (past six months) haiku using the form.
Submissions will close Wednesday, October 9
Voting will begin Thursday, October 10
Voting will close Wednesday, October 15
JOIN the October Kukai Results Meeting Saturday, October 18 – 2pm
All the best,
Emily B – Kukai Koordinator

OCTOBER 4, 2025 GRIFFITH PARK GINKO HIKE

Join us!
Griffith Park Ginko Hike: October 4th (10-12pm)

We will meet at the Merry Go Round Lot 2 at 10am and start the hike at 10:15am.
On this hike we will observe the nature within the park and stop periodically to write and share our poetry.
This hike will be hilly. Be sure to bring water and snacks.
Map information: https://share.google/SIkQNsCnwCA90d8YV
Hope to see you there!

SEPTEMBER 20, 2025 Crystal Simone Smith Reading

Crystal Simone Smith Reading & ‘Japan: The Narrow Road ‘

Crystal Simone Smith’s reading will provide insight into her poetry and highlight her recently published book Runagate: Songs of the Freedom Bound (Duke University Press, 2025) which was recently reviewed in Frogpond. She is an award-winning poet and educator. Crystal Simone Smith is also the author of Dark Testament (Henry Holt, 2023). In 2022, her collection of haiku, Ebbing Shore, won The Haiku Foundation Touchstone Distinguished Book Award. Smith is the recipient of a Duke Humanities Unbounded Fellowship. Her work has appeared in numerous journals including POETRY Magazine, Harper’s Magazine, Rattle, Frogpond, and The Heron’s Nest. She teaches in the Thompson Writing Program at Duke University and writes poetry about the human condition and social change.

Crystal Simone Smith’s presentation ‘Japan:The Narrow Road ‘ provides homage to The Narrow Road to the Deep North, the pilgrimage Basho and his traveling companion Sora made in the late 1600s. They left Edo (modern day Tokyo) and traveled North to explore the “back country” of Japan. The journey was often treacherous, but remarkable and it was journaled by both poets in travelogues and dairies. Crystal Simone Smith hiked a good portion of this journey in July through six prefectures of mountains, villages, rivers, and small towns. She will regale us with her recounting of this amazing journey!

AUGUST 25, 2025 RENKU POTLUCK

Bring a dish and let’s write a Renku together.
Please RSVP with what dish you will bring to [email protected]

Renku or Renga is an old tradition in haiku communities.
It is a social activity where we as a group will write a poem together.
And, technically, the isolation of the first verse is the origin of haiku itself.

2025 – SCHSG ANTHOLOGY SUBMISSIONS – closed

2025 SCHSG ANTHOLOGY SUBMISSIONS ARE NOW CLOSED

PLEASE CHECK BACK FOR OUR UPDATES.
2025 SCHSG Anthology In-Progress
Kathabela Wilson is our 2025 SCHSG Anthology Editor and Jayasri Hart is our 2025 SCHSG Layout Designer.

For this year’s anthology, Kathabela Wilson is arranging the anthology
by the season of each poet as indicated by their birth month.

2024 ANTHOLOGY IS STILL AVAILABLE

Kelp Forest
2024 Southern California Haiku Study Group
Anthology
Order Your 2024 Anthology Here

Thank you for supporting our group

august 16, 2025 PRESENTATION

Michael Dylan Welch will present ‘Menashe and Porchia: Amen to Life and Poems About Nothing.’ This presentation will be two presentations in one! The first highlights the “concise” poetry of New York poet Samuel Menashe and its affinities with haiku meanwhile the second focuses on haiku-related aphorisms of Argentine poet Antonio Porchia. These presentations will include poems that attendees may read aloud as well as time for questions and discussion.

JUly 19, 2025 WRITING WORKSHOP

Yvette Nicole Kolodji will lead
an Anonymous Ekphrastic Poetry Writing Workshop
Come and be inspired by art!
Participants will be encouraged to write poems for each image and share
their poetry with the group for critique by their fellow poets.

JUNE 21, 2025 WRITING WORKSHOP

Mariko Kitakubo and Kathabela Wilson will present
Tan-ku A Door of New Poetry

Mariko Kitakubo

Kathabela Wilson

This co-presented writing workshop
from Mariko Kitakubo and Kathabela Wilson
discussed the Tan-Ku form, provided examples,
and encouraged participants to write
Tan-Ku with a Tanka prompt as well as a complete Tan-Ku
with another participant.

MAY 17, 2025 PRESENTATION

Fay Aoyagi will present “Meandering”

She explored her journey towards starting her blog Blue Willow Haiku World and her translation process of modern Japanese haiku into English. She discussed the nuances in the translation process and provided a translation workshop. It ended with an engaging Q & A. There were 19 attendees.

