Taboo Haiku: An International Selection

Edited by Richard Krawiec

n.d.; 104pp; Pa; Avisson Press,
P.O. Box 38816, Greensboro,
NC 27438. Npl.

By Tim W. Brown

Traditionally, haiku merges an observation of nature with some universal truth, all

expressed in three lines and seventeen syllables. In Taboo Haiku editor Richard Krawiec

has collected haiku that extend the form's possibilities through earthy subject matter that

traditionalists consider unfit or downright offensive.

Thus, rather than haiku about birds or waterfalls or mountains, Krawiec presents

haiku about incest:

father's full kiss

on daughter's lips
her friend gasps
--Porchia Moore (p. 19)

Menstruation:

figure drawing class--

in the model's deepest shadow
a thin white string
--Lee Gurga (p. 40)

Bowel functions:

peering into the bowl:

so little excrement
for so much effort
--Dublin Dolores (p. 41)

Prostitution:

out of the brothel

thinking of xmas presents
for the children
--Dietmar Tauchner (p. 64)

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And drug abuse:

with a pin
child pricks her doll's arms
now just like mommy's
--John J. Dunphy (p. 64)

Taboo Haiku gathers a number of haiku writers from the U.S., the U.K.,

Australia, New Zealand and Europe, who have extensive publication credits in

journals such as Modern Haiku and affiliations with organizations like the World

Haiku Association. Curiously, no Japanese poets are represented, perhaps due to their

reverence for traditional haiku and a reticence to tamper with it.

No matter, the poets of this collection are expert practitioners of the form,

which enables them to subvert it while retaining its strongest claim to the reader's

attention -- capturing a transcendent moment in the most concentrated way possible.