Welcome to the fourteenth iteration of the Haiku Music Challenge, hosted by Naviar Records.

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe is a British-Iranian citizen who was arrested three years ago “for allegedly plotting to topple the Iranian government.” She’s been held captive ever since.

This year, her supporters have been asked to write haiku poems about what home means to them. Here’s the poem written by her husband, Richard Ratcliffe.

Home is not a place.

It could be anywhere when

you are truly loved.

If you wish to support this campaign, please share Richard’s haiku or write your own poem using the tag #haikus4home.

Naviar’s community responded with seventeen compositions inspired by Richard’s haiku. Here are some of my favorites:

Track: Home Is Not A Place
Artist: GLSmyth
Genre: classical

Cinematic and nostalgic, George Smyth’s track Home Is Not A Place is written for violin, viola, cello and string bass.

Track: Home is not a place
Artist: Yum Haruki
Genre: piano

In its apparent simplicity, Yum Haruki’s song slowly builds up and perfectly recreates the complexity behind Richard’s haiku.

Track: Home is Where My Stereo is Hooked UP
Artist: Cetus
Genre: field recordings

For this track, Cetus used a field recording of a thunderstorm he recorded about a year ago and combined it with minimal ambient textures. The result is an immersive and haunting 12-minute piece.

Thank you for listening. Next week we’ll be posting music inspired by Alan Summers’s haiku:

rain-soaked wind

the weather-worn notice

peels back more

The deadline to submit your track is 24 April. To find out more and participate, please visit the Naviar Records site.