Per Diem Archive: J. Barlow November 2012, One-Line Haiku
Even Less of a Good Thing... One-line Haiku
This selection features haiku published over a span of 35 years, from 1975 to 2009, almost the entire period over which one-line haiku have been written in English. Classics from the 1970s and early 1980s by Marlene Mountain, John Wills, Cor van den Heuvel, et al. have been interspersed with less well-known historical examples from the 1970s by poets such as Matsuo Allard, Elizabeth Searle Lamb, and George Swede, all of whom also made highly notable early contributions to the tradition of one-line haiku. This mix of the familiar and the less familiar continues through the late 1980s and 1990s, exemplifying a few of the multitudinous ways that content has been melded with form and paving the way for the many approaches of this century. From poems deeply rooted in the haiku tradition by vincent tripi, Carolyn Hall, and Allan Burns, through the poetic spells of Stuart Quine and Martin Lucas, to the gendai-influenced work of poets such as Chris Gordon and Scott Metz, the exquisite combinations of language, imagery, and form in this selection never fail to stimulate. And perhaps, if by chance a haiku is being encountered for the first time, surprise.
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