Who doesn't love haiku? It is not only America's most popular cultural
import from Japan but also our most popular poetic form: instantly
recognizable, more mobile than a sonnet, loved for its simplicity and
compression, as well as its ease of composition. Haiku is an ancient
literary form seemingly made for the Twittersphere--Jack Kerouac and
Langston Hughes wrote them, Ezra Pound and the Imagists were inspired by
them, Hallmark's made millions off them, first-grade students across the
country still learn to write them. But what really is a haiku? Where
does the form originate? Who were the original Japanese poets who wrote
them? And how has their work been translated into English over the
years? The haiku form comes down to us today as a cliché a three-line
poem of 5-7-5 syllables. And yet its story is actually much more
colorful and multifaceted. And of course to write a good one can be as
difficult as writing a Homeric epic--or it can materialize in an instant
of epic inspiration.
In On Haiku, Hiroaki Sato explores the many styles and genres of haiku
on both sides of the Pacific, from the classical haiku of Basho, Issa,
and Zen monks, to modern haiku about swimsuits and atomic bombs, to the
haiku of famous American writers such as J. D. Salinger and Allen
Ginsburg. As if conversing over beers in your favorite pub, Sato
explains everything you wanted to know about the haiku in this endearing
and pleasurable book, destined to be a classic in the field.
