Modern Haiku – Summer 2004

Knock-knock.

Knock-knock.
Who’s there?
Hike.
Hike who?
No, tanka.*

Chances are, if you read this and though, “Huh?” you’re not quite ready for Modern Haiku: An Independent Study of Haiku and Haiku Studies, but don’t despair. This publication is for those who know better than to whittle Haiku down to syllabic line counts, as well as for those who aspire to know better. To that end, my favorite piece in this issue was “Disjunction in Contemporary English-language Haiku” in which Richard Gilbert explores haiku compositional style in the context of historical standards (the use of shasei), the incorporation of disjunction in poetic styles other than haiku, and the definition of and application of juxtaposition: “Disjunction, as intended, serves to indicate a poetic process happening in the reader’s consciousness – disjunction is motile: it has no fixed point of realization. Disjunctions appear and fall away, alternately reveal and hide themselves, depending upon the moment of reading.” This is the kind of stuff haiku/poetic folk ooh and aah over, while others simply tsk and roll their eyes. Also of note among the essays here, Hiroaki Sato’s “Women in Japanese Haiku” from which I now feel I have been properly and gratefully schooled on the subject. Not only accessible essays, this journal is also completely packed to the gills with poetry and more – haiku and senryu, haibun, haiku awards, submissions and reviews. For the novice to the expert, Modern Haiku is truly the breadth and the depth of the poetic subject. Highly recommended for teachers of college poetry! [Modern Haiku, PO Box 68, Lincoln, IL 62656. E-mail: [email protected]. Single issue $8. http://www.family-net.net/~brooksbooks/modernhaiku/] 

*Knock Knock joke courtesy of C. Hill who was up too late when he came up with this one.