!! I publish this new episode of Sparkling Stars already, because I haven't enough time next weekend to write and publish new posts !!
Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,
It's my pleasure to publish an all new episode of our "Sparkling Stars" feature. In this episode I love to take you on a "trip" along haiku written by Jack Kerouac.
Let me first give you all a brief biography of his life:
Famed
writer Jack Kerouac was born Jean-Louis Lebris de Kerouac on March 12, 1922, in
Lowell, Massachusetts. A thriving mill town in the mid-19th century, Lowell had
become, by the time of Jack Kerouac's birth, a down-and-out burg where
unemployment and heavy drinking prevailed. Kerouac's parents, Leo and
Gabrielle, were immigrants from Quebec, Canada; Kerouac learned to speak French
at home before he learned English at school. Leo Kerouac owned his own print
shop, Spotlight Print, in downtown Lowell, and Gabrielle Kerouac, known to her
children as Memere, was a homemaker. Kerouac later described the family's home
life: "My father comes home from his printing shop and undoes his tie and
removes [his] 1920s vest, and sits himself down at hamburger and boiled
potatoes and bread and butter, and with the kiddies and the good wife."
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| Jack Kerouac (1922-1969) |
Living in
New York in the late 1940s, Kerouac wrote his first novel, Town and City, a
highly autobiographical tale about the intersection of small town family values
and the excitement of city life. The novel was published in 1950 with the help
of Ginsberg's Columbia professors, and although the well-reviewed book earned
Kerouac a modicum of recognition, it did not make him famous.
Kerouac's
most famous later novels include Book of Dreams (1961), Big Sur (1962), Visions
of Gerard (1963) and Vanity of Duluoz (1968). Kerouac also wrote poetry in his
later years, composing mostly long-form free verse as well as his own version of
the Japanese haiku form. Additionally, Kerouac released several albums of
spoken word poetry during his lifetime.
Despite
maintaining a prolific pace of publishing and writing, Kerouac was never able
to cope with the fame he achieved after On the Road, and his life soon devolved
into a blur of drunkenness and drug addiction. He died from an
abdominal hemorrhage three years later, on October 21, 1969, at the age of 47,
in St. Petersburg, Florida.
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| Credits: Jack Kerouac's Grave |
Here are a series of haiku written by Jack Kerouac:
In my medicine cabinet,
the winter fly
has died of old age.
November - how nasal
the drunken
Conductor's call
The summer chair
rocking by itself
In the blizzard
Those
birds sittingIn my medicine cabinet,
the winter fly
has died of old age.
November - how nasal
the drunken
Conductor's call
The summer chair
rocking by itself
In the blizzard
out there on the fence -
They're all going to die
© Jack Kerouac
All wonderful haiku by Jack Kerouac, last May (2014) we had Jack Kerouac as our featured haiku-poet for the CD-Specials, you can find those episodes by clicking on the beneath given links:
http://chevrefeuillescarpediem.blogspot.nl/2014/05/carpe-diem-special-94-jack-kerouacs-5th.html
http://chevrefeuillescarpediem.blogspot.nl/2014/05/carpe-diem-special-93-jack-kerouacs-4th.html
http://chevrefeuillescarpediem.blogspot.nl/2014/05/carpe-diem-special-92-jack-kerouacs-3rd.html
http://chevrefeuillescarpediem.blogspot.nl/2014/05/carpe-diem-special-91-jack-kerouacs-2nd.html
http://chevrefeuillescarpediem.blogspot.nl/2014/05/carpe-diem-special-90-jack-kerouac-worm.html
And of course I have to share an all new haiku here inspired on the haiku above and from the posts. Not easy, but I have to try ...
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| Waterfall of Flowers |
drunken sailors bend over
to vomit
it's a strange sight
like a waterfall they fall
drunken sailors
Ah! that sight
a waterfall of flowers
when vomiting
© Chèvrefeuille
Well .... I hope you all did like this new episode of our "Sparkling Stars" feature and that it will inspire you to write/compose an all new haiku (or more than one).
This episode of "Sparkling Stars" is open for your submissions Saturday October 25th at noon (CET) and will remain open until Saturday November 1st at noon (CET). For now ... have fun, be inspired and share your haiku with us all here at our Haiku Kai.
Hooray! Great to see Kerouac again! Though it breaks my heart to think of how On the Road both made him and broke him. Too bad his haiku didn't achieve more recognition.
ReplyDeleteFinally bit the bullet and bought Kerouac's "Book of Haikus" which you mentioned somewhere along the line -- I must really recommend it to everyone here! Some of his haiku are "meh" but there are a lot of moments of brilliance.
the leaves, fighting
the empty sky --
no clouds helping
worm is looking
at the moon,
waiting for me
I hate the ecstasy
of that rose,
that hairy rose
me, my pipe,
my folded legs -
far from Buddha
blizzard's just started
all that bread scattered,
and just one bird
Plus, the haiku are compiled chronologically and you can see a real improvement, a real progression in his work -- something we haiku "grasshoppers" can appreciate.
Poor Ti Jean - always such sad eyes.
I do think he would have written about those poor drunken sailors.
Thanks for revisiting Kerouac -- :)
Thanks for this one. It will be fun doing haiku in the style of Kerouac.
ReplyDeleteThere is a soft place in my poetic heart for Kerouac's "haikus" even though he's not considered a master and a lot of the haiku literati sort of grudgingly acknowledge his western style contribution to the art. His haiku is fun and often lighthearted. I particularly like his poetry recital with accompanied jazz riffs. I believe it's available on youtube channels. Anyway, cool post.
ReplyDeleteAh.. the way his haiku brings in the grittiness.. is just awesome. Somehow it provide a break for cherry blossoms and moons.. Though in reality I prefer Ginsberg's approach with the American Sentences.. Maybe it's because I think Ginsberg is a better poet :-) Nevertheless I think it's a fresh approach.. Would be interesting to start an anthology of city kigo,,,
ReplyDeleteHow about: cobblestone, asphalt, concrete, gutter, subway, congestion, taxi, umbrella, alley, sewer, cigarette, stripper ... hmm.. just an idea.