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Book of Haikus
Renowned for his groundbreaking Beat Generation novel On the Road, Jack Kerouac was also a master of the haiku, the three-line, seventeen-syllable Japanese poetic form. Following in the tradition of Basho, Buson, Shiki, Issa, and other poets, Kerouac experimented with this centuries-old genre, taking it beyond strict syllable counts into what he believed was the form’s essence. He incorporated his ‘American’ haiku in novels and in his correspondence, notebooks, journals, sketchbooks, and recordings. In this beautifully packaged volume, Kerouac scholar Regina Weinreich has supplemented a core haiku manuscript from Kerouac’s archives with a generous selection of the rest of his haikus, from both published and unpublished sources. The result is a compact collection of more than five hundred poems that reveal a lesser known but important side of Jack Kerouac’s literary legacy.
240 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2003
About the author
Jack Kerouac
365 books10.5k followersAutobiographical novels, such as
On the Road
(1957) and
The Dharma Bums
(1958), of American writer Jack Kerouac, originally Jean-Louis Kerouac, embody the values of the Beat Generation.
Career of Jean-Louis Lebris de Kerouac began in the 1940s but did not met with commercial success until 1957, when he wrote and published On the Road. The book, an American classic, defined the Beat Generation.
As his friend and contemporary, William S. Burroughs once wrote, "Kerouac opened a million coffee bars and sold a million pairs of Levis to both sexes. Woodstock rises from his pages."
Career of Jean-Louis Lebris de Kerouac began in the 1940s but did not met with commercial success until 1957, when he wrote and published On the Road. The book, an American classic, defined the Beat Generation.
As his friend and contemporary, William S. Burroughs once wrote, "Kerouac opened a million coffee bars and sold a million pairs of Levis to both sexes. Woodstock rises from his pages."
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 161 reviews
March 27, 2023
Edição portuguesa: “Livro de haikus (Poemas escolhidos)” da Flâneur, Março 2023
Bebo o meu chá
e digo
Hm, hm
I drink my tea
And say
Hm hm
Não o diria de forma mais eloquente!
Jack Kerouac é um autor que não me desperta interesse, mas não resisto a uns belos haikus, sejam de que nacionalidade forem, e nestes “Poemas Escolhidos” há vários do meu agrado.
Ao sol
as asas da borboleta
Qual vitral de igreja
In the Sun
the butterfly wings
Like a church window
****************
A mosca,
tão solitária quanto eu
Nesta casa vazia
The fly, just as
lonesome as I am
In this empty house
*****************
Todo o dia a usar
um chapéu que não estava
Na minha cabeça
All day long wearing
a hat that wasn’t
On my head
Bebo o meu chá
e digo
Hm, hm
I drink my tea
And say
Hm hm
Não o diria de forma mais eloquente!
Jack Kerouac é um autor que não me desperta interesse, mas não resisto a uns belos haikus, sejam de que nacionalidade forem, e nestes “Poemas Escolhidos” há vários do meu agrado.
Ao sol
as asas da borboleta
Qual vitral de igreja
In the Sun
the butterfly wings
Like a church window
****************
A mosca,
tão solitária quanto eu
Nesta casa vazia
The fly, just as
lonesome as I am
In this empty house
*****************
Todo o dia a usar
um chapéu que não estava
Na minha cabeça
All day long wearing
a hat that wasn’t
On my head
September 20, 2018
Amazing - how I wish he could have stayed with us longer for purely selfish reasons.
October 7, 2018
Remember the old Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup commercial where two people collide? “You got peanut butter on my chocolate!” “You got chocolate in my peanut butter!” And the rest is delicious magic? Well, that was me picking up Jack Kerouac’s Book of Haikus. I love haiku. And I love Kerouac. But I was skeptical about the combination. Fortunately, I ended up as pleasantly surprised as the clumsy snackers.
This volume includes the poems Kerouac selected for his Book of Haikus as well as poems gathered from his novels and notebooks. The poems from Book of Haikus are superior to the others, yet they make up less than half of the volume.
I have mixed feelings about the inclusion of so many poems from Kerouac’s novels and notebooks. On the one hand, I can see how they would be of interest to those studying the development of Kerouac’s art, but on the other hand, they lower the quality of the volume as a whole. Although I appreciate editor Regina Weinreich’s dedication to her project, I think she does Kerouac a disservice by padding the book with weaker poems.
That said, the poems Kerouac selected for Book of Haikus are impressive. I think Basho would be proud. Here are a few of my favorites.
“Quiet moonlit night—
Neighbor boy studying
By telescope; —‘Ooo!’ ” (16)
“In back of the supermarket
in the parking lot weeds,
Purple flowers” (18)
“Glow worm sleeping
on this flower,
Your light’s on! ” (27)
Kerouac’s three-line poems are not composed of seventeen syllables, but they are faithful to the spirit of Japanese haiku. A haiku has two elements: an observation of nature and a sudden perception. Moreover, Basho identified the aesthetic of haiku as one of Karumi, or lightness. I think Kerouac’s poems succeed in achieving both the form and the aesthetic of haiku.
Among the notebook poems, I found one that seems to be an earlier version of another one of my favorites. Here is the poem in Book of Haikus.
“Bee, why are you
staring at me?
I’m not a flower!” (15)
Here is the poem from the notebooks.
“Am I a flower
bee, that you
Stare at me?” (155)
Weinreich says that Kerouac revised his poems. This is not something that Kerouac did with his other writings. It seems likely to me that the poem from the notebook was revised into the poem included in Book of Haikus.
“Am I a flower” is moved from the first line to the third line where it becomes an exclamation instead of a question. The whole poem builds up to it. “I’m not a flower!”
