Milkweed by Alexis Rotella: A Master Class

All seven daily haiku from Haiku Andy 04.22.24 - 04.28.24

May 04, 2024

Full disclosure: My fanship (fandom? fanism?) of Alexis Rotella's work extends back many years. I first came upon her work in The Haiku Anthology (Third Edition), where it jumped off the page. In brief, she greatly expanded for me what haiku could do, where it could go.

In the years since, seeing her work pop up in haiku journals is always a special joy. It is never less than surprising.

So I was overjoyed when Brooks Books published Milkweed: Selected Haiku & Senryu. How rare to find a collection without a single poem that is common or ordinary. Each page is a delight, but the best part for me is something I hadn't picked up from reading her poems in journals: her incredible range.

Sometimes she is classical in the most Japanese sense:

Two leaves
touch in the pond
then separate

In my book, this is up there with the best of Bashō or Buson.

Sometimes she highlights poignant moments in complex human entanglements:

After an affair
sweeping
all the rooms

Here she provides the reader with a blank screen onto which one may project our own satisfaction, guilt, or sexual imagination.

Sometimes I can't tell if she is adding poignancy to humor or humor to poignancy:

Morning coffee
she reads his
horoscope first

I am not usually a fan of punning in haiku or senryu (which eliminates a lot of senryu, in general, for me), but I couldn't resist chuckling at:

The nun
picks her nose
old habit

Right?

Anyway, I can't recommend this collection enough, especially if you are new to haiku and want to see what haiku can do, what haiku from a real master looks, tastes, and feels like.

Here are last week's haiku postcards, and where they were mailed to...

haiku 20240422 (San Francisco, CA USA)

earth day

pine needles underfoot

dry and slippery

haiku 20240423 (Menai Bridge, Anglesey UK)

wind rustling

my neighbors' aspens

full spring again

haiku 20240424 (Los Angeles, CA USA)

I have no choice

but to stop and look

dogwood blossoms

haiku 20240425 (Addison, TX USA)

a light rain

darkens the patio

I build a small fire

haiku 20240426 (Keighley, West Yorkshire UK)

donation bin

letting go of the coat

I used to be

haiku 20240427 (Allentown, PA USA)

still mostly bright

I miss them already

dogwood blossoms

haiku 20240428 (Alameda, CA USA)

a cloud of bees working

a cloud of blossoms

wild apple trees

That’s all seven! See you next week! And remember…

I STILL want to send you a card

It’s kinda weird you read my Substack but haven’t requested a card yet. I don’t get it. Please ask! It’s free. I ask nothing in return, aside from your good graces or maybe a cup of coffee if you’re so inclined.

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I also post reels of each week’s haiku postcards on Instagram. The “live” photos feature reveals my sloppy attempts to angle in on the best shot. Check it out!

Recommended reading

I heartily recommend all the books below. I get no commission, zip zero nada, if you buy through my links. (Amazon Associates gave me the boot because I didn’t move enough merch. Oh well.)

Haiku: An Anthology of Japanese Poems, Stephen Addiss/Fumiko Y. Yamamoto/Akira Y. Yamamoto

With the exception of The Haiku Anthology (see below), this was the first haiku anthology I bought when I first started sending out haiku cards. I stumbled across this small, beautiful book, while making my requisite writer’s pilgrimage to Shakespeare’s Books in Paris (ooh la la). The richness and scope between the covers in this little book is simply amazing, featuring over 102 poets, many more if you include anonymous authors. It’s my go-to when packing for a trip. Buy it here.

The Haiku Anthology (Third Edition), Edited by Cor van den Heuvel

Want to know what modern English-language haiku really looks like? What it is capable of? Here is your answer, and a must for every haiku poet’s bookshelf. When I first started writing haiku, this volume served me very well. Many of the haiku within have remained with me throughout the years, and I have been privileged to now count some of the contributors as colleagues and friends. Buy it here.

Three Simple Lines: A Writer’s Pilgrimage into the Heart and Homeland of Haiku, Natalie Goldberg

Many writers will immediately recognize Goldberg from her forever bestselling Writing Down the Bones. As it happens, she has been writing haiku for her entire adult life, and has much to teach us. In Three Simple Lines, she intertwines memoir, history, and travelogue in a magnificent way as she journeys through Japan, chasing down the ghosts of Bashō and Buson, among others. She also draws much needed attention to women haiku poets, who were too often overshadowed by their male contemporaries. Buy it here.

Mountain Tasting - Haiku and Journals of Santoka … (tr. John Stevens)

I found Santoka challenging at first. Much of his haiku feels incomplete to me or dashed off. But he grew on me. Soon I felt like a companion on his journey, bouncing from inn to inn, begging for alms by day, pounding sake by night. Buy it here.

The Essential Haiku - Versions of Bashō, Buson, & Issa

Essential is right! Edited by Robert Hass, a great poet in his own right. Hass includes great essays on the history and evolution, as well as other writings by the poets themselves. A true master class in haiku! Buy it here.

Narrow Road to the Interior and Other Writings, Matsuo Bashō (tr. Sam Hamill)

Haiku poets have a tradition of wandering the countryside, and Bashō set the example! Buy it here.

Selected Poems, Masaoka Shiki (tr. Burton Watson)

I wrote a whole post about Shiki. Haiku might not exist today without his influence and renewal of the form. Buy it here.

Issa's Best: A Translator's Selection of Master Haiku, Issa Kobayashi (tr. David G. Lanoue)

Issa is probably the most beloved of the classic poets. His humility and joy in the face of unbearable loss and poverty endear him to haiku lovers everywhere. Lanoue seems to have made translating Issa his life’s mission, and I love his versions. Buy it here.