Fay Aoyagi was born in Tokyo and currently lives in San Francisco. She started writing haiku in English in 1995. In 2000, she started writing haiku in Japanese, too. She was the former President of Haiku Society of America (HSA), an Honorable Curator of American Haiku Archive. She has been the Associate Editor of The Heron’s Nest since 2013. She is a member of HSA and Haiku Poets of Northern California and a dojin of Ten’I (Providence) and Aki (Autumn) in Tokyo. She published three haiku collections: Chrysanthemum Love, In Borrowed Shoes, and Beyond the Reach of My Chopsticks.

戦争パクリ食べる怪獣春の夢
sensō pakuri taberu kaiju haru no yume

a monster
devours a war
spring dream

~ Fay Aoyagi, Aki, Jan-Feb Issue, 2025, Tokyo
Check out her blog Blue Willow Haiku World Blue Willow Haiku World

april 19, 2025 kukai

April Kukai – Celebrate Spring! April 19, 2025
See our SCHSG member email with all the details!

april 5, 2025 EVENT

Garden of Verses! SCHSG has reserved a station!
April 5th @ 11am-4pm
Location: California Botanic Garden, 1500 N College Ave, Claremont, CA 91711
Come Join us and listen to your fellow poets read. This event is a good place to share your work and expose new audiences to modern haiku. Our SCHSG Station Captain is D’ellen.
You may sell your books at this event. If your books were provided for the Ontario Book Fair we are also willing to sell your books here too.
Garden of Verses-Saturday, April 5th

MARCH 29, 2025 ontario book fair

Ontario Book Fair! SCHSG has reserved a booth!
March 29, 2025 @ 11am-5pm PST Location: Ontario Museum of History & Art, 225 S Euclid Avenue, Ontario, CA 91762

We will be selling our current and past anthologies as well as books and haiku products from our members.

MARCH 15, 2025 Workshop

The SCHSG’s next monthly zoom meeting is on Saturday, March 15, from 2:00pm to 4:00pm PST. The presentation will be “Somewhere over the Rainbow: The Power of Color in Haiku” given by Joan C. Fingon and Lee Hudspeth.

This co-presentation explores the power and meaning of color in haiku: “exquisite” synonyms and shades (like cerulean, tangerine, amber…), emotional tones, and imagery specificity. We examine how the senses relate to color (synesthesia), e.g., hearing, tasting, or smelling a color. We discuss poems that use color in unique and inspiring ways, with examples from the masters and contemporary English Language Haiku poets. The presentation ends with a writing workshop and Q&A.

Joan C. Fingon has numerous haiku published in Whiptail, Frogpond, Wales Haiku, and Poetry Pea among others. She published her first poetry book, The Drunken Honeybee: A Collection of Haiku and Senryu, in 2021. She won first place with Orense Nicord in the HSA Garry Gay Rengay contest in 2021 and first rank Honorable Mention with Lee Hudspeth in the HSA Garry Gay Rengay contest in 2023. Their most recent joint split sequence publications are in Poetry Pea and MacQueen’s Quinterly, 2025.

Lee Hudspeth is a Touchstone and Pushcart nominated poet. His debut, full-length poetry book Incandescent Visions was self-published in 2019. His poetry has appeared in Cold Moon Journal, The Heron’s Nest, Presence, Wales Haiku Journal, Frogpond, tsuri-dōrō, Kingfisher, Red Moon Anthology, Front Porch Review, Star*Line, and other journals. A collaboration between Lee and Joan C. Fingon won first rank Honorable Mention in the HSA Garry Gay Rengay contest in 2023.

FEBRUARY 15, 2025 Workshop

2024 ANTHOLOGY

Kelp Forest
2024 Southern California Haiku Study Group
Anthology
Get your copy here

Another beautiful anthology!
A huge thank you to all our masterful poets and staff!
The anthology title is from a haiku by Deborah P. Kolodji
~
kelp forest
the synchronized swimming
of sardines
~
Richard L. Matta, Editor
Book design by Richard L Matta, Naia, and Maja Trochimczyk
Cover photo by Richard L Matta and edited by Naia
Yvette Nicole Kolodji, Foreword
Kathabela Wilson, Distribution

Printed in the United States by Gorham Printing

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2025!

JANUARY 18, 2025 Workshop

Dear SCHSG poets and friends,
I hope you are doing well and you are safe from the fires. To those of you who are impacted by the fires, you are in my thoughts. If you need anything, please let me know. If you would like to still have some poetry during this disastrous time, we will use our regular meeting time for a writing exercise. I will provide some kigo or poetry prompts for an anonymous workshop. There will be no formal presentation. Just writing and analysis by your fellow poets. I find writing very therapeutic and I hope you all will find this writing session helpful during this time. There will also be a read-a-round of haiku and I will share a quick video of the haiku gifts shared at our haiku gift party.
I hope you are all safe!
Yvette Nicole Kolodji

JANUARY 5, 2025 HOLIDAY PARTY!

