Cor van den Heuvel Reads Jack Kerouac's Baseball Haiku
Chautauqua Institution - Chautauqua Institution
Haiku poet Cor van den Heuvel, co-editor of Baseball Haiku will be joined by other contributing poets to the collection for the Chautauqua Literary & Scientific Circle program.As van den Heuvel writes in the introduction, "Haiku and baseball were made for each other: While haiku give us moments in which nature is linked to human nature, baseball is played in the midst of the natural elements -- on the field under an open sky; and as haiku happen in a timeless now, so does baseball, for there is no clock ticking in a baseball game -- the game's not over until the last out."This collection, which includes poems from both America and Japan, captures perfectly the thrill of baseball -- a double play, a game of catch, or the hushed pause as a pitcher looks in before hurling his pitch.Featuring the work of Jack Kerouac, who penned the first American baseball haiku, and Alan Pizzarelli, a major American haiku poet, the collection also includes Masaoka Shiki, one of the four great pillars of Japanese haiku, who was instrumental in popularizing baseball in Japan during the 1890s - Chautauqua Institution