Find Similar Books - The First Hay(Na)Ku Anthology by Jean Vengua

The First Hay(Na)Ku Anthology

by Jean Vengua

Summary

It began when Eileen R. Tabios in 2000 read Richard Brautigan's novel, The Hawkline Monster, and was inspired by one of its characters: "Cameron was a counter. He vomited nineteen times to San Francisco. He liked to count everything." From that moment on, Tabios began a Counting Journal in which she kept track of anything she could count as her days unfolded. The journal would come to reference, in 2001, the Selected Letters of Jack Kerouac where Kerouac is quoted as saying, "I think American haikus should never have more than 3 words in a line." Tabios recalled both moments on her first poetic blog, WINEPOETICS, as background to her decision to invent a "Pinoy Haiku" form that would come to be known as the "hay(na)ku." This new poetic form's name is a pun off of the Filipino exclamation "Hay naku!" which is used in a variety of situations in the same way the English "Oh!" is interjected. Inaugurated on June 12, 2003, the hay(na)ku is deceptively simple with its form of a tercet comprised of one-, two-, and three-word lines. The form swiftly became popular and since has been used by poets from all over the world.