Joe Kramp Zen Aesthetics in the Haiku of Brooks & Kerouac

BORN AGAIN by Joe Kramp "Beauty is truth and truth is beauty. That is all ye need to know on earth, and that is all ye need to know." —Keats, Ode on a grecian Urn I call my collection born again for several reasons. My entire life has been a process of being born again and again and again and I think this is the most prominent realization the reader will get from my haiku. Moments of breaking through tension of light and darkness glow of street lights shattered as I step in the puddle contrasted with moments of utter contentedness and joy. Dad's snow angel stronger wings than mine

These moments of contentedness and joy also have tension in them. In the previous poem the strength and size of the father is in contrast with the son. What comes of this tension? Beauty and joy. Life for all intellectuals moves from moments of being content with something to realizing some sort of tension and breaking through that to find contentedness. In my case, my contentedness has become tension. In the tension I am content and this is reflected in my haiku. This constant tension provides a basis for revolutions metaphysically—both in an internal and external sense. These revolutions are why I title my collection born again. —Joe Kramp