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Modern Haiku – Winter-Spring 2005

Volume 36 Number 1

Winter-Spring 2005

Lincoln Michel

Modern Haiku is everything its name would suggest: a magazine devoted to traditional Japanese poetic forms, but with a modern approach. Modern Haiku is everything its name would suggest: a magazine devoted to traditional Japanese poetic forms, but with a modern approach. If you still think the haiku is simply a three-line poem with a 5-7-5-syllable count, then this magazine probably isn’t for you. Or rather, this is exactly the magazine you need to broaden your understanding of this ancient but vital form. My favorite segment of this issue and also a great example of the experimentation Modern Haiku publishes, is the translation of the haiku of Kamiyama Himeyo. Kamiyama plays around with form and content to create shocking yet engaging haiku: “Forest of stillborns / someday / a red / small universe.” This issue includes an interesting discussion of Mexican poets, such as Octavio Paz, who worked with the haiku form as well as a boat load of haiku and senryu. If you have any interest in contemporary haiku or haiku studies, there really is no other place to turn than Modern Haiku. [www.modernhaiku.org/]

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