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Baseball Haiku: The Best Haiku Ever Written about the Game
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About Baseball Haiku: The Best Haiku Ever Written About
Product Description Presenting more than two hundred of the greatest haiku ever written about the game. There are moments in every baseball game that make fans catch their breath: the pause while a pitcher looks in for the sign, the moment a cocksure rookie gets picked off first, or the instant a batter lashes a game-winning homer into the night sky, just before the sell-out crowd explodes onto its feet. Haiku captures these moments like no other poetic form, and Baseball Haiku captures the sights, the sounds, the smells, and the emotions of the game like no previous collection. Some of the most important haiku poets of both America and Japan are featured in this anthology; including Jack Kerouac, a longtime baseball fan who pioneered English-language haiku; Alan Pizzarelli, one of the top American haiku and senryu poets of the last thirty years; and Masaoka Shiki, one of the four great pillars of Japanese haiku―a towering figure―who was instrumental in popularizing baseball in Japan during the 1890s. With over two hundred poems spanning more than a century of ball playing, Baseball Haiku reveals the intricate ways in which this enduring and indelible sport―which is played on a field, under an open sky―has always been linked to nature and the seasons. And just as a haiku happens in a timeless now, so too does Baseball Haiku evoke those unforgettable images that capture the actions and atmospheres of the national pastime: each poem resonates like the lonely sound of cleats echoing in the tunnel as a grizzled veteran leaves his final game. The largest collection of haiku and senryu on baseball ever assembled, Baseball Haiku is an extraordinary treasure for any true baseball fan. From Booklist Introduced to Japan in 1872, the quintessentially American game of baseball has inspired more than a century of poetry written on both sides of the Pacific in the quintessentially Japanese literary form of the haiku. An appropriately international partnership of editors-translators--one American, one Japanese--here bring readers a marvelous sampling of these haiku. Including work from 15 Japanese masters (including the acclaimed Masoaka Shiki) and 30 American poets (including the Beat genius Jack Kerouac), this anthology delivers unforgettable baseball experiences in striking imagery. Light rain raising puffs of dust from the infield, a drooping flag cueing a manager to shift his outfielders, a cricket serenading an outfielder in his lonely vigil--these and scores of other baseball moments live forever in the tight compression of these poems. The natural fit between baseball and haiku (and the closely related senryu) comes into historical and conceptual focus in an insightful introduction and afterword, where van den Heuvel ponders this cross-cultural intersection. A rare book, appealing to both die-hard fan and literary critic. Bryce Christensen Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved Review "Cor van den Heuvel is the most important anthologist of haiku composed in English in North America." ― Japan Times "Generous, irreplaceable…It’s an eye-opener and a who’s-who of haiku today." ― Providence Sunday Journal "If you are at all interested in haiku, you want to own this book. It is simply the best, most extensive collection of English language haiku in existence, and a joy to read." ― Modern Haiku "An exceptional selection of English-language haiku at its finest." ― Library Booknotes About the Author Nanae Tamura has been writing haiku for more than two decades, learning from Tsuda Kiyoko, a disciple of Yamaguchi Seishi and Hashimoto Takako. For the past twelve years she has been a columnist for the haiku magazine Shiki Shimppo ( The Shiki Newsletter) and she was part of the team of translators that created "If Someone Asks…Masaoka Shiki’s Life and Haiku. Born in Kyoto, she now lives in Matsuyama, Ehime. The editor of The Haiku Anthology, Cor van den Heuvel is an award-winning haiku poet living in
