Advanced Studies in Poetry: Global Haiku Tradition
EN 340/IN350 PACE
Dr. Randy Brooks
Millikin University
MAC 014a
rbrooks@mail.millikin.edu

PACE Global Haiku Tradition
Schedule & Assignments

Jan 5 • Jan 12 • Jan 19 • Jan 26 • Feb 2

Informal Assignments & Participation 20%
Contemporary Author Form Study 10%
Contemporary Author Significance Study 20%
Rengay 10%
Haiku Collection 20%
Haiku Collection Preface (poetics) 05%
Haiku Project or Ginko 10%
Haiku submission ready in SASE 05%

All writing assignments are to be submitted by email attachment.
Please save your files as RTF "Rich Text Format" documents
and include your initials or name with each file sent.

Send them to: rbrooks@mail.millikin.edu


General Weekly Course Structure & Procedures

1. Sharing and discussing favorite haiku from the reading assignments
    (emailed responses due midnight the day before the class).

2. Collaborative haiku writing (various linked verse haikai traditions).

3. Critical reading discussion on history of haiku and haiku poetics.

4. Haiku editing workshop. (emailed attempts due midnight day before class after first week)

5. Kukai selection of favorites by each other.


Required Books Week One

To Hear the Rain by Peggy Lyles, 2002 Brooks Books; ISBN: 192982003

Almost Unseen by George Swede, 2000 Brooks Books; ISBN: 0913719994

Mayfly magazine (from Brooks Books)

Required Books Week Two

The Haiku Anthology by Cor Van Den Heuvel. Paperback edition (2000) W.W. Norton & Company; ISBN: 0393321185

To Hear the Rain by Peggy Lyles, 2002 Brooks Books; ISBN: 1929820038

Almost Unseen by George Swede, 2000 Brooks Books; ISBN: 0913719994

Required Books Week Three

Matsuo Basho by Makoto Ueda. Paperback Reprint edition (May 1983) Kodansha International; ISBN: 0870115537

Shirane, Haruo. Traces of Dreams: Landscape, Cultural Memory, and the Poetry of Bashô. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1998.

Required Books Week Four

The Wordless Poem by Eric Amann. (handout copy)

Love Haiku: A Lifetime of Love by Masajo Suzuki (translated by Lee Gurga & Emiko Miyashita), 2000 Brooks Books; ISBN: 0929820003

Required Books Week Five

Shirane, Haruo. Traces of Dreams: Landscape, Cultural Memory, and the Poetry of Bashô. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1998.


Week One

1. Sharing and discussing haiku from Mayfly & Lyles' To Hear the Rain.

2. Collaborative haiku writing (tan-renga).

3. Introduction to the history of haiku and haiku poetics.

4. Haiku writing and editing workshop.

5. Matching contest selection of favorites by previous students.

assignments for week two:

in class reading: Lyles' To Hear the Rain and Swede's Almost Unseen

in class response writing: select favorite haiku from each poet and briefly write your imagined, felt response to 2 favorites by Lyles and 2 favorites by Swede. Be ready to discuss why you like them.

in class haiku writing (with Dr. Brooks' help): go into more depth describing a memory from your own life (one page) and write 1-2 haiku which captures some moment from within that memory

haiku writing for next week: write 6 additional haiku based on memories rising up in your mind from reading haiku

reading for next week: Lyles & Swede books and The Haiku Anthology

response writing for next week: find 5 favorite English haiku including 3 from the Haiku Anthology at least 1 from Peggy Lyles and 1 from George Swede and write a short imagined response paragraph to each of them


Week Two

1. Sharing and discussing favorite haiku from The Haiku Anthology, Lyles' To Hear the Rain, and Swede's Almost Unseen. (emailed responses due midnight the day before the class).

2. Collaborative haiku writing (tan-renga & introduction to rengay).

3. Critical reading discussion on history of haiku and haiku poetics (especially form issues).

poetics statement: characteristics of best, most effective haiku

"things found" in the best, most effective haiku. Characteristics the students in that group like, with acouple of haiku for examples.

4. Haiku editing workshop from attempts. (emailed attempts due midnight day before class)

5. Kukai selection of favorites by each other.

assignments for week three:

writing: write an essay about one aspect of form in haiku (space, line breaks, the pause, one-liners, visual haiku, minimalism) with response to at least 5 examples) due week four (due week three)

reading for next week:Matsuo Bashô (chapters 1-3) and Traces of Dreams: Landscape, Cultural Memory, and the Poetry of Bashô (chapters 1-4)

response writing for next week: select 6 favorite haiku from the Basho reading and write your imagined, felt response to 3.

response writing for next week: write a short paragraph response about 1 favorite haiku from kukai 1.

haiku writing for next week:write 5-10 seasonal based haiku (deliberately include nature or an image that places us in a seasonal context). Send them to your haiku buddy for edit suggestions.