The address to the bee is moved from the second line to the first line. This is simpler and more direct. In the earlier poem the address to the bee occurs in the middle of the question. This dilutes the effect of the question. The reader of the revised poem knows right from the start that the question is addressed to the bee.
Addressing the bee in the middle also makes the earlier poem a single complex sentence whereas the revised poem follows the traditional Japanese form of an observation of nature followed by a sudden perception with these two elements divided by a Kireji, or cutting word. In English, the function of the Kireji is often performed by a dash or other punctuation mark.
The first part of the revised poem ~“Bee, why are you/staring at me?” ~ is the question addressed to the bee and the second part of the poem ~ “I’m not a flower!” ~ is the sudden, surprising, and humorous reaction of the speaker.
This comparison between the notebook poem and the Book of Haikus poem is revealing. The poems from Book of Haikus ~ like the haiku of Basho ~ have the feeling of spontaneity, but they are instead carefully crafted poems. The appearance of spontaneity is evidence of the talent of the poet.
I am happy to shelve Kerouac’s Book of Haikus alongside my other volumes of haiku. Unless it better belongs with my Beat Generation books. Perhaps I should find out where the peanut butter cups are shelved in the supermarket—with the peanut butter or with the chocolate. But wherever I put Book of Haikus, it has turned out to be a serendipitous discovery for me.
This volume includes the poems Kerouac selected for his Book of Haikus as well as poems gathered from his novels and notebooks. The poems from Book of Haikus are superior to the others, yet they make up less than half of the volume.
I have mixed feelings about the inclusion of so many poems from Kerouac’s novels and notebooks. On the one hand, I can see how they would be of interest to those studying the development of Kerouac’s art, but on the other hand, they lower the quality of the volume as a whole. Although I appreciate editor Regina Weinreich’s dedication to her project, I think she does Kerouac a disservice by padding the book with weaker poems.
That said, the poems Kerouac selected for Book of Haikus are impressive. I think Basho would be proud. Here are a few of my favorites.
“Quiet moonlit night—
Neighbor boy studying
By telescope; —‘Ooo!’ ” (16)
“In back of the supermarket
in the parking lot weeds,
Purple flowers” (18)
“Glow worm sleeping
on this flower,
Your light’s on! ” (27)
Kerouac’s three-line poems are not composed of seventeen syllables, but they are faithful to the spirit of Japanese haiku. A haiku has two elements: an observation of nature and a sudden perception. Moreover, Basho identified the aesthetic of haiku as one of Karumi, or lightness. I think Kerouac’s poems succeed in achieving both the form and the aesthetic of haiku.
Among the notebook poems, I found one that seems to be an earlier version of another one of my favorites. Here is the poem in Book of Haikus.
“Bee, why are you
staring at me?
I’m not a flower!” (15)
Here is the poem from the notebooks.
“Am I a flower
bee, that you
Stare at me?” (155)
Weinreich says that Kerouac revised his poems. This is not something that Kerouac did with his other writings. It seems likely to me that the poem from the notebook was revised into the poem included in Book of Haikus.
“Am I a flower” is moved from the first line to the third line where it becomes an exclamation instead of a question. The whole poem builds up to it. “I’m not a flower!”
The address to the bee is moved from the second line to the first line. This is simpler and more direct. In the earlier poem the address to the bee occurs in the middle of the question. This dilutes the effect of the question. The reader of the revised poem knows right from the start that the question is addressed to the bee.
Addressing the bee in the middle also makes the earlier poem a single complex sentence whereas the revised poem follows the traditional Japanese form of an observation of nature followed by a sudden perception with these two elements divided by a Kireji, or cutting word. In English, the function of the Kireji is often performed by a dash or other punctuation mark.
The first part of the revised poem ~“Bee, why are you/staring at me?” ~ is the question addressed to the bee and the second part of the poem ~ “I’m not a flower!” ~ is the sudden, surprising, and humorous reaction of the speaker.
This comparison between the notebook poem and the Book of Haikus poem is revealing. The poems from Book of Haikus ~ like the haiku of Basho ~ have the feeling of spontaneity, but they are instead carefully crafted poems. The appearance of spontaneity is evidence of the talent of the poet.
I am happy to shelve Kerouac’s Book of Haikus alongside my other volumes of haiku. Unless it better belongs with my Beat Generation books. Perhaps I should find out where the peanut butter cups are shelved in the supermarket—with the peanut butter or with the chocolate. But wherever I put Book of Haikus, it has turned out to be a serendipitous discovery for me.
August 30, 2022
ریویوی ۲۰۲۰ - بر اساس هایکوهای نسل بیت با ترجمهی علیرضا بهنام
بچههای نسل بیت هایکوی هفده سیلابی ژاپن را برداشتند و آمریکایی کردند. هرچه بیشتر از پیچیدگی و آرایهها پرهیز کردند و به توصیفِ خالصِ «حس» پرداختند؛ حس دیدن طبیعت، یا یک اتفاق روزمره.
حالا این همه تلاش شاعران برای دوری از استعاره را در نظر بگیرید، و حرکت جناب شروین پاشایی را که آمده عکس مگس و پوتین و دیوار کشیده زیر شعرهایی دربارهی مگسها و ماهیها و قدم زدنها. لاالهالاالله.
***
ریویوی ۲۰۱۹ - بر اساس هایکوهای امریکایی با ترجمهی فرید قدمی
طیّ طریق
یعنی
رسیدن به صدای سکوت
*
به بیشهزار رفتم
به مکاشفه
زیادی سرد بود امّا
بچههای نسل بیت هایکوی هفده سیلابی ژاپن را برداشتند و آمریکایی کردند. هرچه بیشتر از پیچیدگی و آرایهها پرهیز کردند و به توصیفِ خالصِ «حس» پرداختند؛ حس دیدن طبیعت، یا یک اتفاق روزمره.
