Because haiku traditionally tended to shun strong passion and romantic love, to explore those areas was to go counter to established tradition, yet some women poets consciously or subconsciously did so, thereby helping to expand the world of haiku.
-- Makoto Ueda, "Preface," Far Beyond the Field: Haiku by Japanese Women, p. ix
[Love Haiku: Japanese Poems of Yearning, Passion, and Remembrance] is a collection for people who love the simplicity of haiku and love that poetic feeling of love.
-- San Francisco Book Review
My Dear Readers:
Book Description: Haiku is celebrated as a concise form of poetry able to convey a singular moment with great clarity. While haiku most often depicts the natural world, when focused on the elements of love and sensuality, haiku can be a powerful vehicle for evoking the universal experience of love. In this elegant anthology, love is explored through beautiful images that evoke a range of feelings -- from the longing of a lover to the passion of a romantic relationship... these poems share not only the haiku poets’ vision for love, but their vision of the poignant moments that express it.
Traditionally and thematically speaking, the verse form of haiku and the theme of (exploring the many faces of ) love have been kept apart for several hundred years. Most haiku poets have thought that it might be better to leave the theme of love to tanka poets to explore. I remember the first time I workshopped the following haiku about love,
this spring night
her hair is tangled
thoughts of him
The comments I got can be categorized into either one or the other of the following two types:
1) It feels like a tanka theme to me.
2) It may work better in a tanka where there is more room to explore the theme of love, longing, passion,... etc.
In his thematic study of the history of Japanese haiku, Makoto Ueda emphasizes that:
... the finest work done by a female haiku poet exemplifies her era just as well as that of a male poet, even though her status in her time’s haiku circles may not have been very high. Compared with haiku written by men, the world of women’s haiku is just as rich and colorful, and slightly more lyrical and erotic. Because haiku traditionally tended to shun strong passion and romantic love, to explore those areas was to go counter to established tradition, yet some women poets consciously or subconsciously did so, thereby helping to expand the world of haiku.... ("Preface," Far Beyond the Field: Haiku by Japanese Women, p. ix)
I agree with Japanese scholar Makoto Ueda completely, and I am happy to see haiku and love come together in this elegant anthology, Love Haiku: Japanese Poems of Yearning, Passion, and Remembrance, a collection of romantic haiku by diverse Japanese poets. The anthology is mainly divided into three sections (with an introduction) that represent three distinct components of love (yearning, passion, and remembrance) and the editors place one haiku per page giving each one room to breathe and resonate.
Selected Haiku:
only one person
is noted in the hotel book --
the cold night.
Issa Kobayashi
dusky autumn --
for someone yet to come
a single chair
Akito Arima
the one I curse
is the one I love --
red cotton roses
Kanajo Hasegawa
Half of the mountain
dyed by red maples:
a one-sided love.
Chiyo-ni
autumn night --
the sound of two white plates
touching.
Yoshiko Yohino
nights of rain --
lonely, I fall asleep
holding my breasts
Yoshiko Yoshino
in the waves
no trace, where I swam
with a woman
Seisha Yumaguchi
perfume --
that night, that time
that place
Hanjo Takehara
Note: Below are my award-winning haiku about love, longing, and passion .... for your reading pleasure:
first glimpse
of her mastectomy bra
winter rose
Runner-Up, 2015 Fifth Vladimir Devidé Haiku Award
the shape
of her absence
new moon
Honorable Mention, 18th Annual Mainichi Haiku Contest (2014)
the hills aglow
with spring sunlight
her scent lingers
Commendation, 2014 Kloštar Ivanić International Haiku Competition
the cold moon...
I want to touch her
into words
Italian Translation
luna invernale...
cercando di toccarla
con le parole
French Translation by Eric Schulthess
Lune d'hiver
Je cherche à la toucher
Avec des mots
Selected Haiku, 2013 International Matsuo Basho Award Contest
long way home ...
windshield wipers clear
the silence between us
Japanese Translation by 万里小路
ワイパーが
沈黙払う
長い帰路
Distinguished Work Prize, 5th Yamadera Basho Memorial Museum Haiku Contest
bullfrog chorus...
I practice saying
I love you
Third Prize, 2011 Senryu Contest
I love you...
that hazy moon
in Rashomon
Honorable Mention, 14th Mainichi Haiku Contest (2010)
cherry petals
falling on cherry petals ...
I dust her photo
Sakura Award, 2010 Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival Haiku Invitational
her face
in my whisky
the moon floats
Croatian translation by Marinko Spanovic
njeno lice
u mom viskiju
plovi mjesec
Grand Prix, 2010 Klostar Ivanic Haiku Contest
