The Masculine Urge of Jack Kerouac's Haiku

Abstract

During 1950s, dissatisfied with state of both American culture literature, Beat writers sought cure for Western ills Japanese philosophy (Zen Buddhism particular) poetry (haiku particular). Among prominent Beats to produce haiku are Gary Snyder, Allen Ginsberg, Philip Whalen, Cid Corman. However, perhaps most interesting Beat haikuist is Jack Kerouac, far better known for his sprawling, often manic novels. While 2003 publication of Book of Haikus sparked renewed interest fivehundred-plus haiku Kerouac wrote, critics initially dismissed these three-line poems. Ann Charters Gerald Nicosia, major biographers, generally mention haiku passing, as something Kerouac did between his more important works. James T. Jones observes that, after 1955 publication of Mexico City Blues, Kerouac's verse lost intensity effectiveness, and he concentrated more on haiku his declining years (12). Alison Kirby Record argues that Kerouac occasionally achieved genuine haiku effects his early experiments form, but the majority of these efforts ... are flawed because they rely too heavily on too-thin understanding of Zen Buddhism and, consequently, fail to replicate Japanese models (87). The aesthetic merits of these poems are, of course, debatable. What is more certain is that they function effectively as expressions of Kerouac's dissatisfaction: with consumerism, prevailing literary practices, his own masculinity.Understandably, critics have focused on relationship between Kerouac's much-discussed discovery of Zen early 1954 his haiku, which he probably began writing at about this time continued writing up to his death. Charters, foremost Kerouac scholar, notes that writer composed haiku on typescript of Some of Dharma, an unpublished treatise on Buddhism written between March 1954 late Spring/early Summer 1955 (204; 210-11; 214). In various letters written 1956, Kerouac either mentioned or included haiku. He also wrote number of haiku while serving as fire-lookout on Desolation Peak summer of 1956 (Charters 262), he published three Berkeley Bussei that same year. We know that he retained his interest form 1959, as he wrote some haiku for Frank O'Hara (Charters 306-07) collaborated with Albert Saijo Lew Welch on haiku sequence Trip Trap (Nicosia 606). As late as 1962, Kerouac planned to collaborate with his friend Matsumi Kanemitsu on book about cats; Kerouac was to write haiku Kanemitsu was to illustrate (Nicosia 643).Those critics who examine Zen elements of Kerouac's haiku-specifically Sarah Haynes Yoshinobu Hakutani-tend to draw on poet's familiarity with Reginald H. Blyth's four-volume Haiku. From Blyth, Kerouac would have learned that haiku had evolved over time to its current form as three-line, seventeen-syllable poem arranged five, seven, five ji-on (syllable sounds). Blyth also emphasizes (or overemphasizes, according to some scholars) Zen underpinnings of haiku, including need for haiku poet to attain state of mind in which we are not separated from other things, are indeed identical with them, yet retain our own individuality (I, iii). Other Zen concepts manifested haiku include mu, a state of nothingness that is absolutely free of any human-centered thought or emotion; sahi, quiet beauty or lonely grace; wahi, an aesthetic appreciation of beauty stemming from poverty; yugen, mystery inexplicability, which surround order of universe (Hakutani, Richard Wright 276-77; 280; 290), satori, moment of enlightenment. Yet another important element of haiku is mention of specific season, often implied through employment of kigo, so-called season word.The problem with positing Kerouac's haiku within Zen framework is tendency to read them for what is not there. …