The Pocket Haiku by Sam Hamill

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The Pocket Haiku by Sam Hamill

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The Pocket Haiku by Sam Hamill

Quintessential classical Japanese haiku--selected and translated by one of America's premier poet-translators--now available in a pocket edition.

In this collection of haiku, translator Sam Hamill has compiled the best from the tradition, spanning the sixteenth through nineteenth centuries, with particular focus on the three great masters: Bashō, Buson, and Issa. Based on images from nature, the poems address the themes of joy, temporality, beauty, wonder, loneliness, and loss.

Haiku may be the most popular and widely recognizable poetic form in the world. In just three lines a great haiku presents a crystalline moment of image, emotion, and awareness. Elements of compassion, silence, and a sense of temporality often combine to reveal a quality of mystery. Just as often, haiku may bring a startling insight into the ordinary, or a flash of humor. Collected here are over two hundred of the best haiku of Japanese literature--written by the great masters of the genre.

The featured poets are Bashō, Buson, Issa, Moritake, Sōin, Sanpū, Kikaku, Ransetsu, Kyorai, Raizan, Kakei, Onitsura, Taigi, Chiyo, Sogetsuni, Sogi, Fuhaku, Teiga, Kikusha-ni, Tayo-jo, Sōchō, Shōha, and Shiki.

This is a pocket-size reissue of The Sound of Water (Shambhala, 1995).
Hamill, Sam: - Sam Hamill is the author of more than a dozen collections of poetry, including Destination Zero: Poems 1970- 1995 (1995), DUMB LUCK (2002), Almost Paradise: New and Selected Poems and Translations (2005), and Measured by Stone (2007). Influenced by Ezra Pound, William Carlos Williams, Kenneth Rexroth, Denise Levertov, and Hayden Carruth, Hamill presents a model of honest, consistent, undisguised political engagement: he articulates not only a vision of peace with justice, not only his relish for work to achieve that vision, but his sense of the role that poetry can play, as Publishers Weekly noted in its review of Measured by Stone. Hamill has also published several collections of essays and numerous translations. With Bill O'Daly and Tree Swenson, he co-founded the all-poetry Copper Canyon Press in Denver, Colorado. Copper Canyon later joined with the nonprofit arts organization Centrum in Port Townsend, Washington. Hamill was editor-printer for the press from 1972 until 2004.
SKU Unavailable
ISBN 13 9781611807004
ISBN 10 161180700X
Title The Pocket Haiku
Author Sam Hamill
Series Shambhala Pocket Library
Condition Unavailable
Binding Type Paperback
Publisher Shambhala Publications Inc
Year published 2019-10-29
Number of pages 144
Cover note Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
Note Unavailable