Become a Member
New members Always welcome!

RECENT WORKSHOPS

DECEMBER 21, 2024 Workshop

NOVEMBER 16, 2024 WORKSHOP

SCHSG November Meeting
11/16/24 (2-4pm)

Introducing our new Moderator,
Yvette Nicole Kolodji

As the new moderator, Yvette Nicole Kolodji, expressed her goal
to facilitate appreciation, development of writing skills, and promotion
of haiku to the SCHSG and southern California community.
Yvette and the SCHSG want to thank Naia
for leading the SCHSG in the interim.

After introductions and a haiku read-a-round,
our featured reader
Kristen Lindquist presented “Birds + Haiku.”

Kristen Lindquist’s “Birds + Haiku” discussed the ways birds inspire us and how they can specifically benefit haiku, illustrated with her own haiku. Her presentation included a short prompt exercise in which the group had the opportunity to write their own avian haiku to share as desired. The presentation ended with a Q&A session.

dappled light
a patch of leaf litter
becomes sparrows

-Kristen Lindquist
Cicada’s Cry, Summer 2020 issue

Kristen Lindquist is a haiku poet and avid birder who lives in Camden, Maine. In addition to her published books (see below), she was also featured in New Resonance 12. Kristen currently coordinates the Touchstone Awards for Individual Haibun and serves as the HSA regional coordinator for New England.
Kristen’s website is www.kristenlindquist.com.
Email her at [email protected] to purchase her books.
* It Always Comes Back chapbook — https://www.snapshotpress.co.uk/ebooks/It_Always_Comes_Back.pdf (free)
It Always Comes Back was Winner of the 2020 Snapshot Press eChapbook Award.
* Island
Island was awarded 2nd place in the 2024 HSA Merit Book Awards and reviewed in the Frogpond Autumn issue.
* New Resonance 12
* Broadmoor Haiku Collective’s Anthology: What Weathers, What Returns”

*********************

OCTOBER 19, 2024 WorKshop

The Southern California Haiku Study Group met on Saturday October 19, 2024 for a read-around – to change focus from the day’s activities to engaging with our collective haiku mind.

Charles Harmon (First Reader): 20-minute reading followed by 10-minute Q&A/Interaction

Charles Harmon Bio: Started writing short stories with illustrations in kindergarten. 4th grade teacher sent a story in to the local newspaper which published it. Began writing poems and songs inspired by the Beatles in 6th grade. Got serious about poetry in high school when a girlfriend taught me to play guitar and I started writing songs for her. Began playing in bands. Years later have published all kinds of poetry and prose in journals and anthologies including haiku, tanka, free and rhyming verse, children’s poetry. Recently published in Frogpond, Ribbons, Heron’s Nest, bottle rockets, autumn moon, California Quarterly, Acorn, Akitsu, failed haiku, prune juice, Hedgerow. Winner Hollywood Poetry Slam 2006. Have spent some 7 years traveling overseas in 67 countries. Worked relief in 3 war zones. Spent 35 years teaching chemistry and physics. Enjoy indulging my wonderful wife and kids.

Rita Melissano (Second Reader: 20-minute reading followed by 10-minute Q&A/Interaction

Rita Melissano Bio: A longtime non-fiction writer, only in recent years has Rita developed a passion for haiku poetry, deepening her reverence for all living things, her connection to the kaleidoscopic magical flow that moves stars and universes, cradles the human and non-human heart. That’s what makes her fly in the dark cosmos, sit inside a slice of moon, as if it were a balcony climbed by a woman’s song. That song may literally be a haiku awaking her at dawn asking to be written.
Her work has appeared in Haiku Anthologies, national/international Journals like Haiku Dialogue, Scarlet Dragonfly, Poetry Pea, Presence, Mariposa, haikuNetra, Cold Moon, Autumn Moon, Enchanted Garden, etc. Her Tanka have also been published in the USA, Canada and UK. A world traveler, Rita lives in a forest overlooking the Mississippi which inspires her writing, photography, oneness with Nature and the wonders of embodying The Way…of Love. Her Haiku Book will make its debut soon…stay posted!

SEPTEMBER 28, 2024 ginko walk and exhibit

The Arboretum ginko and Ohara Ikebana Exhibit at the Arboretum, Saturday September 28, 2024 at 9:30am.
Ohara Ikebana International website.