حالا این همه تلاش شاعران برای دوری از استعاره را در نظر بگیرید، و حرکت جناب شروین پاشایی را که آمده عکس مگس و پوتین و دیوار کشیده زیر شعرهایی دربارهی مگسها و ماهیها و قدم زدنها. لاالهالاالله.
***
ریویوی ۲۰۱۹ - بر اساس هایکوهای امریکایی با ترجمهی فرید قدمی
طیّ طریق
یعنی
رسیدن به صدای سکوت
*
به بیشهزار رفتم
به مکاشفه
زیادی سرد بود امّا
April 27, 2016
Eh, Kerouac as a poet. . . If you are interested in haiku, or in the ways Eastern poetic forms and sensibilities have been imported to the west, if I were you, I would read Gary Snyder, who helped import haiku to the beats and that generation in this country. Snyder is a serious poet and serious Buddhist, who inspired Kerouac and other beats, but none of them did work to match what Snyder did. Book of Haikus compiler and introducer Weinrich makes a case for this book as both serious poetry and irreverent (Kerouac called his American haiku "pops"), but I'm not convinced. There are some decent haiku in this large collection, collected attractively in a small book format, and if you are a Kerouac completist, (as I kinda am) you will want to own this, but for most readers interested in Kerouac and/or haiku, I would just read Kerouac's fiction.
December 26, 2015
Collection of short poems Kerouac wrote over several years. Most of them are three lines, a few are two liners. He doesn't build the poem on the 17 syllable construction, so I would call them micro poems rather than haiku. They were written at a time when he was taking a look at Buddhism. Most of them have the flavor of traditional Japanese haiku with reference to nature with reference to the moon and all that, but my favorites are a little more unique. The one about the fly in the medicine cabinet who died of old age and the one about the rain puddle cleaning the soles of his shoes were memorable. Kerouac was a hard core artist, who else would write little poems?
If you're interested in learning more about Kerouac, this little book is worth checking out of the library.
If you're interested in learning more about Kerouac, this little book is worth checking out of the library.
January 1, 2021
Haiku mě baví, i když mě jen málokterá vysloveně zaujmou. Vybírám jedno jako ukázku.
V klidu si odpoledne
nalívám kafe,
ryzí potěšení!
V klidu si odpoledne
nalívám kafe,
ryzí potěšení!
August 17, 2017
"Hitch hiked a thousand
miles and brought
You wine"
+
"Holding up my
purring cat to the moon
I sighed"
= my new definition of Kerouac.
A remarkable and thought-provoking collection.
"You'd be surprised
how little I knew
Even up to yesterday"
"Take a cup of water
from the ocean
And there I am"
miles and brought
You wine"
+
"Holding up my
purring cat to the moon
I sighed"
= my new definition of Kerouac.
A remarkable and thought-provoking collection.
"You'd be surprised
how little I knew
Even up to yesterday"
"Take a cup of water
from the ocean
And there I am"
February 28, 2015
HAHAHA KEROUAC IS SO FUNNY I THOUGHT THIS WAS GONNA BE A SERIOUS BOOK BUT NOOOOOPE. although towards the end they do get more sombre after he succumbs to alcoholism. here r some of my favorites:
some are really pretty "the top of jack / mountain - done in / by golden clouds"
and some are terribly lonely "racing westward through / the clouds in the howling/ wind, the moon"
some are weird and entertaining "the cow, taking a big / dreamy crap, turning / to look at me"
some are so sassy "train tunnel, too dark/for me to write: that/ men are ignorant"
some are endearingly quirky "i made raspberry fruit jello/ the color of rubies / in the setting sun"
some are just endearing "if i go out now, / my paws / will get wet" (which is frm the pov of his cat!)
and some are funny af "here comes / my dragon /- goodbye!"
some are really pretty "the top of jack / mountain - done in / by golden clouds"
and some are terribly lonely "racing westward through / the clouds in the howling/ wind, the moon"
some are weird and entertaining "the cow, taking a big / dreamy crap, turning / to look at me"
some are so sassy "train tunnel, too dark/for me to write: that/ men are ignorant"
some are endearingly quirky "i made raspberry fruit jello/ the color of rubies / in the setting sun"
some are just endearing "if i go out now, / my paws / will get wet" (which is frm the pov of his cat!)
and some are funny af "here comes / my dragon /- goodbye!"
May 30, 2015
The beauty of haiku--I suppose the beauty particularly of the haiku found in this volume, coming as it does from a prosaic Western perspective and being transmitted to a prosaic Western mind/reader--is that there is simultaneously a a degree of specificity and universality to the images (or, if you like, symbols) evoked. I have observed images so similar to some described in this book, that it is almost as though Kerouac's shade were what I'd mistaken for that cast by the tall birch in a park once sat beneath--him with with a ghostly notebook, scribbling my unconsciously dharmic doings unbeknownst to me.
Attention is love,
and
love and hate are
almost one
--mostly in
choosing
their object
and that
(object of)
one can
so easily
become the other
--contingency
Attention is love,
and
love and hate are
almost one
--mostly in
choosing
their object
and that
(object of)
one can
so easily
become the other
--contingency
January 30, 2021
Loved it. It was very simple and sincere.
January 21, 2014
Fantastic.
