Haiku: A Poet's Guide [Paperback]

Lee Gurga (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

This is an important book. -- Cor van den Heuvel, Editor, The Haiku Anthology

Wow! Breath of the Buddha! -- Lawrence Ferlinghetti, City Lights Bookstore

About the Author

Lee Gurga was born and raised in Chicago, and currently lives in Lincoln, Illinois with wife Jan, sons Ben, A.J., and Alex, dog Fay, and five haflinger horses. He first became interested in haiku in 1966, but he did not start publishing until 1987. He was soon receiving awards for his haiku, and High/Coo Press published his first collection, a mouse pours out, in 1988. In 1992 he was co-editor of Midwest Haiku Anthology (with Randy Brooks). Gurga has received first place in a number of haiku competitions. In 1998 he was honored with an Illinois Arts Council Poetry Fellowship for his work in haiku. He is currently associate editor of Modern Haiku, the longest-running journal of haiku and haiku studies in English.

An active member of the Haiku Society of America, he served as Vice-president in 1991 and again in 1995-96, and served as President in 1997. As a leader of HSA he was instrumental in organizing an International Haiku Conference in Chicago in 1995, and in 1997 he led a delegation of prominent English language haiku poets and editors to the second Joint Conference in Tokyo.

He is currently editor of Modern Haiku, the longest-running journal of haiku and haiku studies in English . He is also poetry editor for Illinois Times and haiku columnist for Solares Hill newspaper (Key West, Florida).

Product Details

• Paperback: 170 pages
• Publisher: Modern Haiku Press (May 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0097189405
• ISBN-13: 978-0974189406
• ASIN: 0974189405
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #563,158 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

63 of 64 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Excellent and Enriching Book!, August 3, 2006

By 

Grumple Dumple - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Haiku: A Poet's Guide (Paperback)

You might like to know the contents of this book:

Forward v

An invitation to Haiku vii
A Note On The Text ix
Acknowledgements x

Contents xii

Haiku -- The Poetry of the Seasons 1
Haiku's seasonal Awareness 3
Japanese Haiku 4
The Development of American Haiku 9

The Art of Haiku 13
Form 14
Season 24
Haiku Moment, Context, and Order of Perception 33
Juxtaposition and Working with Images 38
Senses in Haiku 45
Suggestion and Reverberation 51
Significance and Effect 53

Not Exactly Haiku: Senryu and Zappai 55
Haiku with a Snap: Nature and Human Nature 55
Haiku with a Zap: Wit and Syllable Counting 57

The Craft of Haiku 59
Language 60
Haiku on the Page 67
Other Techniques of Japanese Haiku 77
Haiku Grammar 79
Poetic Devices 84
Objectivity, Subjectivity, and Subjective Realism 92
The Secret to Writing Haiku 104
Getting in the Mood 104

Writing and Revising Haiku 106
Beginners' Haiku 106
A Haiku Typology 108
Why Edit? 112
Guidelines for Editing 112
Publishing Haiku 116

Haiku Arts: Renku, Haibun, and Haiga 119
Linked Verse Forms 119
Haibun 121
Haiga 122

From Basho to Barthes 125
The Aesthetics of Classical Haiku 125
Shiki: Three Stages in the Development of the Haiku Poet 133
Barthes: Finding the Pleats in the Silk of Life 138

From Nature Sketch to Wordless Poem 140
Haiku's Universal Appeal 140
A Look Ahead 143

Works Cited 146

Resources 147

Books 147
Print Journals 152
Online Journals 154
Other Online Resources 154
Haiku Organizations 155

Credits 156

Index 163

***

This is a very informative book about haiku -- what it is and what it is not.

The author's writing is unambiguous and insightful.

He places examples of failed haiku beside successful ones to illustrate the difficulties and subtleties of technique.

***

I was very pleased to find a point addressed that I had always wondered about concerning whether it is better to use the present-tense or participle form for verbs in haiku -- or whether it matters at all.

A haiku almost always will present a moment in the present. That means that the verbs used are likely to be in the form of either the simple present-tense (e.g. runs, paints, fishes, etc.) or participle (e.g. running, painting, fishing, etc).

Well, apparently there is no set rule about which to use, but here is an example of what the use of the participle will allow:

One of my own (not necessarily good) haiku used as an example:

a garden pond
drawing the moon out
from behind a cloud

The use of drawing allows that it can be read as any of these: "a garden pond [is] drawing" or "...[was] drawing," or even "...[will be] drawing."
Using the participial form provides the haiku with a versatility or flexibility with regard to the dimension of time.

Here's what it would be using the simple present tense form:

a garden pond
draws the moon out
from behind a cloud

The versatility that the participle provided is gone, but it also may be true that this version rings more pleasurably to the ear.

Well, anyway he speaks about that in his book and I just appreciated that he addressed that point; no other haiku book that I have ever read had ever done so.

(By the way, if you are interested in reading about this particular point for yourself it is to be found starting on page 79 in the "Haiku Grammar" section.)

***
In conclusion:

The author thoroughly fills you in about haiku's origins, evolution and its future.

There are many examples of successful haiku from many of today's practicing haiku poets included with valuable analysis for each.

This is a very worthwhile book for becoming acquainted with the haiku verse form and I could find no fault with it.

I heartily recommend it to you.

56 of 58 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not Just Beginners . . ., August 2, 2004

By 

William J. Higginson "wordfield" (Summit, NJ United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Haiku: A Poet's Guide (Paperback)

. . . but anyone serious about writing haiku in English (or any language, if they read English) will find *Haiku: A Poet's Guide* invaluable. Unlike other books on haiku which make your head spin with lists and rules for beginners, this one helps beginners get off the ground and soon reach the point where they can evaluate their own work. Coming as it does from the editor of the premiere English-language haiku magazine and a fine poet (get his *Fresh Scent*, while you're at it), this book goes into more depth, yields more insight, than anything else available in the field so far. This is the one to keep on your desk or in your backpack.

42 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not One Word Wasted, February 19, 2005

By 

Hortensia Anderson "Hortensia Anderson" (nyc, ny, usa) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Haiku: A Poet's Guide (Paperback)

An excellent book for the advanced writer of haiku as well as the beginner. You will find yourself referring to it over and over and re-reading it for the sheer pleasure of it. The only error is in the title - I have recommended this wonderful book to many non-poet friends and discovered to my delight that they enjoyed it as much as I. Truly, a treat!