It has been a long time since I posted poetry here at Waccobb. My focus on poetry has shifted and these days I write, for the most part, haiku in the traditional three-line, 5-7-5, syllabic pattern. I find this satisfying, shaping words to an established form. And I enjoy reading the huge amount of formal haiku (by 'formal' I mean haiku written in the 5-7-5 pattern). There is such a wealth of excellent 5-7-5 haiku being written in English these days. So I thought I would use a thread here at Wacco to share some of my favorites. Here is one:
I would like a bell
Tolling in this soft twilight
Over willow trees.
Richard Wright -- Haiku: This Other World, 1998
Wright is my favorite English Language Haiku (ELH) poet. Wright (1908 - 1960) came to haiku only in the last 18 months of his life, while he was living in self-imposed exile in France. According to Wright's daughter, he was introduced to haiku by a friend who gave him R. H. Blyth's translations and commentaries from the Japanese. After that Wright carried around a notebook wherein he spontaneously wrote his haiku as they came to him. Wright selected 817 out of 4,000 for publication. Though a few were published in Black magazines, the publication as a whole was delayed for 38 years. I think it is the finest collection of ELH yet to be published. Wright seamlessly merges the syllabic and seasonal tradition of the Japanese original with the techniques and patterns of English language poetry. His haiku flow so naturally that when you read them it feels that haiku is a long-standing English language poetic form. I like to say to people that if you read one book of English Language Haiku, read the haiku of Richard Wright.