Kerouac displays true mastership of this form of poetry. Intelligently avoiding the restricting rules of traditional, conventional Japanese haiku, Kerouac invents the form here which he calls 'pops' - short, concise three-line poems which are very effective. Where Kerouac does not follow the 'rules' syllabically, he does in terms of including seasonal words - the moon, the sun, leaves, noon - all symbolic of the season in which the haiku was written, even the 'winter fly' which ingeniously refers to the END of winter, i.e. the advent of Spring.
Out of all of Kerouac's poetry, I believe that this has to be some of his strongest work, right up there with the ingenious, the timeless Mexico City Blues. Many people wrote Jack off because of his beliefs about spontaneous prose and Truman Capote's old hack that he was just "typing" not "writing" - well, time has shown, with increasing evidence, that he was a significant writer in American society, who in the later half of the twentieth century was apparently told by God to "go moan for Man" and someone whose quality of writing has consistently shown that he deserves more attention and acclaim.
Kerouac displays true mastership of this form of poetry. Intelligently avoiding the restricting rules of traditional, conventional Japanese haiku, Kerouac invents the form here which he calls 'pops' - short, concise three-line poems which are very effective. Where Kerouac does not follow the 'rules' syllabically, he does in terms of including seasonal words - the moon, the sun, leaves, noon - all symbolic of the season in which the haiku was written, even the 'winter fly' which ingeniously refers to the END of winter, i.e. the advent of Spring.
Out of all of Kerouac's poetry, I believe that this has to be some of his strongest work, right up there with the ingenious, the timeless Mexico City Blues. Many people wrote Jack off because of his beliefs about spontaneous prose and Truman Capote's old hack that he was just "typing" not "writing" - well, time has shown, with increasing evidence, that he was a significant writer in American society, who in the later half of the twentieth century was apparently told by God to "go moan for Man" and someone whose quality of writing has consistently shown that he deserves more attention and acclaim.
December 8, 2015
Most people only know of Jack Kerouac as the author of On the Road, but this book demonstrates that he has skills in other areas too. Kerouac’s haiku often stick to the traditional form of 5-7-5, but he does sometimes experiment too, and often with eastern forms that he discovered through his forays into Buddhism and other eastern religions.
I only have one real gripe with this book – the writing itself is pretty epic, and I really enjoy the way that Kerouac invokes nature and natural themes in to his writing, in the fine traditions of the oldest of the old haiku writers. That said, I’m pretty sure that the plural of ‘haiku’ is ‘haiku’, and so I do get kind of annoyed by that.
Overall, though, it’s a delightful little book, and one that you could fit in to your pocket fairly easily. What’s more, it’s the sort of book that you can dip in and out of, although I have to admit that I read it from cover to cover because that’s the kind of reader I am.
I only have one real gripe with this book – the writing itself is pretty epic, and I really enjoy the way that Kerouac invokes nature and natural themes in to his writing, in the fine traditions of the oldest of the old haiku writers. That said, I’m pretty sure that the plural of ‘haiku’ is ‘haiku’, and so I do get kind of annoyed by that.
Overall, though, it’s a delightful little book, and one that you could fit in to your pocket fairly easily. What’s more, it’s the sort of book that you can dip in and out of, although I have to admit that I read it from cover to cover because that’s the kind of reader I am.
Read
March 25, 2021I remember Allen Ginsberg saying that Kerouac’s best writing was his haiku (or did I imagine that?). This book is somersaultingly fabulous, though many of the poems fail:
My friend standing
in my bedroom –
The spring rain
The ones that succeed, however, are as valuable as a purebred Samoyed:
Looking for my cat
in the weeds,
I found a butterfly
August in Salinas –
Autumn leaves in
Clothing store displays
A balloon caught
in the tree – dusk
In Central Park zoo
No one could write American like Jack.
March 21, 2023
You'd be surprised
How little I knew
Even up to yesterday
***
Haiku, shmaiku, I cant
understand the intention
Of reality
***
The sound of silence
is all the instruction
You'll get
***
The fly, just as
lonesome as I am
In this empty house
The other man, just as
lonesome as I am
In this empty universe
October 5, 2021
هایکو یه سبک شعری ژاپنیه؛ مثل شعر نوی فارسی. توی هایکو هجاها خیلی مهمن. البته که این هجاها توی زبان ژاپنی تعریف میشن و اگه کسی بخواد هایکوی فارسی، انگلیسی و... بگه، اون هجاهای ژاپنی کاربردی ندارن.
جک کرواک اومده و هایکوی ژاپنی رو با زبان انگلیسی تطبیق داده و از دلش سبک شعری پیدا شده که هم با زبان انگلیسی همخوانی داره هم از نظر ادبی با نسخهی ژاپنیش فرق داره.
موقع خوندن کتاب بیشتر از اینکه با شعری شرقی یا غربی مواجه باشیم، کلماتی غربی رو میخونیم که به شدت شیفتهی فرهنگ شرقن. حالت صورت کرواک رو میتونم موقع گفتن این هایکوها تصور کنم:)
جک کرواک اومده و هایکوی ژاپنی رو با زبان انگلیسی تطبیق داده و از دلش سبک شعری پیدا شده که هم با زبان انگلیسی همخوانی داره هم از نظر ادبی با نسخهی ژاپنیش فرق داره.
موقع خوندن کتاب بیشتر از اینکه با شعری شرقی یا غربی مواجه باشیم، کلماتی غربی رو میخونیم که به شدت شیفتهی فرهنگ شرقن. حالت صورت کرواک رو میتونم موقع گفتن این هایکوها تصور کنم:)
July 20, 2022
Yllättävästi pidin kirjasta ja runoista, vaikken ihan kaikista pitänytkään mutta suurimmasta osasta kuitenkin ja jopa ymmärsin niitä. Yksinkertaista mutta erittäin kaunista ainakin suurimmaksi osaksi. Itse kirjailijasta oli mukava lukea enemmän ja siitä millaisessa tilanteessa tai minä vuonna haikut oli kirjoitettu. Ehkä ymmärsi niitäkin hieman paremmin kun tiesi kirjoittajan mielestä ja elämästä enemmän. Kannattaa lukea rauhassa ja ajan kanssa muutama sivu kerrallaan, että haikut jäävät mieleen. Itse luin alkuun hitaammin mutta loppua kohden tahti kiihtyi.
