Item of Interest: Hokku versus Haiku
Ironic. I just talked to my second level composition class today about the Haiku-Hokku connection and as well the Richard Wright poems.
In the below passage David Coomler takes issue with Wright's Western concepts in the Eastern verse:
In my previous posting I skimmed over the topic of Richard Wright and his attempts at writing what he called “haiku.” Here I shall add just a bit to what was already said.
In my view Wright’s “haiku” are useful in demonstrating clearly how Western writers misperceived and misunderstood the hokku from their very first exposure, seeing it through the distorting lens of their Western preconceptions about poetry and poets. Consequently his “haiku,” represented by the volume Haiku: This Other World (Arcade Publishing, 1998) demonstrate how the Japanese hokku, written for centuries, became the “haiku” through its rather confused introduction to the West.
In the below passage David Coomler takes issue with Wright's Western concepts in the Eastern verse:
In my previous posting I skimmed over the topic of Richard Wright and his attempts at writing what he called “haiku.” Here I shall add just a bit to what was already said.
In my view Wright’s “haiku” are useful in demonstrating clearly how Western writers misperceived and misunderstood the hokku from their very first exposure, seeing it through the distorting lens of their Western preconceptions about poetry and poets. Consequently his “haiku,” represented by the volume Haiku: This Other World (Arcade Publishing, 1998) demonstrate how the Japanese hokku, written for centuries, became the “haiku” through its rather confused introduction to the West.
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