Haiku by J. W. Hackett

J. W. Hackett wrote and published most of his haiku early 1960's through the 1970's. He was one of the first American haiku poets, and wrote in the time when haiku were usually written in a 5-7-5 format. Despite this limitation, , he wrote many beautiful and insightful haiku. He was very careful about his wording, and so the words that he chose to use fit into the entirety of the haiku very nicely.

In the back of his first volume of Haiku Poetry, Hackett discusses the best way, in his opinion, to write a haiku. Most of his suggestions are traditional and natural sounding. He suggests carrying a haiku journal around with you at all times, and recording anything in the natural world that you find beautiful. He suggests keeping your haiku honest and completely true.

Hackett also follows many rules when he writes his haiku. Unlike the standard haiku written by contemporary authors, Hackett almost always sticks to the 5-7-5 format of tradition, and writes almost strictly about nature. He says not to rhyme the ends of your haiku lines, not to use obscure imagery or references, and not to make your haiku too witty.

Despite his rather uptight-sounding outlook on haiku, Hackett turns out beautiful poetry. The many constraints he puts on his poetry actually help it, instead of hurting it as one might think. His haiku are always eloquently written, and his word choice is excellent. As he intends it, his haiku are always very clear and simple, while still being beautiful and unique. If shown an anonymous Hackett haiku, I could probably guess right off the bat who it was written by.

This first haiku I want to discuss is from the first of Hackett's four Haiku Poetry volumes. They were published in 1968 by Japan Publications Inc.

A tiny spider
has begun to confiscate
this cup's emptiness 

Hackett, HPV1, 33

I like this haiku because in it, Hackett describes the simple scenario of a spider building a web inside an empty cup as though it is some remarkable and beautiful act of nature. Hackett does this all the time, especially because he is a Zen poet. Though most of his poems are about nature, he finds nature in the simplest places. Here, he talks about a spider building a web inside an abandoned cup. His use of the phrase "confiscate the emptiness" makes building a web sound like conquering a country. Though I guess it may seem that way to the spider. This poem perfectly exemplifies the unique view of nature Hackett's poetry gives to readers. The next poem is from the same volume.

Snail may creep his way,
but see how he binds with silver
each moment he leaves behind

Hackett, HPV1, 3

This poem is another unique look at something common and unnoticeable in nature. Most people would look at the slime snails leave behind them as something gross. I think most people, even if they were writing about snails, would write about their speed or even the beauty of their shells. Instead Hackett chooses to write about the beauty of the slime that the snail leave behind. He writes about the pace of the snail and the slime it leaves behind as a beautiful symbol of good memories and enjoyment of the present. He also does this purely by describing the snail. He does not add anything extra; he merely describes the pace of the snail and its slime in a way that suggests going slow and leaving mush behind you everywhere you go is a beautiful thing.

The next haiku is from the second of Hackett's Haiku Poetry volumes. It was also published in 1968 by Japan Publications Inc.

Such a humble bloom
on the ivy, and yet see
how it draws the bees

Hackett, HPV2, 49

The idea of simplicity is another common theme in Hackett's poetry. This poem is beautiful because it shows beauty in being humble and simple, and because it talks of ivy, which blooms into rather ugly and small flowers. Nonetheless, bees do still visit these flowers. They are equally as beautiful as the other flowers in the eyes of the bees. As the bees are the only ones the flowers really need to impress, this is an important point. It shows that simplicity is beautiful to those who really matter.

The next two haiku are from The Haiku Anthology edited by Cor van den Heuval and published in 1999 by W. W. Norton and volume 2 of Haiku Poetry.

The chain saw stops;
deeper in the woods
a chickadee calls

Spiess, THA, 202

Gradually moving
the whole forest to Silence
an enchanted bird 

Hackett, HPV2, 9

These two poems complement each other nicely. These two show a beautiful difference between the forest with or without human influence. In the first poem, the chain saw must be stopped before the beauty of the forest can be appreciated. In the second poem, the beauty of the forest is appreciating itself. These poems show two sides of beautiful birdsong being appreciated in the same way. I personally like Hackett's haiku better because it shows something we humans don't usually get to see which is the secret interaction without human interference in a forest. This secret life of animals and nature is something that Hackett specializes in, and in this haiku as in all of them, he constructs a beautifully worded haiku to tell us about it.

This next haiku is also from The Haiku Anthology.

half of the minnows
   within this sunlit shallow
      are not really there

Hackett, THA, 61

This haiku reminds me of the stream behind my house. I like the way Hackett says the minnows aren't really there, because oftentimes it's very easy to imagine that there are more fish in the stream than there are. The phrase "sunlit shallow" is also very pretty, and is descriptive but brief like all good haiku should be. This haiku makes me think of how, when things are good, you can sometimes see them as being even better than they are, or can imagine things that aren't true, but it's not necessarily a bad thing. The fish that aren't there are not hurting anything, they are merely adding to the beauty of the scene, and that's okay. Hackett stays true to his formula of nicely written wording, and normally ignored parts of nature.