March 19, 2022
I didn't really care for these.
June 6, 2018
You can listen to a studio recording of Kerouac reciting poems from his series American Haikus, backed by the jazz saxophonists Al Cohn and Zoot Sims for their album Blues and Haikus
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30mXV...
I don't particularly enjoy reading Haiku, both the Japanese and the so-called Western haiku (*), which Kerouac has re-named “American Pops”.(**)
I find this form of poetry dull and dare I say boring (I wrote a long study on Haiku when I reviewed several Haiku collections and anthologies that I have read in Arabic and French).
I enjoyed however reading Morning Haiku by Sonia Sanchez. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7...
I wasn’t really impressed by Kerouac’s poems, they undoubtedly reveal a fertile imagination but some were dry and others felt shallow..
Kerouac’s haiku encapsulate an abrupt emotion or a mystical vision , an observation that is oftenly delivered with humour and sarcasm, a brief weird impression or a distillation of a scene or a fading memory.
For Ginsberg his haiku poems are « the most “uncrafted stuff” in the world.[..] his craft is spontaneity [..] instantaneous recall of the unconscious [..] prefect executive conjunction of archetypal memorial images articulating present observation of detail and childhood epiphany fact.”
Kerouac is no doubt capable of crafting stunning images. His haiku show the influence of the imagists, mainly Ezra Pound.
We can also perceive in these haiku the major influence of the Zen Buddhism, as a religion and a culture. Dissatisfied with the state of the western culture, Kerouac sought a cure in the Japanese philosophy. He has also embraced it in his life as an alternative to the socialist and secular convictions, to which he was fiercely opposed, adopted by his comrades of the Beat generation..
Ginsberg asserted that the method of spontaneous composition is connected to the practice of Zen Buddhism and the fact that in Japanese calligraphic painting, people are literally able to capture one phrase in one image.
However, according to many critics, Kerouac's approach to Buddhism in these poems indicate a superficial understanding of its philosophy.(***),
Many of the Haiku in this collection tell a wisdom through metaphors. Short and concise, they are moreover similar to ancient Eastern spiritual proverbs :
Walking on water wasn't
Built in a day
The sound of silence
Is all the instruction
You'll get
**
What is a rainbow,
Lord? – a hoop
For the lowly
**
The Golden Gate
creaks
With sunset rust
**
(*) the American or the Western Haikus depict Haikus written by western poets and to which the basic rules of the Japanese Haiku don’t apply. They even vary in line-length.
This review explores Kerouac's innovative and personalized Haikus.
https://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/13/op...
(**) He wrote:
Then I’ll invent
The American Haiku type:
The simple rhyming triolet:-- Seventeen syllables?
No, as I say, American Pops:-- Simple 3-line poems.
[from Jack Foley’s article “Beat Haikus”
https://terebess.hu/english/haiku/fol... ]
(***)I recommend this helpful and informative brief article: it defines the elements of the Zen haiku, explains its essential techniques and highlights the rules of the haiku crafting
http://www.mercy-center.org/PDFs/EW/H...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30mXV...
I don't particularly enjoy reading Haiku, both the Japanese and the so-called Western haiku (*), which Kerouac has re-named “American Pops”.(**)
I find this form of poetry dull and dare I say boring (I wrote a long study on Haiku when I reviewed several Haiku collections and anthologies that I have read in Arabic and French).
I enjoyed however reading Morning Haiku by Sonia Sanchez. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7...
I wasn’t really impressed by Kerouac’s poems, they undoubtedly reveal a fertile imagination but some were dry and others felt shallow..
Kerouac’s haiku encapsulate an abrupt emotion or a mystical vision , an observation that is oftenly delivered with humour and sarcasm, a brief weird impression or a distillation of a scene or a fading memory.
For Ginsberg his haiku poems are « the most “uncrafted stuff” in the world.[..] his craft is spontaneity [..] instantaneous recall of the unconscious [..] prefect executive conjunction of archetypal memorial images articulating present observation of detail and childhood epiphany fact.”
Kerouac is no doubt capable of crafting stunning images. His haiku show the influence of the imagists, mainly Ezra Pound.
We can also perceive in these haiku the major influence of the Zen Buddhism, as a religion and a culture. Dissatisfied with the state of the western culture, Kerouac sought a cure in the Japanese philosophy. He has also embraced it in his life as an alternative to the socialist and secular convictions, to which he was fiercely opposed, adopted by his comrades of the Beat generation..
Ginsberg asserted that the method of spontaneous composition is connected to the practice of Zen Buddhism and the fact that in Japanese calligraphic painting, people are literally able to capture one phrase in one image.
However, according to many critics, Kerouac's approach to Buddhism in these poems indicate a superficial understanding of its philosophy.(***),
Many of the Haiku in this collection tell a wisdom through metaphors. Short and concise, they are moreover similar to ancient Eastern spiritual proverbs :
Walking on water wasn't
Built in a day
The sound of silence
Is all the instruction
You'll get
**
What is a rainbow,
Lord? – a hoop
For the lowly
**
The Golden Gate
creaks
With sunset rust
**
(*) the American or the Western Haikus depict Haikus written by western poets and to which the basic rules of the Japanese Haiku don’t apply. They even vary in line-length.
