Nicholas A. Virgilio’s Realistic Haiku
by Chase Smith
After reading a few books and doing a little research about Nick Virgilio, I quickly learned that most of his inspiration and voice comes from real life events. Nick Virgilio is a realistic and truthful author in the American haiku world. Virgilio is considered a pioneer of American haiku poetry. A haiku author and book editor, Cor van den Heuvel, was quoted saying that Virgilio wrote haiku "to get in touch with the real". Some believe that his work is rather dark, but I disagree. Life isn’t always perfect and that is exactly how Virgilio writes. He focuses on the real things in the world that aren’t always pleasurable to discuss. He almost brings a beauty to all the tragedy that he writes about.
the blind musician
extending an old tin cup,
collects a snowflake.
Virgilio, Selected Haiku, 30
This is one of my favorite’s haiku from Nicolas Virgilio. Many people would look at this and think it’s too sad or dark but this is an example of Nicolas Virgilio’s straight forward honesty. To me I see the realness in this haiku. I think many people can relate to this haiku because people have seen beggars throughout their towns, especially in bigger cities. The homeless and beggar lifestyle seems to be more concentrated in these areas. They can relate to this haiku through the blindness if they have someone close to them that has suffered from blindness. Lastly, the feeling that the haiku brings is huge. The feeling of the haiku starts off slow with hopeless and full of despair and the blind musician playing for any spare change the musician can get. Though at the end of the haiku, I see some hope. I see hope in the blind musician that his life will turn around very soon. I like how Virgilio does this because he points out the real flaws from a real life situation,
but can still bring a positive vibe to them.
not a breath of air
in the crowded cathedral:
the sermon on Hell
Virgilio, A Life in Haiku, 58
This is another example of Virgilio’s honesty that seems to be evident in most of his haiku. When first reading this, I notice the intenseness of the first line. This seems to take the breath away from the reader as well. This makes this haiku start off serious, grabbing the reader’s attention very well. Then the second line comes and you can immediately picture the crowded cathedral. You start to feel the heat from the crowd and can see why there would be limited air in the cathedral. Furthermore, it makes you think that maybe the people are holding their breath for a certain reason and in this haiku I think its Hell. Hell is a scary topic, especially for churchgoers. The preacher in the haiku is giving a sermon on Hell so I can imagine the room being so quiet that no one even wants to take a breath. The realness of Hell and the emotion that some of the church goers may be feeling during this sermon is probably unimaginable, but this haiku by Nicolas Virgilio really lets you imagine this scene perfectly. Talking about Hell in a haiku seemed unheard of until Virgilio. This provides another example of the honest and real ways Virgilio constructs his writing. Virgilio writing seems to have no fear and will step into any topic no matter how dark or low. This raw voice creates some very powerful haiku.
Vietnam monument
darkened by the autumn rain:
my dead brother’s name
Virgilio, Selected Haiku, 39
my dead brother . . .
wearing his gloves and boots:
I step into deep snow
Virgilio, Selected Haiku, 39
my dead brother . . .
hearing his laugh
in my laughter
Virgilio, Selected Haiku, 40
Nicolas Virgilio was the first of three sons and grew up in Camden, New Jersey. Virgilio served in the United States Navy during World War II. He lost his youngest brother, Larry, in the Vietnam War. This is a source of inspiration for writing haiku. He has plenty of haiku about his brother’s death and war. Virgilio had an interview with Moss-Coane on "Radio Times," and said: "I try to make my life count for something. We all have these tragic experiences, and life basically is tragic, nobody lives happily ever after. So what I hope to do is to uplift it and bring it into the realm of beauty."
I think his brother’s death was an inspiration for his haiku writing. I also think this was a form of healing for him. This was a real life tragedy that he had to experience. Death is never an easy thing for people to deal with, especially it being his younger brother. These haiku have the sense of seriousness of his brother’s death, but he still brings light through these haiku about his brother. The first haiku about the Vietnam memorial brings out of sense of pride for his brother. The momentum is showing respect to the men that lost their lives during the war. The rain in the haiku brings out the darkness but yet it is a way to see his brother, Larry’s name listed on the monument. The second one allows the readers to connect to his real poem. When he is wearing his brother’s gloves and boots, it brings back the memories for Virgilio. This all points back to the inspiration from his brother’s death and a form of healing for Virgilio. This takes me back to when I first started writing haiku’s in this class. My grandmother passed away earlier in the semester and the professor asked me to write about the funeral and at first I didn’t know how I felt about it. After I gave it a try, it became fun. I started writing sweet haiku’s about her and this helped me recover from her death. This provided me with healing like I think it did for Nicolas Virgilio.
