“This Haiku Is Not a Haiku”: Rethinking Form and Textuality in International Haiku

Abstract

This article aims to use a recently published poetry collection as a reference point to explore some of the major debates that have engulfed the poetry world since the internationalisation of Japanese haiku as a poetry form, which revolves around the following questions: what constitutes a proper haiku? What form in non-Japanese languages would best represent its original structures? Would a free form better express its original spirit? Crucially, can a verse that is not intended to be a haiku be labelled as such only for its visual or semantic implications?