Week Three

1. Sharing and discussing favorite haiku from Matsuo Bashô
    (emailed responses due midnight the day before the class).

2. Critical reading discussion on history of haiku and haiku poetics from Traces of Dreams.

3. Discuss form in haiku essays.

4. Collaborative haiku writing (haikai no renga).

ninjô verses—people or emotion verses (self, other or both) (I, you, us, he or she, they perspectives)

ninjô -nashi—non-peeople or place verses

We will write a 36 link kasen renga (mixing ninjô and ninjô-nashi verses with no more than three links being ninjô and ninjô-nashi verses in a row):

(1) hokku—sets tone, greets all, establishes season, quiets guests to join in
(2) wakiku—builds on unstated elements of the hokku and maintains season. ends in a noun
(3) daisanku—ends with open-ended image (often transitive verb ING)
(5) usually moon shows up here for the first time
(6) concludes the first page (jo) often written by the official scribe
(7)-(29) heats up the links and leaping (intensification)
(13) moon appears again
(17) blossoms usually show up here
(29) moon’s third and final appearance
(30)-(36) kyû—the slow down finale (quiets back down into calmness)
(35) cherry blossoms always here
(36) end with openness and reverberation

5. Kukai selection of favorites by each other.

assignments for week four:

reading: Matsuo Bashô (chapters 4-5 and Traces of Dreams: Landscape, Cultural Memory, and the Poetry of Bashô (chapter 5) and Love Haiku: A Lifetime of Love

response writing for next week: select 3 favorite haiku by Masajo and write your imagined, felt response to at one by each. Try setting one matched pair of haiku between Lyles and Masajo using Bashô’s critical commentary approach.

response writing: write short response paragraphs to one of your favorite haiku from Kukai 2

rengay writing for next week: write 2 rengay (one with family or friends) and (one with email partners from class) follow the principle of no more than three links being ninjô or ninjô-nashi verses in a row.

haiku writing for next week: 3-5 attempts using imagination from different perspectives and 3-5 from direct experience or memories


Week Four

1. Sharing and discussing favorite haiku from Love Haiku
    (emailed responses due midnight the day before the class).

2. Haiku editing workshop from attempts. (emailed attempts due midnight day before class)

3. Critical reading discussion on history of haiku and zen haiku poetics from The Wordless Poem.

4. Kukai 3 selection of favorites by each other and Matching Contest Kukai.

assignments for week five:

reading: reading and response on your author for your essay (seeking point of significance to emphasize in your essay

reading: The Wordless Poem (handout)

response writing for next week: select 2 pairs of matched haiku by your author and someone else and write a comparison of each

response writing for next week: write short response paragraphs to a pair of favorite haiku from the class matching contest kukai

haiku writing for next week: Ginko—a haiku walk by a group of friends in which everyone just enjoys the walk together, stopping to notice things and to write haiku from shared experience. write at least 10 on-the-spot Ginko walk haiku by you and your friends. (It can take the form of rengay or you may substitute rengay or kasen-no-renga writing if you'd like.)


Week Five

1. Sharing and discussing favorite haiku from Global Haiku Anthology
    (emailed responses due midnight the day before the class).

2. Critical reading discussion on zen in haiku from Eric Amann's Wordless Poem.

3. Haiku editing workshop from attempts. (emailed attempts due midnight day before class)

4. Kukai selection of favorites by each other and from the Ginko sequences.

5. Sharing final collections and essays.

assignments due:

haiku author study: an essay on a particular contemporary author, discussing their approach to writing haiku, including response-discussion of 6-8 examples.

haiku collection: your best haiku and renga from the course, collected with a preface about your understanding or approach to writing haiku.

haiku submission ready: five of your best haiku in an envelope including SASE

signature haiku gift exchange: your favorite or best haiku you've written made into a bookmark or some small gift for exchange (bring 7)


Contemporary Haiku Author Study (essay & web profile)

o focus on a point of insight or question about that author’s unique contribution
o include response discussions of 5-10 haiku by the author
o may include interview questions & poetics from author's prose work

Assignment guidelines and dates

for week three—form in haiku short essay (3 pages)

for week five —Contemporary author study (and web profile) due for class presentations.

for week five—haiku projects due for class presentations

for week five—haiku collection, haiku poetics preface & submission ready haiku with SASE