The next haiku is from the third volume of Hackett's Haiku Poetry.

Cherry blossom wind. . .
Playing among the petals,
A white butterfly.

Hackett, HPV3, 23

This haiku is an example of Hackett's tendency to notice things others would just ignore. Within a shower of cherry blossoms--something most people would be completely content to take at face value. Hackett sees and writes about a white butterfly. The butterfly doesn't quite fit in, but the way Hackett writes it, it almost seems as if the butterfly is pretending to be one of the cherry blossom petals. The fact that the butterfly is "playing among the petals" adds lightness and a childish glee to both the butterfly and the cherry blossoms themselves, making the petals seem to be not only a thing of adult beauty, but also a thing of the pure joy only children experience.

The following haiku is from Hackett's fourth volume in Haiku Poetry.

"Mike what tore your pants?"
"Susan don't eat sand!" –all
In a single breath

Hackett, HPV4, 42

This is one of the only haiku about people I have seen by Hackett. However, it still fits in quite nicely with the rest of his haiku. Hackett describes the other humans in much the same way he does animals and flowers. He uses the aggravated cries of the mother as a way to show a full scene to us of the rushing around parents do when they have small children they can barely keep an eye on. The way Hackett tells us she is saying all this in a single breath shows both that her children are mischievous, like the kittens he often writes about, and also that the mother is trying her best to keep them in line and is getting rather harried doing so. Hackett seems, unsurprisingly, to view other humans as just another part of nature. He writes about observations and describes whatever scenes he seems to find beautiful or important. It is interesting that he would chose this scene out of the many that are most likely in his day to show the nature of humans. Perhaps this stress is why he choses to write more about nature.

The next haiku is also from the fourth volume in Haiku Poetry.

Floating with fallen
Petals on a pool of sky:
A fledgling sparrow.

Hackett, HPV4, 13

The sadness in this haiku hits me every time I read it. It shows lost youth and potential in a beautiful and almost hopeful way. When you first read this haiku, you don't even realize what has happened to the bird. I personally was confused for a moment as to why it was swimming in the water, but when you think of how young the bird is, you realize that it is not floating of its own personal choice. Hackett does great justice to the death of this little creature. He describes it as floating "in a pool of sky" as if the bird, even though it never got old enough to fly, has reached the sky in its own way. The petals surrounding it in the pool also seem to be a little funeral tribute, whether it was paid by Hackett himself, or mother nature, it seems a nice way to send off a little bird who was taken too young. This haiku also resonates strongly within me because my family used to have a pond, and back when we did, we would find little animals drowned in it all the time. They were often baby rodents, such as raccoons or opossums, but the idea is still very much the same. At my house, the little animals used to fall from the tree hanging above the pond into the water and drown if we weren't there to fish them out, and I suspect a similar thing has happened to this little bird. It almost makes me with I'd gotten there to rescue it.

The following haiku is from Hackett's Haiku Poetry volume 3.

Grown tired of being
many men, I live now
As that soaring bird

Hackett, HPV3, 14

This haiku is again a rarity for Hackett because it deals with not only a human, but himself. It is a very personal haiku, he talks of the weariness he is beginning to feel in life, and how he wishes to be a part of the nature he so often observes. His choice of a bird, flying through the sky is a very beautiful and somehow characteristic choice. Hackett's desire to be part of the beauty of nature instead of the mundane and hectic world of humans seems to be portrayed in all of his haiku. This haiku seems to merely confirm what readers could already tell about Hackett. It reads like a summary of all the haiku Hackett has written. It reveals his views on the beauty of nature and the ways nature can lift you above the rest of the world, and can lift you away from the pressures of your life. It also alludes to the way haiku can take you away from everyday life, and can show you the beauty of everything around you.

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Works Cited

Hackett, James William. Haiku Poetry. Vol. 1. [Tokyo]: Japan Publications, 1969. Print.

Hackett, James William. Haiku Poetry. Vol. 2. [Tokyo]: Japan Publications, 1969. Print.

Hackett, James William. Haiku Poetry. Vol. 3. [Tokyo]: Japan Publications, 1969. Print.

Hackett, James William. Haiku Poetry. Vol. 4. [Tokyo]: Japan Publications, 1969. Print.

Van, Den Heuvel, Cor. The Haiku Anthology;. [New York]: W. W. Norton & Company, 1999, Print.