This review explores Kerouac's innovative and personalized Haikus.
https://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/13/op...
(**) He wrote:
Then I’ll invent
The American Haiku type:
The simple rhyming triolet:-- Seventeen syllables?
No, as I say, American Pops:-- Simple 3-line poems.
[from Jack Foley’s article “Beat Haikus”
https://terebess.hu/english/haiku/fol... ]
(***)I recommend this helpful and informative brief article: it defines the elements of the Zen haiku, explains its essential techniques and highlights the rules of the haiku crafting
http://www.mercy-center.org/PDFs/EW/H...
May 2, 2007
The introduction alone in this book is worth the read. It's a great little book (that fits in your back pocket. Yes, your back pocket.) that is fun to pick up anytime you are bored/in chapel.
Kerouac basically gave birth to the Western Haiku. Haiku is a traditional form of Japanese poetry, typically plotted by the seasons. While Kerouac adheres to the seasonal content occasionally, he focuses on everyday happenstance. In addition, as Japanese Haiku is writ in 5-7-5 (syllable count per line), Kerouac's invintion of the Western Haiku has no fixed syllable count, but is condensed to 3 line stanzas with compacted lines.
Here are some favorites:
A raindrop from
the roof
Fell in my beer
I said a joke
under the stars
-no laughter
When the moon sinks
down to the power line,
I'll go in
Dusk - boy
smashing dandelions
with a stick
The cow taking a big
dreamy crap, turning
To look at me
Kerouac basically gave birth to the Western Haiku. Haiku is a traditional form of Japanese poetry, typically plotted by the seasons. While Kerouac adheres to the seasonal content occasionally, he focuses on everyday happenstance. In addition, as Japanese Haiku is writ in 5-7-5 (syllable count per line), Kerouac's invintion of the Western Haiku has no fixed syllable count, but is condensed to 3 line stanzas with compacted lines.
Here are some favorites:
A raindrop from
the roof
Fell in my beer
I said a joke
under the stars
-no laughter
When the moon sinks
down to the power line,
I'll go in
Dusk - boy
smashing dandelions
with a stick
The cow taking a big
dreamy crap, turning
To look at me
December 31, 2012
Some exceptional, many good, some bad; most of them are interesting, at least for a moment.
September 26, 2020
Kerouac's haikus aren't doing anything for me.
October 21, 2019
Book of Haikus contains some very good haiku and many that are more average than good, but all reveal much about Jack Kerouac. He doesn't restrict himself to the traditional 5/7/5 syllable count, believing that it didn't fit English as well as it did Japanese. Many of the poems do not abide by other haiku norms, but Kerouac was trying to create his own, American or Western version of the art form. It's clear though, that he was a serious student of haiku and understood the form (a minute to learn, a lifetime to understand). Occasionally they are a bit more earthy than one usually sees. Much like Issa we see much of the author here, and I believe it was Issa who advised rewriting a haiku to find the one that works best, and at times we see Kerouac doing that here, reworking a poem in variations to see what comes through. In addition to the biographical nature of the haiku (recommended for all Kerouac fans), his experiments make this volume especially intriguing.
March 12, 2022
Hoje é o centenário do Jack Kerouac, estava guardando o Livro de Haicais, edição bilíngue que saiu pela L&PM com tradução do grande Claudio Willer, para essa ocasião.
Tudo que Proust me influenciou no início dos meus vinte anos nos 2000, Kerouac fez o mesmo a partir de meados da mesma década, The Dharma Bums foi uma virada no meu modo de pensar a vida e a partir daí comecei a me interessar por budismo.
Os koans zen tem muita influência na escrita de Kerouac, mas é sobretudo nos haicais clássicos e nos senryu que o autor tira sua energia poética seja nas poesias propriamente ditas seja na sua prosa a partir das experiências narradas no Vagabundos do Dharma.
Aparentemente essa edição não comporta os rascunhos mais ruinzinhos de sua coleção de haicais, o que torna o livro bom de cabo a rabo, mas que empobrece nossa visão da evolução poética de Kerouac.
Mas o que importa mesmo é a grande quantidade de haicais sobre gatos, nenhum grande ailurófilo estaria completo sem odes poéticas aos bichanos.
Tudo que Proust me influenciou no início dos meus vinte anos nos 2000, Kerouac fez o mesmo a partir de meados da mesma década, The Dharma Bums foi uma virada no meu modo de pensar a vida e a partir daí comecei a me interessar por budismo.
Os koans zen tem muita influência na escrita de Kerouac, mas é sobretudo nos haicais clássicos e nos senryu que o autor tira sua energia poética seja nas poesias propriamente ditas seja na sua prosa a partir das experiências narradas no Vagabundos do Dharma.
Aparentemente essa edição não comporta os rascunhos mais ruinzinhos de sua coleção de haicais, o que torna o livro bom de cabo a rabo, mas que empobrece nossa visão da evolução poética de Kerouac.
Mas o que importa mesmo é a grande quantidade de haicais sobre gatos, nenhum grande ailurófilo estaria completo sem odes poéticas aos bichanos.
March 17, 2019
Questi gli Haiku che più mi son piaciuti
Un fiore
sull’orlo di un dirupo
Ammicca al canyon
Ape, perché continui
a fissarmi?
Non sono un fiore!
