Punk Haiku
Amanda JS Kaufmann
By Amanda JS Kaufmann
I’ve been using this terminology—“punk haiku”—to describe what readers will find in my new ebook, Rage, Recovery, and Calm: A Year in Poetry.
I honestly didn’t know I was writing punk haiku while I was writing it, but I did know I was using the traditional 5-7-5 syllabic structure of haiku to express myself throughout a year of personal and worldwide turmoil, and I knew the results weren’t mainstream, like punk rock isn’t mainstream, because a lot of the words were R- rated and served to release energy, similar to the way swearing does. Similar to the way punk rock helps people release pent-up emotion.
I’ve made no secret about having gone through a midlife crisis, where, for one thing, I starting aging out of my career, only to then find the pandemic assuredly closing the door on my former activity of producing and directing educational content. And then my health hit the skids with a thyroid disorder, so I had some time to work through the rage so I could recover and find calm. It was actually a blessing in disguise, because I needed to pay attention to my art, something I had backburnered for most of my adult life, and which was likely not helping my mental state.
Some of the words were plain-old rude. Some intermingled with nursery rhymes and old adages to express anger or encouragement or contentment. I was furiously jotting down these little verses within my Tumblr blog, Diary of a GenXer (diarygenxer), and connecting with like-minded readers there. One of my blog followers—of the same generation—wrote to me and said I was capturing exactly how he was feeling. Hearing that gave me a lot of pause: There was something about this form for those who cared to spend time with it.
A year later, when I was doing better, I pulled together a selection of poems and worked with an old publishing friend of mine to start the ball rolling on bringing the writing to a larger audience. But why? Why do this? What the heck is punk haiku, after all? I guess I’m committed to letting people know they’re not alone in their range of emotions or circumstances, and that there are many ways to connect, beyond the forms we normally think of, such as through little offbeat poems I refer to as punk haiku.
But there’s more to this, I now see it: Punk haiku is ripe for spoken word and performance, and, as a filmmaker, that’s where I’m now at with the content.
Want to perform some punk haiku? You have my support! Grab the ebook and a video camera, and head to @ragerecoverycalmyearinpoetry on Instagram to start getting that rage out so you can recover and find calm too. Though we have only a virtual mosh pit at the moment, don’t forget to have fun while you’re experiencing it.
[Here is a link for a short video of Amanda reading her punk haiku:]
Rage, Recovery, and Calm: A Year in Poetry
Amanda JS Kaufmann is a writer/photographer/filmmaker.
She joined Hawaii Writers Guild in May 2021. She lives in Koloa, Kauai.
http://kkstudios.org/amanda-js-kaufmann/
I’ve been using this terminology—“punk haiku”—to describe what readers will find in my new ebook, Rage, Recovery, and Calm: A Year in Poetry.
I honestly didn’t know I was writing punk haiku while I was writing it, but I did know I was using the traditional 5-7-5 syllabic structure of haiku to express myself throughout a year of personal and worldwide turmoil, and I knew the results weren’t mainstream, like punk rock isn’t mainstream, because a lot of the words were R- rated and served to release energy, similar to the way swearing does. Similar to the way punk rock helps people release pent-up emotion.
I’ve made no secret about having gone through a midlife crisis, where, for one thing, I starting aging out of my career, only to then find the pandemic assuredly closing the door on my former activity of producing and directing educational content. And then my health hit the skids with a thyroid disorder, so I had some time to work through the rage so I could recover and find calm. It was actually a blessing in disguise, because I needed to pay attention to my art, something I had backburnered for most of my adult life, and which was likely not helping my mental state.
Some of the words were plain-old rude. Some intermingled with nursery rhymes and old adages to express anger or encouragement or contentment. I was furiously jotting down these little verses within my Tumblr blog, Diary of a GenXer (diarygenxer), and connecting with like-minded readers there. One of my blog followers—of the same generation—wrote to me and said I was capturing exactly how he was feeling. Hearing that gave me a lot of pause: There was something about this form for those who cared to spend time with it.
A year later, when I was doing better, I pulled together a selection of poems and worked with an old publishing friend of mine to start the ball rolling on bringing the writing to a larger audience. But why? Why do this? What the heck is punk haiku, after all? I guess I’m committed to letting people know they’re not alone in their range of emotions or circumstances, and that there are many ways to connect, beyond the forms we normally think of, such as through little offbeat poems I refer to as punk haiku.
But there’s more to this, I now see it: Punk haiku is ripe for spoken word and performance, and, as a filmmaker, that’s where I’m now at with the content.
Want to perform some punk haiku? You have my support! Grab the ebook and a video camera, and head to @ragerecoverycalmyearinpoetry on Instagram to start getting that rage out so you can recover and find calm too. Though we have only a virtual mosh pit at the moment, don’t forget to have fun while you’re experiencing it.
[Here is a link for a short video of Amanda reading her punk haiku:]
Rage, Recovery, and Calm: A Year in Poetry
Amanda JS Kaufmann is a writer/photographer/filmmaker.
She joined Hawaii Writers Guild in May 2021. She lives in Koloa, Kauai.
http://kkstudios.org/amanda-js-kaufmann/