Another example is the last haiku written on page 40 of the book Selected Haiku. This is my favorite haiku written by Nicolas Virgilio. Virgilio starts it off with the strong attention-getter that he has used in other popular haiku he has written. He immediately states that his brother is dead. Then, the best part is the second and third line that say he hears his brother’s laugh in his own laughter. For me, this is a very relatable haiku because I can hear my brother’s laugh in my laugh sometimes. I couldn’t imagine the pain Virgilio must feel when he hears his brother’s laugh. This haiku makes me think that now he is okay with hearing his brother’s laugh in him. I think this took a lot of courage to write about. These three examples provide more evidence of Nicholas Virgilio’s writing style of being a realistic but still shedding light in the situation.
the yellow kite:
shining way up in the sky—
the boy shining too.
David Lloyd, The Circle, 24
in the night woods . . .
a lone candle lights the face
of the frightened child
Virgilio, A Life in Haiku, 50
David Lloyd is another author in American haiku that we have studied. Although both of these haiku talk about light they are written in contrast with one another. David Lloyd’s writing style, as you can tell, is different than Nicolas Virgilio. Lloyd’s writing style consists of the simple joys in life. He has a more optimistic view on the world than Virgilio has. Both of these haiku use the element of light to get their points across, but with Lloyd’s haiku it is so much more joyful. He starts off by saying “the yellow kite” and with this line it starts out the haiku with a very positive vibe. The next line is also about how great the light is. The first word is shining then way up which hints at happiness and things are going well. Then it ends with the boy shining too. David Lloyd’s haiku are always overjoyed and about the simple things in life. Lloyd’s writing style is different because he uses capital letters for every haiku he writes.
Comparing this to Nick Virgilio, I picked his haiku about the night woods as a match with David Lloyd’s yellow kite. Virgilio tends to take readers out of their comfort zone and this is what he did in this haiku. The haiku starts off very dramatic with it being in the night woods. His writing allows us to really imagine the setting of the haiku. Then, the second line is talking about the lone candle. This already gives us a different feel than Lloyds because a sense of loneliness that comes over the haiku when reading that. Then, you see a little line in the haiku when the face gets lit up. This builds up anticipation in the readers so that they really imagine what could be at the end of the light. At the end the lit of face is of a frighten child. This totally goes with Nicolas Virgilio’s style of writing. He isn’t writing about all the great things, like when compared to David Lloyd’s writing style. I think this is what made me so interested in Nicolas Virgilio, the realness in his writing.
autumn nightfall,
recalling the Holocaust:
numbers on his arm
Virgilio, A Life in Haiku, 14
the autumn moon
awakens the baby
on the orphanage steps
Virgilio, A Life in Haiku, 25
Nicolas Virgilio haiku’s also incorporate a lot of nature in them. These two haiku above are just a few examples from the book, A Life in Haiku. Both of these haiku start talking about autumn, which many of his nature haiku do. Then both bring up an unwanted topic that usually makes readers feel uncomfortable. In the first one, it talks about the Holocaust. This also brings up war again because the Holocaust came with World War II. This haiku makes me picture a super old man looking at his tattoo of the numbers from the Holocaust. This is a tough image to imagine because it is such a horrible event that happens in history but it is real. This ties back to the writing style that has been discussed in this paper, all about the real truths.
The second haiku starts out peaceful with the autumn moon. Then transitions to a baby being awake, which is usually something that is sweet and pure. Then the last line says “on the orphanage steps”. This is another perfect example of how Nicolas Virgilio’s writing style is. Someone dropping a baby off at an orphanages is not something people would want to discuss either, but Virgilio still brings it into his haiku.
on the petition
condemning Agent Orange:
the names of the dead
Virgilio, A Life in Haiku, 56
This is another haiku that discusses a very controversial topic. Agent Orange is an herbicide and defoliant chemical. The U.S. military used it during the Vietnam War. Overall, Agent Orange exposed four million people when the herbicide was dropped. This caused many deaths in the war. I remember seeing all the horrifying pictures from history class in middle school. This haiku is powerful because it starts out by bringing up a petition about condemning Agent Orange. The last line is where the realism hit. It says the names of the dead. This shows how many people wanted this petition. They are even adding dead people names just to get rid of it. This was truly an awful warfare style.
Lily:
out of the water . . .
out of itself.
Virgilio, Selected Haiku, 11
This brilliant haiku is all about illusions. This haiku gives an overall peaceful feeling of the lily floating through the water calmly. The illusion is something that Nicholas Virgilio has shown in some of his other haiku. Many other authors have tried copying this style, but still haven’t captured the pure beauty that Virgilio writes with. There are many interpretations of this haiku because it is one of his most famous haiku. For me, I see this has someone breaking out of their shell for the first time. They are coming out of their shell and ready to surprise the world. This is one of Virgilio’s happiest haiku I have read. There is still a sense of the realness and the light he provides. This haiku is also written on his tombstone.
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Works Cited
Lloyd, David. The Circle: A Haiku Sequence with Illustrations. Rutland, VT: Charles E. Tuttle, 1974. Print.
Virgilio, Nicholas A., Raffael De. Gruttola, and Kathleen O'Toole. Nick Virgilio: A Life in Haiku. Arlington, VA: Turtle Light, 2012. Print.
Virgilio, Nicholas A. Selected Haiku. Sherbrooke, Que.: Burnt Lake, 1988. Print. |