Mao Tse-tung si �� preso
troppi Funghi Magici
Siberiani quest’autunno
Una tartaruga s’arrampica
sopra una trave,
A testa alta
La vacca si fa una grande
favolosa cacata, e si volta
A guardarmi
La mia farfalla è venuta
a posarsi sul mio fiore,
Me Signore
Il sogno di Dio,
È soltanto
Un sogno
ma soprattutto questa
Gengis Khan guarda fiero
verso est, con occhi rossi,
Bramando la vendetta d’autunno
quando leggo nelle note, da un taccuino di Kerouac del 1965:
"Una sequenza su Gengis Khan deve cominciare con lui che vaga per la steppa solo e ubriaco, e quando giunge all’accampamento mongolo entra in una tenda e si siede – poi scopre che è la sua tenda (Le guardie e le guide l’hanno seguito per tutta la notte sul suo pony ubriaco)"
Un fiore
sull’orlo di un dirupo
Ammicca al canyon
Ape, perché continui
a fissarmi?
Non sono un fiore!
Mao Tse-tung si �� preso
troppi Funghi Magici
Siberiani quest’autunno
Una tartaruga s’arrampica
sopra una trave,
A testa alta
La vacca si fa una grande
favolosa cacata, e si volta
A guardarmi
La mia farfalla è venuta
a posarsi sul mio fiore,
Me Signore
Il sogno di Dio,
È soltanto
Un sogno
ma soprattutto questa
Gengis Khan guarda fiero
verso est, con occhi rossi,
Bramando la vendetta d’autunno
quando leggo nelle note, da un taccuino di Kerouac del 1965:
"Una sequenza su Gengis Khan deve cominciare con lui che vaga per la steppa solo e ubriaco, e quando giunge all’accampamento mongolo entra in una tenda e si siede – poi scopre che è la sua tenda (Le guardie e le guide l’hanno seguito per tutta la notte sul suo pony ubriaco)"
Read
December 24, 2021لقد حث كيرواك نفسه على كتابة الهايكو، ممتلئًا بالطرق التقليدية له.
مع تنوع أنواع الشعر التي قام بكتابتها جاك كيرواك، والتي لم يكن بينها رابط معين سوى فكرة الكتابة الشعرية الخالية من التكلف إلى درجة كبيرة، لربما أفقدتها المعنى أحيانًا!
ولكنّ هناك رقة يمكن العثور عليها من حين إلى آخر، كلمات جذلة مدفونةٌ في عمق المعنى واختلاف "النوتة الموسيقية" التي لم نعتدها لربما نحن القراء العرب، ورغم هذا وذاك استطعت أن أتلصص على خبايا هذا المعنى، أو لربما ما ظننته معنى؛ ما أشعرني بشيء ما، شعور صاف، مريح ومختلف وأعتقد أنها وظيفة الشعر.
رافقتني هذه المادة الشعرية لشهور طوال، وهذا ما أعامل به الشعر عادةً.
مع تنوع أنواع الشعر التي قام بكتابتها جاك كيرواك، والتي لم يكن بينها رابط معين سوى فكرة الكتابة الشعرية الخالية من التكلف إلى درجة كبيرة، لربما أفقدتها المعنى أحيانًا!
ولكنّ هناك رقة يمكن العثور عليها من حين إلى آخر، كلمات جذلة مدفونةٌ في عمق المعنى واختلاف "النوتة الموسيقية" التي لم نعتدها لربما نحن القراء العرب، ورغم هذا وذاك استطعت أن أتلصص على خبايا هذا المعنى، أو لربما ما ظننته معنى؛ ما أشعرني بشيء ما، شعور صاف، مريح ومختلف وأعتقد أنها وظيفة الشعر.
رافقتني هذه المادة الشعرية لشهور طوال، وهذا ما أعامل به الشعر عادةً.
March 22, 2024
Kerouac is a better travel writer than a haiku master, but the attempts are admirable enough; my favorites:
In my medicine cabinet
the winter fly
Has died of old age
Missing a kick
at the icebox door
It closed anyway
In my medicine cabinet
the winter fly
Has died of old age
Missing a kick
at the icebox door
It closed anyway
March 4, 2017
Loved this.
I was only familiar with some of Kerouac's poetry before, but never knew he was so adept at writing haiku until discovering this book.
The haiku here are written in Kerouac's own inimitable style - that is to say he bends the traditional rules just a tad, ha. But what a result, or should I say results.
What this book offers is a treasure of vividly sketched vignettes of nature and life, more emotionally arresting than they first seem. In the past few weeks since I got this book, I've carried it with me while traveling (it's almost pocket-size) as a kind of Zen handbook, each individual haiku offering a sip of meditative revelation. I enjoyed them immensely; more so than ordinary haiku which I always find get a bit boring after a few. But Kerouac's style of writing is so infused with energy and free-spiritism that it's hard not to feel affected by them. I just love how these haiku (or haikus as Jack liked to say) seem so casual and off-the-cuff, but as we see from some images of Kerouac's notebooks in the introduction, are actually a result of self-imposed strict editing.
I should also add that there is a great introduction to this book by an enthusiastic Kerouac scholar, which was very insightful and really added to the collection.
Yep it's safe to say that this collection makes me love Kerouac even more than ever.
Just some of my favourites include:
The sky is still empty,
the rose is still
on the typewriter
One flower
on the cliffside
nodding at the canyon
Quietly pouring coffee
in the afternoon
How pleasant!
Straining at the padlock
the garage doors
at noon
The other man, just as
lonesome as I am
In this empty universe
The tree looks
like a dog
barking at Heaven
But there are so many more! If you are a fan of Kerouac's prose then you have to try his poetry side. It's, as to be expected, pretty darn cool.
I was only familiar with some of Kerouac's poetry before, but never knew he was so adept at writing haiku until discovering this book.
The haiku here are written in Kerouac's own inimitable style - that is to say he bends the traditional rules just a tad, ha. But what a result, or should I say results.
