Customer Reviews

Hokku: Writing Traditional Haiku in English : The Gift to Be Simple

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The previous "reviewer" seems to have missed everything about this book. It is NOT about haiku--a modern form created by Shiki and further altered by post-Shiki poets-- but Hokku--the verse form used prior to Shiki (by Basho, Buson, Issa and others) which Mr. Coomler is very clear in pointing out. Hokku has two important things modern haiku has not 1. very definite structural and content standards and formats and 2. deep roots in tradition, but more importantly in the ineffable truth it points at (thus the Zen influence). The book explains the format of an hokku --
very simply and clearly -- so writers can quickly MOVE PAST FORM (no need to wonder if one does this or does that--punctuate, capitalize etc.) and into the content--the essence of hokku.
Do not be deceived by the simplicity of the book. Writing hokku is like playing chess--once one learns the rules anyone can play--but to play well takes a lifetime. To write hokku well is to explore the reality of a life in time, this living moment expressed by the natural through you the writer. What could be more interesting? Come with an "empty cup" and Mr. Coomler will, if you allow him, start you on this journey. I highly recommend the book.

The previous two reviewers are indeed speaking of two completely different types of poetry. Traditional hokku is nothing less than the "starting verse" for a renga poem. The grassroots hokku required specific elements and rules to be considered a hokku. If it was not written to be followed by renga, then it isn't hokku... plain and simple. Hokku written without renga, even though it may contain every other element of the starting verse, is called "kanto hokku."

Haiku, as coined by Shiki, is a generic term given to ANY verse of haikai... hokku included, but not limited to.

I never do negative reviews but this book is so bad, I feel I must caution people who might be trying to learn to write haiku, against it;if you follow this instructions in this book, not only are you unlikely to write good haiku but it will set you back years and probably render anything you write unpublishable.

Coomler's ideas are at least thirty years out of date. He uses only Japanese translations of haiku in his examples. This is fine and dandy but English haiku and Japanese haiku are different animals. Translations are at best an approximation of the poem and writing haiku is a fairly exacting science so translations aren't going to be good models to learn from. Most ridiculously he recommends punctuating haiku heavily. A total or nearly total absence of punctuation is the norm and has been for a couple of decades. The stuff about Zen was a myth to start out with and has been vigorously disproved. The only thing he really gets right is a the open nature of haiku. For further detail and criticism, please read the following review:

[...]

I wish I had listened to it and not wasted my money.

If you really want to learn to write haiku, try Writing and Enjoying Haiku: A Hands-on Guide by Jane Reichhold or Haiku: A Poet's Guide by Lee Gurga. These are really sound books and the later will suit more advanced student particularly well. I also recommend reading Haiku Moment: An Anthology of Contemporary North American Haiku by Bruce Ross and/or The Haiku Anthology by Cor van den Heuvel.