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The Genesis of Jack Keruoac’s Haiku
Jack Kerouac is primarily known for writing novels, but he also is a well known haiku writer, celebrated in the haiku community for his revolutionary ideas in haiku writing. He created a new genre of haiku, calling it ‘Pops’. Instead of following the 17 syllable Japanese format, he thought that a haiku should simply capture a moment in three lines. This idea was adopted throughout the western world. Kerouac believed in painting a descriptive picture with his haiku, one that was simple and uncomplicated with mixed imagery. Kerouac’s style is very clearly shown in one of his simple haiku.
New neighbors
—light
In the old house
Jack Kerouac, Book of Haikus 145
This haiku is no more than a simple sight. It could be that out of his window; he simply saw this light on and scribbled into his notebook the observation. The haiku is simple in nature and does not try to create a complex feeling or emotional attachment. The haiku is open to interpretation by the reader, so that there is a co-creation process between writer and reader. Because the haiku is simple, it opens itself up to a lot of interpretation, and allows the reader to connect easier with the uncomplicated image. This haiku holds the idea of change and promise in just seven words. There are new people residing in an old house, change in something that is comfortable. A neighbor has a strong feeling of comfort and familiarity associated with it, as does the image of an old house. Light is bright and sometimes harsh, but it changes and fills its surrounding, creating something new and exciting. With only a few simple words, this haiku has filled in an entire history and situation for the people in the haiku. Light is used prominently in another of my favorite haiku by Kerouac.
Yellow halfmoon cradled
among the horizontal boards
Of my fence
Jack Kerouac Book of Haikus 174
This haiku creates a beautiful vivid picture with light. The yellow light paints the fence in a shade of yellow. The yellow light is comforting, and shines down on the worn fence. The moon can be seen through the fence, so the fence is old, worn and probably well loved. This haiku just paints a beautiful image of a fence and all that you can get from a family farm, and the beauty of a well worn home. There is also some great patterns in this haiku of the crescent moon and the horizontal lines. The best part of this is that someone is lying next to the fence, looking at it sideways. Kerouac takes a dull and overused image and turns it literally on its side. It’s a very interesting view of the world. Also, the one word “cradles” holds some amount of tenderness and love within it, like a mother cradling her child. Although there is no emotion actually put in, the clear word choice and the associations of those words help to add the missing emotional drive.
Kerouac scribbled his observation of the world into a notebook that he kept tucked in his pocket. Because of the spontaneous nature of his writing style, his haiku often come across as unplanned realizations of the surrounding world. These realizations come off as surprised, because Kerouac observes the world from fresh eyes like a child does.
For a moment
the moon
Wore goggles
Jack Kerouac, Book Of Haikus 40
To observe the moon as anything but the moon is something that is forgotten once we leave childhood. The man in the moon all but disappears from memory, but Kerouac’s open view on the world looked at the moon and instead of revering it as most haiku poets, he saw it wearing goggles, something that is comical. The moon generally is written about during the harvest moon, as a kigo reference or to set a mood, whether it be romantic or creepy, or simply relaxing. Kerouac did not try to impose any of these high concepts on the inanimate object, but instead made it into something it is not. The moon wearing goggles is a clear personification of the moon, comparing it to a person wearing goggles. The shadows become whimsical instead of being foreboding or hiding something. Personification is an often used tactic in Kerouac’s writing.
One flower
on the cliffside
Nodding at the canyon
Jack Kerouac, Book of Haikus 167
This haiku has very similar personification of an inanimate action. Instead of the moon, this haiku personified the flowers. The flowers become humans, nodding down at the beauty of the canyon. Instead of using a human aspect, as many haiku authors try to incorporate, Kerouac uses nature images, and personifies them, making it both human and detached from human nature. In direct contrast to that is one of his very human haiku.
Missing a kick
at the icebox door
It closes anyways.
