民句 folk ku journal – free PDF

Issue 5: water – our special updated version July 2025. You can DOWNLOAD YOUR FREE COPY HERE

Issue 5 was our first themed issue and boasts 75 pages packed with 300+ ku from 27 different countries and territories, and 30 new translations of Master Shiki’s ku.

Please note: the lovely ku on page 24: soft rain/more scent/than sound is by Srini – Rishi Valley, India (not Shruti’s). The PDF has been updated, print copies will also reflect this change. Sorry to both poets!

Given this is a special issue, we will be donating £1 from the purchase of each print journal to UK charity Tackling Minds – those who follow us on X and/or Instagram may have seen us sharing some of their amazing work over the last few years. On page 75 of Issue 5, we have included a personalised Tackling Minds tanka (5-line verse), to honour their work. Please download a copy to read it!

Tackling Minds is a unique social prescribing charity formed by David Lyons in 2020. Over the years, David’s found that fishing has played a vital role in his overall wellbeing and wanted to share the benefits with others in his community and beyond. David and his amazing team at Tackling Minds provide inclusive angling events for people facing mental health challenges, social deprivation, addiction, disabilities, and long-term health conditions.

To learn more, please go online, check out their work, like and follow on socials: Tackling Minds – Instagram, Facebook, Twitter/X, LinkedIn, TikTok, YouTube.

You can make donations directly to Tackling Minds via their website HERE. We have also set up a Buy Me a Coffee HERE and will be taking donations for Tackling Minds up until the end of August. If you are a non-contributor and would like to purchase a print copy, please email me: contact at kingriverpress.com and I will send you details on how to order.

Please share far and wide to support the work of Tackling Minds and social prescribing in the great outdoors.

Huge thank you to all contributors and fans of folk ku journal. Again, thank you Mili Zhao for your amazing work on the covers, internal artwork and other assistance with choosing ku and editing. Glorija Lukina from Croatia’s cute fish ku was chosen for the back cover – this ku also appears inside the journal.

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It’s New Year’s Eve 2024 – almost 2025 and we have just finished Issue 4 of 民句 folk ku: a journal in honour of Masaoka Shiki PDF edition. Again, thanks for your patience. You can download your free copy below

Yay! It’s finally here!! Thank you so much for everyone’s patience with us getting Issue 3 of 民句 folk ku: a journal in honour of Masaoka Shiki PDF edition published. It’s our largest edition to date, with more than 200 folk ku penned by more than 100 folk kuers from 23 different countries and territories! Thank you again to all the generous contibutors and fans of our journal for your ongoing praise and support! You can download the PDF copy here

We’re very excited to announce that Issue 2 of 民句 folk ku: a journal in honour of Master Masaoka Shiki has now been released to the public. You can download the PDF copy here

Welcome everyone to Issue 1 of 民句 folk ku: a journal in honour of Masaoka Shiki.

We would like to thank all the talented and generous poets from around the world who trusted us with their precious folk memories. Around 60 poets grace the pages of our first 民句 folk ku journal with more than 100 special verses in five languages from 20 different countries and regions – Australia, Canada, England, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Italy, Malaysia, Malta, Montenegro, New Zealand, Nigeria, Scotland, Switzerland, The Netherlands, The USA, Wales and Yugoslavia. And last but not least, they sit in the good company of selected haiku by Master Masaoka Shiki of Matsuyama, Japan.

King River Press is extremely proud to present this very rich and diverse collection of haiku, senryu and tanka capturing a myriad of folk experiences spanning the length and breadth of life, death and beyond. Again, thank you to all our contributors and readers for being a part of our inaugural issue and assisting with suggestions on edits to the first drafts. Much appreciated. We are looking forward to the second edition, which will be open for submissions mid-September to mid-October; to be published in November 2023.

The journal is best viewed as two side-by-side pages on a desktop computer or large tablet. You can do this by opening the PDF, in the righthand top corner of your screen click the three little dots and select Two-page view: