The Little Book of Haiku

by Sam Hamill

Genres: Poetry, Japan

Hardcover

Published January 1, 1995

About the author

Poet, editor, translator, and essayist, Sam Hamill is author of more than thirty books including two from BOA Editions, Gratitude (1998), and Dumb Luck(2002). He has been the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships, including ones from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation, the Woodrow Wilson Foundation, the U.S.-Japan Friendship Commission, two Washington Governor’s Arts Awards, the Stanley Lindberg Lifetime Achievement Award for Editing, and the Washington Poets Association Lifetime Achievement Award for poetry. He co-founded Copper Canyon Press, and has worked extensively in prisons and with battered women and children.

Reviews

[Joseph Sawanowich · Rating 4 out of 5]

I rescued this little gem from a box destined for a thrift store. There are over 200 poems from the 17th - 20th centuries by the foremost Japanese masters. Well worth one's time to imbibe this little gem.

[Lauri · Rating 2 out of 5]

My favorite stanza from the book:

Seen in plain daylight
the firefly's nothing but
an insect

[Jillian · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am in no way a haiku expert, but I found this book - the introduction, the illustrations, and many of the poems themselves, at least in translation - merely middling. I was at least amused by the range of subject matter; alongside the high-minded meditations on nature were observations on peeing, shitting, and mooning (With no underrobes, / bare butt suddenly exposed / a gust of spring wind). Of the more traditional offerings, a number of them truly captured the stark beauty of the form, but just as many fell short and felt either too mundane or too forced.

A few I enjoyed:

Exhausted, I sought
a country inn, but found
wisteria in bloom

With plum blossom scent,
this sudden sun emerges
along a mountain trail

This dark autumn
old age settles down on me
like heavy clouds or birds

A weathered skeleton
in windy fields of memory,
piercing like a knife

With dewdrops dripping,
I wish I somehow I could wash
this perishing world

Lonely silence
a single cicada's cry
sinking into stone

Sick on my journey,
only my dreams will wander
these desolate moors

- Basho

A long hard journey,
rain beating down the clover
like a wanderer's feet

That handsaw marks time
with the sound of poverty
late on a winter night

- Buson

In the midst of this world
we stroll along the roof of hell
gawking at flowers

- Issa

On the old plum tree,
one blossom by one blossom,
the spring thaw is born

- Ransetsu

Only the moon
And I, on our meeting-bridge
along, growing cold

- Kikusha-ni

The thunderstorm breaks up,
one tree lit by setting sun,
a cicada cry

- Shiki

[Anessa Roberts · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Little Book of Haiku by Sam Hamill, is all about haikus and takes you into the deeper meaning and feelings of a haiku. There are no mentioned characters, but in your mind you can create your own character and their emotions using the haikus. At first, it tells you about where a haiku came from and how to make one. It then has lots and lots of haikus. My favorite haiku was, "Sweet springtime showers and no words can express how sad it all is". I like this book, because you get to decide what the haiku means. This book also has some disadvantages too. It is very hard to follow, and it skips around and sometimes doesn't make sense. I would recommend this book to anyone that likes poetry and is very good at interpreting a poem into their own meaning.

[Adrian Rios · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading this book felt like halcyon.

[Christine · Rating 5 out of 5]

wonderful!