Far Beyond the Field

Rating:
Summary: Japanese women's haiku: "Viva la difference!"
Review: As mentioned by other reviewers, with 400 poems by 20 poets it is possible for the first time to begin to intuit a "different voice" in Japanese women's haiku / hokku from that of men. Patricia Donegan and Yoshie Ishibashi, in their introductory material, opened the discussion in "Chiyo-ni: Woman Haiku Master" regarding feminine sensibilites evident in Chiyo's haiku, and they did so without apology! And I agree that it is time to let women be women in haiku and cease judging them according to the lived experience of men. But I am glad also that I cannot think of one single characteristic that marks a Japanese woman's haiku as a woman's haiku. Nevertheless read 400 of them in a single sitting and you will begin to smile as you catch on to something delightful -- "Viva la difference!"