COMMENTS ON FROGPOND

Always a delight and the one I would recommend to someone wanting to see/learn haiku in English.

Excellent, well-proofed. Hand-sized. Usable.

Frogpond has received my top rating because, under the current editor's direction, it is taking more risks with printing quality haiku and related forms. Additionally, the essays and critiques are thought-provoking. It provides the haiku writer/reader a broad view of the state of modern American haiku.

This HSA sponsored publication is a must for keeping up-to-date on events, publications, and contests. Essays on current issues in haiku are concise, well-organized and informative. The haiku, senryu, haibun and linked forms are generally of high quality.

A journal with an equally wide swath as its only serious rival [Modern Haiku] and, in my opinion, better poetry.

Always solid.

Well produced, high profile, generally pretty good selection of poems. The best magazine that collects many genres, provides news and reviews, etc. A good way to stay in touch with the community at large.

Beautiful design /pages too crowded, the haiku mediocre and the print in the prose too big.

I like the look and feel of it. Consistently good quality. And Jim's very agreeable to work with.

Frogpond has improved under Jim, as before each page was too crowded with haiku.

Becoming more interesting.

Frogpond has had some wonderful editors, notably Elizabeth Searle Lamb and Kenneth Leibman. Jim Kacian has proved himself not up to their editorial standards.

Jim added some visual flair to the publication that was lacking under Ken Leibman, who seemed mostly interested in packing in as many poems as he could, but I don't like the huge type sizes, which make the journal look like a "Dick and Jane" book, the tiny type for footnotes, the nightmarish black pages, and the yellow ink that is completely illegible!

Somewhat uneven and better presented than in MH. Restricting the number of poems by one person is good -- a rule that could be copied elsewhere. But the editor seems to have lost sight of the journal's role as official publication of HSA. For example, I would like to see memorial haiku return to the pond. (And we are the Haiku Society of America, not the World Haiku Association!)

I would put Frogpond ahead of Mayfly because of its much wider selection.

Very doctrinaire and, thereby, limited.

I chose to rank Frogpond only as a B because I think it greatly needs improvement and regularly makes a number of editorial missteps.

Frogpond and Modern Haiku separate haiku and senryu (perhaps I should say try to differentiate between them), which I dislike. Some editorial placements seem arbitrary to me.

Good solid journal, not as exclusive as Modern Haiku.

Top quality haiku and essays, but not as much as in MH.

I like Frogpond's more international approach to haiku and basically agree with Jim's premise of keywords rather than strict season words.

Frogpond is running second (to Modern Haiku), simply because of its association with HSA and its longevity, even though its quality has not been great in the last few years.

I scored it a "B." Frankly, I have been sort of bummed out by Frogpond recently. I think it has been slipping downhill steadily for the past decade. It has a responsibility to represent the HSA membership, yet sometimes the editors seem to be out of control and following personal agendas. Even though I'm an HSA member and feel I should be supporting it, and I know Jim and think he's a great poet, I have stopped submitting to Frogpond.

Though every issue seems to be cut from the same cloth, the presentation is excellent and the choices generally fair.

More and more Frogpond seems designed to appeal to everyone everywhere. While I admire the editor's willingness to reach out and take risks, when I open an issue I react negatively to all the clutter. This is especially true in the haiku and senryu sections. Since it is the official journal of the HSA I could do without the supplements. Anyway, I find them most uneven and uninteresting. The International issue was almost a complete waste as far as I am concerned.