Review: Illuminating and literate
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 07 8, 2011
I have been a fan of Jane Hirshfield's poetry for many years and was thrilled to find this essay. The essay is written in a scholarly, but not dry by any many means, way that explains in detail what Haiku really is and gives a lot of insight into its intentions so that reading it gains dimension. Haiku is more that just 3 simple lines of 5 syllable-7 syllable-5 syllable poem. This type of poem revolves around using imagery to convey or evoke emotion--but Hirshfield reminds us that reaction to a Haiku poem is a very individual thing. For the Haiku poet, anything and everything is food for thought and writing about. Find this hard to believe? You'll find it even harder to believe that there were more than 1,900 Haiku poems online called "Spamku" when Hirshfield wrote this. I loved learning about Basho and more in-depth knowledge of his contribution to Haiku.This essay has me longing to go pull down my Hirshfield poetry books and open a bottle of wine and read for several hours. I think that's what I'll do. I will, however, spare the world any additional spam Haiku efforts. Overall, great literary look at Haiku and one of its masters by a wonderful poet.