Book of the Week: High Kukus

James Broughton offered this oddity in 1968 (The Jargon Society), at just the time when The Haiku Society of America was being formed. The disparity of understanding between the Haiku Community and Popular Culture is apparent in these poems, which read more like Tom Swifties, and rely on a kind of stereotype of “out there” culture for their effect. A useful historical placemarker.

You can read the entire book in the THF Digital Library.

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Haiku featured in the Book of the Week Archive are selected by Jim Kacian, following a concept first explored by Tom Clausen, and are used with permission.

I like where I'm sitting,
said the Toad,
What else is a toadstool for?

You may have had some hard knocks,
said the Pebble,
but I've been kicked around all my life.

Once in a while,
said the Whale,
one has to come up for air.

When you take a load off your mind,
said the Hat to the Head,
where do you put it?

When I gave up trying to understand,
said the Camel's Eye to the Needle,
then I began to get the point.