Comments on: Haiku: This Other World - by Richard Wright

By: John Potts

John Potts — Sat, 05 May 2012 08:25:09 +0000

“I wonder what he’d say to find out how this very brief output mentored so many to do the same.” - Naumadd

Richard wrote 4,000 haiku in 18 months! This is one of my favourites . . .

Whitecaps on the bay:
A broken signboard banging
In the April wind.

by Richard Wright

By: Smith Family Bookstore rocks | Upstream in Oregon

Smith Family Bookstore rocks | Upstream in Oregon — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 04:20:26 +0000

[...] staffs the place with people who know that they should buy a trade paperback copy of Richard Wright’s Haiku, and know how much they should pay for it (about $3 if you want to make a few bucks). If you want [...]

By: Ahmad Mohit

Ahmad Mohit — Mon, 09 May 2011 12:34:07 +0000

I translated Richard Wright book “Haiku, This Other World” to Farsi (Persian, Dari) and the book is being published in a few days in Tehran. I would like to share a few sentences of the introduction I wrote for the Farsi translation:
Wright’s familiarity with Haiku was through a friend and was quite incidental. However, it happened at a time that …he was susceptible to accept a new way of looking at life… And he found it in Haiku which is one of the means of looking at the world as a united whole…And it was through such an outlook that the revolutionary Wright, in the process of his inner movementT reached the final dialectics of mind, the holistic thinking that in some other way our mystics (like Rumi), had reached… At that time Wright was struggling with a deadly disease… and who knows that involvement with these Haikus was not making the process of dying easier for him?…

By: Richard Wright Postage Stamp

Richard Wright Postage Stamp — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 14:46:26 +0000

[...] face of Richard Wright — who Alison wrote about several weeks back — was on a 61-cent postage stamp and stuck to a large [...]

By: Cynthia

Cynthia — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 16:07:19 +0000

Thanks for the post. I am going to go buy that book. I love the image of pieces of paper with haiku hanging around his cottage.

By: Alison

Alison — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 15:14:26 +0000

Naumadd,

Thanks for stopping by! I think Wright’s haiku are amongst my favorite now in the 5.7.5 category. And I think it’s interesting that he pretty much stuck to this Americanized interpretation of haiku, which I use myself. I wonder if the counting was helpful as a focus to him since he was struggling through so much? And I wonder how other Americans interpreted haiku at this time.

And yes, it is very hard! I read some of his haiku to my husband, not saying who wrote them and his response was “Wow”. When I finally told him they were by Richard
Wright he said it made sense that such a great writer could find himself in haiku.

By: johanna

johanna — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 17:29:56 +0000

i am a big fan of modern american literature; have never heard of wright’s haiku,
but they are extraordinary….
i will definitely read the book. vty, johanna

By: Naumadd

Naumadd — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 12:08:28 +0000

I purchased that very book four or five years ago and it has been a treasured possession ever since. Richard had a real sense for the haiku moment while keeping to the sometimes too-long 5-7-5 pattern in english. I think it’s amazing he was able to write so many quality haiku in 18-months and I’ve struggled to emulate him for a number of years in that accomplishment. I can speak from personal experience - it ain’t easy. I only wish he’d survived much longer to gift us with more of his art and to perhaps experiment more with the form. Thanks for sharing this and Richard’s fascinating story. I wonder what he’d say to find out how this very brief output mentored so many to do the same.

By: Kelly

Kelly — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 01:05:07 +0000

I enjoyed reading his haiku, too. Glad to see you post about it!