Applause for a Cloud

by Sayumi Kamakura

Sayumi Kamakura’s Applause for a Cloud uses the haiku form to attend to everyday life with a cosmological acuteness, invoking wonder on macro and micro scales.


Sayumi Kamakura juxtaposes a surreal dailiness with a cosmological acuteness, invoking wonder on macro and micro scales. The paradoxical frictions in her work resolve into moments of lucidity just as often as they perplex. Although she writes in the haiku tradition, her poems detour from the conventional parameters for haiku, such as syllabic restrictions and a fixed seasonal reference. Her flexible approach to the long-standing form allows her to explore new emotional frequencies across a range of subject matter. The book’s four sections—everyday life in Japan, experiences in Morocco and Italy, her husband’s cancer diagnosis, and reflections on the pandemic—reveal the preoccupations of a poet invested in rendering her experiences with a mix of traditional and contemporary motifs alongside a subtle wit. The natural world is always close at hand, yet Kamakura does not merely depict phenomena. She creates moments of stillness that usher the reader into her inner world.

Genres: Poetry

304 pages, Paperback

Published April 1, 2025

Reviews

[Luke Juusola · Rating 5 out of 5]

5/5 It is likely I come back to this for quiet poetry time.

[Jason Ly · Rating 5 out of 5]

These haiku have a great wit to them while also feeling very natural and sometimes humorous. The haiku subject matter is usually nature/seasons. A few of them though are hit and miss to me, some also reference japanese culture (for which there is some context info given in the back of the book). It can be easy to get overwhelmed by the large number of haiku in this collection with 3 per page (Japanese on the left side and English translation on the right), I advise to move through this collection at a slower pace and take breaks as many of these haiku have a depth to them that can be quickly overlooked.

[Kathleen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this entire a book of haiku in one sitting, and it was so good, like eating a king-sized bag of M&Ms all by myself.

Not sure in this mist--
a tyrannosaurus
or my husband (17)

On a green summer night,
a horse of glass
neighs in the distance (39)

A skylark sings--
is the sky
salty or sweet? (45)

Summer's over
mutters a goblin
in the tree crotch (51)

Sparrows chatting
"Did you see
the Mona Lisa?" (99)

Coo coo--
the dove Noah released
at the window (147)

Born as a star
whom do you look up to?
Such loneliness (185)

[Kristen Brida · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved these haikus.
nature and the domestic collide to create a cosmological intimacy. Don’t let the sparseness fool you—I’m in awe of Kamakura’s economy of language.

Thank you Black Ocean for the review copy.