What is American Haiku?

Twenty years ago, I was an undergrad English major at a local state college. While there, I, like many of my peers, were introduced to more "contemporary" American writers such as Jack Kerouac. I recall reading during those years about Jack's definition of "haiku" and how our (American) haiku is actually different than the traditional Japanese sense of the poetic form.

This morning, while noodling through potential haiku topics ranging from Tabasco Chipotle sauce to my cat, I did a random search on "Jack Kerouac Haiku" and came across this clarification straight form the ard's mouth (or pen or typewriter):

"The American Haiku is not exactly the Japanese Haiku. The Japanese Haiku is strictly disciplined to seventeen syllables but since the language structure is different I don't think American
Haikus (short three-line poems intended to be completely packed with Void of Whole) should worry about syllables because American speech is something again...bursting to pop.

Above all, a Haiku must be very simple and free of all poetic trickery and make a little picture and yet be as airy and graceful as a Vivaldi Pastorella."

In my favorite Kerouac novel, The Dharma Bums, he suggests through his characters that "a real haiku's got to be as simple as porridge and yet make you see the real thing." Ultimately, Kerouac termed his developing idea of the form "American haiku pop," a three-line poem of Buddhist connotation, like a small meditation that may or may not rhyme, leading to enlightenment. Pop is onomatopoeia—a quick, abrupt noise that snaps you to attention.

There is an explosive quality attached to the word pop; in reading Kerouac's pop, this explosiveness should thrust you to satori. Some of his pop in Some of the Dharma reflect the a connection to nature. The left pop brings a sense of awe and discovery to the reader; the right pop reflects aware as the season is changing. (NOTE: Much of this paragraph's content was excerpted from Pop! The Jack Kerouac Haiku Page.)

Over the next few days I'll do my best to craft an "American haiku" a day, and we'll see how it goes!

Stay Poetic!