What this book offers is a treasure of vividly sketched vignettes of nature and life, more emotionally arresting than they first seem. In the past few weeks since I got this book, I've carried it with me while traveling (it's almost pocket-size) as a kind of Zen handbook, each individual haiku offering a sip of meditative revelation. I enjoyed them immensely; more so than ordinary haiku which I always find get a bit boring after a few. But Kerouac's style of writing is so infused with energy and free-spiritism that it's hard not to feel affected by them. I just love how these haiku (or haikus as Jack liked to say) seem so casual and off-the-cuff, but as we see from some images of Kerouac's notebooks in the introduction, are actually a result of self-imposed strict editing.
I should also add that there is a great introduction to this book by an enthusiastic Kerouac scholar, which was very insightful and really added to the collection.
Yep it's safe to say that this collection makes me love Kerouac even more than ever.
Just some of my favourites include:
The sky is still empty,
the rose is still
on the typewriter
One flower
on the cliffside
nodding at the canyon
Quietly pouring coffee
in the afternoon
How pleasant!
Straining at the padlock
the garage doors
at noon
The other man, just as
lonesome as I am
In this empty universe
The tree looks
like a dog
barking at Heaven
But there are so many more! If you are a fan of Kerouac's prose then you have to try his poetry side. It's, as to be expected, pretty darn cool.
August 12, 2014
In the past few years, I have grown increasingly enamored with short poetry and the art of the haiku. Jack Kerouac's Book of Haikus is an enjoyable and inspirational read to which I will often return in days to come.
Gary Snyder actually brought haiku to the West Coast poets, having spent the early 50's traveling in Japan and practicing Zen Buddhism. Kerouac studied the works of Basho, Buson, Shiki and Issa - among others - and pioneered the American haiku movement. He also turned to Buddhist study and practice after his "on the road" period from 1953-1956, and I think his writing haiku complemented his spiritual practice.
This collection of poems, edited by Regina Weinreich, includes examples of Kerouac's entire range of haiku, to include "Book of Haikus" (which Kerouac supposedly organized for publication), "Dharma Pops" (haiku in action and as they appear in several of his books) and haiku from his notebooks from 1956 thru 1966. Following are only a few of my favorites:
From "Book of Haikus":
The tree looks
like a dog
Barking at heaven
Frozen
in the birdbath,
A leaf
November the seventh
The last
Faint cricket
In my medicine cabinet
the winter fly
Has died of old age
From "Dharma Pops"
In the sun
the butterfly wings
Like a church window
Swinging on delicate hinges
the Autumn leaf
Almost off the stem
Haiku, schmaiku, I can't
understand the intention
Of reality
Grass waves,
hens chuckle,
Nothing's happening
From the Notebooks:
Debris on the lake
--my soul
Is upset
Wednesday blah
blah, blah -
My mind hurts
September raindrops
from my roof -
Soon icicles
Gary Snyder actually brought haiku to the West Coast poets, having spent the early 50's traveling in Japan and practicing Zen Buddhism. Kerouac studied the works of Basho, Buson, Shiki and Issa - among others - and pioneered the American haiku movement. He also turned to Buddhist study and practice after his "on the road" period from 1953-1956, and I think his writing haiku complemented his spiritual practice.
This collection of poems, edited by Regina Weinreich, includes examples of Kerouac's entire range of haiku, to include "Book of Haikus" (which Kerouac supposedly organized for publication), "Dharma Pops" (haiku in action and as they appear in several of his books) and haiku from his notebooks from 1956 thru 1966. Following are only a few of my favorites:
From "Book of Haikus":
The tree looks
like a dog
Barking at heaven
Frozen
in the birdbath,
A leaf
November the seventh
The last
Faint cricket
In my medicine cabinet
the winter fly
Has died of old age
From "Dharma Pops"
In the sun
the butterfly wings
Like a church window
Swinging on delicate hinges
the Autumn leaf
Almost off the stem
Haiku, schmaiku, I can't
understand the intention
Of reality
Grass waves,
hens chuckle,
Nothing's happening
From the Notebooks:
Debris on the lake
--my soul
Is upset
Wednesday blah
blah, blah -
My mind hurts
September raindrops
from my roof -
Soon icicles
February 24, 2019
These “American Haikus” and “Pops” were a delight to read. The introduction, written by the book’s editor, Regina Weinreich, was short but very informative.
When I think of haiku I think of nature related subjects. Kerouac included nature elements but he wasn’t exclusive to flowers, trees, etc. I loved the unexpected way he would add modern twists to his take on haiku.
His haiku are very self reflective and seem to be rather intimate. He captures what he is seeing and feeling and thinking in just a cluster of words that bring sharp images to the readers mind. It is quite impressive. They read as very informal and sometimes funny observations of the world around him. Sometimes he’s on his porch, at his desk, in the city, on the road, or on a mountain. But he makes you feel as if you are right there with him.
At the end of this book I found myself wanting to read more Haiku which is something I never thought I’d hear myself say!!
When I think of haiku I think of nature related subjects. Kerouac included nature elements but he wasn’t exclusive to flowers, trees, etc. I loved the unexpected way he would add modern twists to his take on haiku.
His haiku are very self reflective and seem to be rather intimate. He captures what he is seeing and feeling and thinking in just a cluster of words that bring sharp images to the readers mind. It is quite impressive. They read as very informal and sometimes funny observations of the world around him. Sometimes he’s on his porch, at his desk, in the city, on the road, or on a mountain. But he makes you feel as if you are right there with him.
At the end of this book I found myself wanting to read more Haiku which is something I never thought I’d hear myself say!!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 161 reviews