Japanese poetry are a short, 3-line verse form, which have achieved significant global popularity, and the haiku form has been adapted from Japanese into other languages. Typical of the haiku form is the metrical pattern of 3 lines with a distribution of 5, 7, and 5 "on" (also known as morae) within those lines. Other features include the juxtaposition of two images or ideas with a "kireji" ("cutting word") between them, and a "kigo", or seasonal reference, usually drawn from a "saijiki", or traditional list of such words. Much of Japanese poetry has been transmitted historically through published anthologies, many of them
Haiku in English and Paul Muldoon in Ireland and Britain) and others have tried their hand at haiku. In 1963 the journal "American Haiku" was founded in Platteville, Wisconsin, edited by the European-Americans James Bull and Donald Eulert. Among contributors to the first issue were poets James W. Hackett, O Mabson Southard (1911–2000), and Nick Virgilio. In the second issue of "American Haiku" Virgilio published his "lily" and "bass" haiku, which became models of brevity, breaking down the traditional 5-7-5 syllabic form, and pointing toward the leaner conception of haiku that would take hold in subsequent decades. "American Haiku" ended publication in 1968