The Early Reception
When American imagist poet, Ezra Pound, translated Moritake Araki's haiku, "A falling blossom / Returns to Branch: / A butterfly" into English,it greatly influenced American imagist poets.The realintroduction of haiku, however, occurred after World War II when Harold Henderson, R.H. Blyth and Alan Watts introduced haiku to the U.S. along with the notion of Zen philosophy.Thereafter,beat generation poets such as Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac and Gary Snyder composed haiku under the influence of Zen philosophy.
The first journal specializing in haiku, named "American Haiku," was launched in 1962 under the editorship of James Bull but the journal was defunct five years later. Despite this haiku spread all over the U.S.and saw one haiku journal and society being launched after another. And here they are.

This society has a regular monthly meeting with poetry readings and contests at a library, museum or other locations. In collaboration with the Boston Conservatory, the society held a North America Haiku Meeting and opened a haiku-music concert in June 2001, gathering haiku poets from Canada as well as the United States. Ginko (haiku walk), tea party, and sumie exhibition have also been among their activities as part of their mission to introduce Japanese culture through avenues such as Noh plays, bonsai, calligraphy and so forth.

North Goergia issues an official bi-monthly journal, "Pinecone," and holds a regular haiku party at members' houses around Atlanta.

Established in 1975 by Mr. kiyoshi Tokutomi and Mrs. Kiyoko Tokutomi in San Jose, California, the aim of this society is the promotion of the traditional haiku observing the form of five-seven-five syllables and a season word. It has a membership of 90, a regular monthly haiku party and issues a bi-monthly newsletter, "Geppo," to which members are obliged to submit at least three anonymous poems. Working together, members select the best haiku and the top ten are published in the next issue. The society celebrated its 25th anniversary with the publication of the anthology "Young Leaves". A regular annual meeting or retreat is held at Asilomar on the Monterey Peninsular. The 2002 retreat is scheduled for September. The society also runs the Kiyoshi Tokutomi Memorial Award. One of the society's objectives is to encorage new season words based on the rich seasons around the San Francisco area.

This society was launched in 1979 by Rebecca Ball Rust to promote the appreciation of English haiku. The society's official journal is "Pine Needles" and it runs regular 'haiku holidays', the first of which was held in 1980 at Bolin Brook Farm near Chapel Hill, North Carolina. The current president is African American haiku poet, Lenard Moore.

This group was established in 1989 to not only promote English haiku but also the appreciation of senryu, renku, renga, tanka and haibun with members drawn from the San Francisco and North Coralina regions. Publications include "Two Autumns". As well, the group issues a quarterly newsletter "Mariposa" and haiku and senryu anthologies. Regular meetings feature haiku and tanks presentations in Fort Mason near San Francisco.