COMMENTS ON KO

If you believe haiku are about promoting peace and love you'll love Kô.

A rather timid approach to internationalism, and not on the same level as Koko Kato's anthology, but still with its value.

The last issue of Kô (millennium issue) was greatly improved. They have cut down on the typos. There were translations of major Japanese haiku poets and more articles than before. I like it that it accepts different styles.

Japanese journals such as Kô or Haiku International frequently have very bizarre and poor poems. Some of this may reflect a Japanese perspective of haiku that is simply different from the American perspective, so they are worth reading, but they can be very tedious to read, with only the occasional glimmer of a good poem.

Most material is by invitation only and tends toward the intellectual and pure forms. William Elliott has done a fine job over the years in defense of traditional haiku forms.

Content high, production quality not as high.