Dominique Robert launches into the haiku? In fact, this important poet, who won the Grand Prix du livre de Montréal for The Master’s Ceremony in 2015, is passionate about Japan. She stayed there and is now learning the language so that she can read Japanese poetry, including haikus.
Posted yesterday at 6:00 p.m.
His people often stray from tradition. Unless I’m mistaken, his haiku actually have three lines of a total of 17 syllables (5-7-5) which know how to show humor, but they do not always refer to emotions and sensations, nor do they always evoke one of the four seasons as in the classic form.
The beauty of this erudite collection lies in the freedom that the poet grants herself, as in this nice snub to tradition: “In five or in seven / Circles that we would draw / With beautiful bones”.
What’s more, the writer knows how to talk about the here and now with texts that are often lucid, sometimes worried, always intelligent. She creates her own mythology from, in particular, those of the Greeks, French and English artists, and the Japanese, of course.
She tells us stories as rich as they are absurd, inserting a few good-natured aphorisms: “The future is at stake / One future after another / The usurp of glory”.
Dominique Robert guides us through his fruitful flow of thoughts within nine circles of haikus which have nothing of those of hell of Dante. The reader goes from surprises to discoveries with pleasure. Haiku probably isn’t what it used to be. It’s called renewing the genre.
Nine Circles Haiku
Dominique Robert
Hands free
120 pages