Jack Kerouac, The Haiku Anthology 97
This haiku was one of the first haiku that made Kerouac stand out to me. He has a very simple way of putting things that happen daily into something that is much bigger than that. He does not impose his opinions directly, but subtly through the easy wording and great imagery, he creates a world or morals and emotions and feelings with nothing but straightforward images. This is literally a haiku about someone attempting to kick close a door. They miss, but the door closes anyways. On the surface it is straightforward and simple, and does not impose anything onto the reader. It is open for the reader to interpret it in any way that they want, and the powerful image holds an emotionally charged situation. In anger, someone is kicking closed a door. They miss, which makes them even angrier, but it closes anyways, giving them a little piece of mind. Even in the tensest situations, there are those small moments of relief and subtle clarity, like the door closing on its own. It is a great image, and a great idea, captured very subtly. Another haiku which captures Jack Kerouac’s subtlety deals again with personification of inanimate objects.
Two cars passing
on the freeway
—Husband and wife
Jack Kerouac, Books of Haikus 161
This haiku could be taken either one of two ways. Either in the cars is a husband and wife, and by chance they both pass on the freeway or it is something more complex. Because of Kerouac’s tendency to personify and shy away from direct haiku about humans, I am inclined to believe that he meant it as a metaphor. Like the metaphor “two ships passing in the night”, the husband and wife are like two cars passing on a freeway. It is a new and current spin on the old saying. Two cars in the highway clearly see each other, unlike two ships passing in the night. They can even feel like they have a connection, and you can clearly, for a second, make out the outside of a car. What you cannot do, however, is see the driver, especially when you are driving fast at night with the headlights on. This haiku seems to equate a husband and a wife to two cars, unable to see the other passenger, but to see the shell, and be satisfied with that.
This haiku brings up another interesting facet of Kerouac’s writing. His not-so-positive outlook on life. He was a supporter of the beat generation and his work sometimes took an angry turn as he turned to alcohol during his work. These two haiku capture his anger that he brought out in the haiku format.
Empty baseball field
—A robin,
Hops along the bench
Jack Kerouac, Book of Haikus 27
This haiku directly relates to another haiku, dealing with the same ideas of emptiness.
The rain has filled
the birdbath
Again, almost
Jack Kerouac, Book of Haikus 29
Both of these haiku address the idea of not being fulfilled, and not quite being what you need to be. Like usually, Kerouac does not use humans or emotions, but instead captures his feelings in concrete images from nature which he observed and scribbled down. His spontaneous moments capture best what he felt, and that is why so much of Kerouac’s views and emotions creep into the simple imagery. The ballpark in the first haiku and the birdbath in the second both represent similar things. Both use a physical object to show complete dejection and emptiness (the ballpark), or to show that no matter how full, or how hard someone or something tries, it will never quiet be exactly right (the birdbath).
These two haiku both use bird imagery, which is interesting because one is using the bird presently as a figure of loneliness, while the other has the birds absent in a place they clearly belong. Both haiku have a lackluster feel, as if they were written to make you leave feeling slightly undersatisfied. There is a birdbath that is kind of full, almost. The haiku is written like there is still something hanging in the air. The last word is left to linger in the readers mind, and there is no definite strong ending to help solidify the haiku. The bird in the ballpark is hopping, but it is not going anywhere, or trying to leave, or come. It is the only sense of color in what I image to be the dull grey stands, probably in the light rain, soaking wet and unappealing.
Kerouac was a master at taking colors, surrounding, and feelings and pouring them in to a single still-frame captured in the three line haiku format. He chose each word carefully, and yet they always feel haphazard, as if it is a child seeing the world for the first time and just scrawling down exactly what they see. It is simple, unforced, and yet it holds a powerful punch, capturing a world of feeling emotion, and the life of Kerouac. Like Peggy Lyles, who poured out her life obviously in her haiku, including herself intimately, Kerouac does this in a much more subtle way. If a reader is persistant enough, and reads enough, the whole image of Kerouac’s life, views, hardships and happiness shines straight through the snapshot haiku he creates.
Red trees—
the dogs tear at
an old itch.
Jack Kerouac, Book of Haikus 135
Whether it be the alcohol and the addiction to it that drove him to “tear at the itch” or just the desire to let everyone see what he saw, Kerouac relentlessly wrote haiku, revealing a style and a simplicity that is all his own, and cannot be replicated.
Works Cited
Kerouac, Jack, and Regina Weinreich. Book of Haikus. New York: Penguin Poets, 2003. Print.
Van, Den Heuvel, Cor. The Haiku Anthology. New York: W.W. Norton and, 1999. Print
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