for ku by

lakes & now wolves is my attempt at creating a self-selected, “live”/interactive collection of my ku: a collection as it’s being collected, piece by piece.

I choose the term ku, instead of haiku (or senryu or zappai or monostich), for a few reasons. The first reason is because I don’t want to impose too much on how one should read or interpret these poems. I’d like to leave it up to the reader and how it affects them as an individual as much as possible. Secondly, “ku” is a common term used in Japan “to signify individual haiku poems” (Fly-ku!, robin d. gill) and are also “used a lot in Chinese and Japanese Chan/Zen practice” (Gary Snyder). So the term is already quite prevalent in Eastern poetics and philosophy.

The haiku poetry tradition began as hokku/haikai (the opening verse for a linked poem), and, from the 17th to the late 19th century was “fundamentally imaginary” (“Beyond the Haiku Moment”, Haruo Shirane) and grounded in an intricate fusion of Shintōism, Daoism, Buddhism/Zen, Chinese literature, Japanese folklore and mythology, not to mention Japanese culture (through kigo/season words), and language and sounds (alliteration). Then, at the end of the 19th century, it was transformed into a separate poem all its own, unlinked to other poems: haiku. Instead of an emphasis on the imaginary and disjunctive shifts, realism and shasei (“sketching from life”/copying) were emphasized. However, influenced by changes in culture, society, economics, art, and literature—globalization—many different schools and strands of haiku developed during the 20th century—not as islands, but in connection to one another, like an ever-growing web, out of one another, challenging and influencing each other along the way. Starting with a foundation centered more on realism and experience, 20th century haiku immediately expanded into areas such as politics, subjectivity, the avant-garde, feminism, urbanism, surrealism, the imaginary, symbolism, individuality, and science fiction: in general, free-form and experimental aesthetics (The Haiku Universe for the 21st Century). The rigid limitations and conservatism of traditional techniques (namely 5-7-5 on/syllabets and the necessity of a kigo) were no longer absolutes for Japanese poets.

It seems important to also point out that Japanese haiku poems have always been traditionally written, for the most part, with a few exciting exceptions now and then—even throughout all of these transformations and mutations—in one line, and are essentially one-line poems.

As haiku has become more universal and global, and less confined to one culture and language (Japan/ese), the definitions of haiku, senryu and zappai have expanded and opened to more directions and possibilities, oftentimes blurring into one another. Because of this natural progression, and these blurring of lines (and edges played upon), I feel that for English-language haiku in the 21st century the word “ku” makes the most sense. It’s simple, open, and free, and avoids narrow rules, definitions and classifications, yet fully acknowledges where it came out of, while attempting to retain the essence, taste and aura of what the poetry is—very much like what Kaneko Tōta has stated modern haiku composition should be: “to practice the modern in the grandeur of the old.”

My goal is to present what I feel are my best ku in such a way that they connect to one another somehow, thus creating a kind of ongoing linked verse with myself. With each ku that’s added, the picture will hopefully both shift and enlarge.

I’ve tried to select a format and blog template that is simple so that the poems have room to breathe. The Blogroll and reading Resources can always be found at the very bottom of the site, below the latest ku. If at any point you would like to see the poems in the order they’ve appeared, simply click on [the sequence] at the top of the page. The only text that I will be adding to the posts will be where the poems were first published. The posts are live though, and I warmly welcome comments and questions relating to them at any time.