Not-so-pretty haiku
May 03rd, 2021
“Lots of people think of cherry blossoms when they think of haiku,” says Isabella Mori in a recent post from Joy Kogawa House.
“I do, too, of course — but so much so that I’ve lost my taste for pretty cherry blossom haiku. The idea, then, is to post haiku that are a little rougher, darker.
Here is a sampling of her recent “not-so-pretty haiku.”
pink rain …
reading about
Nagasaki
st. mary’s church
under the cherry tree
a buried kitten
this year
drunk on cherry blossoms
not gin
Cherry trees shedding their blossoms.
Follow Isabella Mori on twitter @moritherapy and stay tuned for events
like Haiku from Tashme Internment Camp,
a multi-site reading of haiku written by Japanese Canadians interned at Tashme,
the largest internment camp in British Columbia during the Second World War.
With Julie Tamiko Manning, co-author of The Tashme Project: The Living Archives,
Jacqueline Pearce, author of Haiku in Tashme: The Legacy of Sukeo “Sam” Sameshima,
and Isabella Mori, with Laura Saimoto of Vancouver Japanese Language School and
members of the Tonari Gumi Haiku Club.
These events will be presented on location at multiple historic sites,
including Tashme Museum, Vancouver Japanese Language School, Tonari Gumi, and
Historic Joy Kogawa House (coming in September 2021).
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Isabella Mori has published two books of poetry, A bagful of haiku — 87 imperfections,
and Isabella Mori’s Teatable Book. She
won the Cecilia Lamont prize for poetry in 2018. Mori also writes short
stories, novels and non-fiction, and was a translation contributor (from
English to German) in Reading Canada, a
profile of Canada’s diverse literature commissioned for the 2017 Frankfurt Book
Fair. Mori has a Masters in Education and works in the mental health/addiction
field. She lives in Vancouver.
BOOKS
A bagful of haiku — 87 imperfections (Self-published, 2017) $16.99
978-0995902107
Isabella Mori’s Tea table book: a book of poetry, 1980-2006 (Self-published,
2006) 978-0978170509
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