We hope you can join us in the ginko walk. It will be a good way to meet, interact and share poetry with local SoCal poets from our group face-to-face. It is also a good time to usher in the coming of fall at the Los Angeles County Arboretum & Botanic Gardens! As a bonus, there will be an Ikebana Exhibit by the Ikebana International on the same day. The entrance fee covers attendance to the exhibit.
Please respond to this email if you are planning to join us or if you have any questions & suggestions.
See you then!
Bona (Bonnie)

The Arboretum is home to plant collections from all over the world, including many rare and endangered species. The garden also is the site of historical architectural landmarks representative of major phases of California history.

The plan is to take an easy circular route of the garden. The highlights, which will also serve as rest stops, are Baldwin Lake, a defunct Santa Anita Train Depot and a waterfalls, among others! This is an easy loop for about an hour and a half. Those who can not make it on time can catch up with the group on these spots of the route or see us at the Ikebana exhibit at around 11:30ish.
You may even have a close encounter with a peacock or two on the grounds!

SEPTEMBER 21, 2024 Kukai

Our September Meeting Kukai!

Please submit TWO of your recent haiku/senryu using the form in this email.

Choose poems that are pleasing to you and I am sure they will also delight or inspire others.

NOTE: Please share unpublished poems. The poems that you submit will also be considered as unpublished even when entered into the kukai since it is an exclusive group activity. This will mean that the poems will still be eligible for submission to any publication that requires unpublished (in print or social media platforms) poems.

If you are new to the Kukai, or you haven’t participated in a while, or if you are a regular, here’s how it goes for this month:

1. September 2 – September 14 (NOON) – please submit TWO Kukai using the form.

I will send reminders and encouragement to submit your work. The more people who submit poems the better!

2. September 15 – September 19 (NOON) – you will receive a printout/pdf of all the poems that were submitted. Read them, enjoy them. Then, there will be a form to vote for your favorites. When you vote, you can provide comments that will be shared as notes to the final presentation.

3. Join the meeting on September 21 (2 o’clock). Did another reader like your poem?! Was your poem very popular?! Remember, everyone who writes a poem is a winner.

The Kukai is a great place to share writing and reading poetry from our membership.

This communication may be forwarded to membership whose email is not working from the master list. Please email me directly if there are issues with submitting your form.

All the best,
Emily Bernhardt your Kukai Koordinator

august 17, 2024 MEMORIAL FOR DEBBIE

The Southern California Haiku Study Group met on Saturday, August 17, 2024 via zoom for a Memorial Presentation in remembrance of Deborah P Kolodji. Debbie, who served as SCHSG moderator for 18 years, passed away on July 21st. The presentation was created and led by Yvette Nicole Kolodji, SCHSG member and Debbie’s daughter. Following a read-around in which each attendee shared a favorite haiku of Debbie’s, Yvette guided us through her PowerPoint presentation of Debbie’s life in photos, haiku, and her personal recollections/family stories. Yvette then invited attendees to share their own memories, followed by an interactive dialogue segment. Our normally 2-hour zoom meeting was extended so everyone could reminisce and remain together as we shared our emotions and supported one another.

Photo by Deborah P. Kolodji
Descanso Gardens

Deborah P. Kolodji
~ Memorial Reading ~
August 17, 2024
Members celebrated a read-around
of their favorite poems.

Heartfelt thoughts of our beloved Debbie, the outstanding leader and moderator of our Southern California Haiku Study Group.

fallen camellia
all my hopes
for us

Deborah P. Kolodji
Wild Plum a haiku journal
The Falling Star Anthology

PLEASE VISIT ARCHIVES FOR HIGHLIGHTS ABOUT OUR PAST WORKSHOPS

July 20, 2024 – Worshop

JUNE 15, 2024 – Worshop

MAY 18, 2024 – Worshop

April 20, 2024 – Kukai

APRIL 6, 2024 – Garden of Verses

march 16, 2024 – WORKSHOP

march 3, 2024 – WORKSHOP

February 17, 2024 – WORKSHOP

january 20, 2024 – WORKSHOP

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2024!

DECEMBER 16, 2023 – WORKSHOP

The Taste of Sunlight
Southern California Haiku Study Group
2023 Anthology
Order Your 2023 Anthology Here

Another beautiful anthology, thank you, to all our masterful poets!
The linked Verse editor, Marcyn Del Clements, was the emcee for the linked verse section, which was followed by Haibun Editor, Lorraine A Padden, who emceed the haibun section. All of the poems were read, with assigned readers reading the poems of poets unable to join the zoom. The Taste of Sunlight was edited by Kathabela Wilson, Marcyn Del Clements, and Lorraine A Padden. The book was laid out by Diana Ming Jeong.
Cover photo by Deborah P. Kolodji