Cover of Book of Haikus

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haiku manuscript from Kerouac's archives with a generous selection of the rest of his haikus, from both published and unpublished sources.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.

Audience
adult
Length
medium · 240 pages

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These suit anyone who liked Book of Haikus. Sign in and mark a few books for picks shaped around your own taste.

  1. Haiku Shares poetry, haiku, fiction
  2. No Nature: New and Selected Poems Shares poetry, beats, beat
  3. The Essential Haiku: Versions of Basho, Buson, and Issa Shares poetry, haiku, classics
  4. Haiku Handbook: How to Write, Share, and Teach Haiku Shares poetry, haiku, nonfiction

“People who read Book of Haikus tend to reach for these next.”

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“If you want more of the same, start with these.”

  1. Penguin's Poems for Life
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“If it was the poetry that hooked you, try one of these.”

  1. Mindfield: New and Selected Poems
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  3. Pictures of the Gone World
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“These start from a similar idea, even if they go somewhere else with it.”

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