American Haiku
"Inspired by the likes of Kerouac, Ginsberg, Todd Moore, and others who have taken stabs at the American Haiku, Young takes the ever-evolving form and makes it his own. While the poems here vary in length and style, they all carry the music and the spirit of the more traditional form. Full of stark imagery both personal and universal, the poems flow from one to the next seamlessly, carrying the reader along.
As poets, we spend much of our lives exploring the relationship of ourselves to the world. This can be a complicated endeavor, but Scot Young’s “American Haiku” is familiar and delicate, elegant even. He has reimagined the haiku in a way that makes sense for him, pulling at the rebel ghosts of the forefathers of the western haiku. Scot is able to capture those moments in life that are often passed over as unimportant or insignificant. Each haiku draws you closer into the world he sees until you are sitting on the porch with him watching life unfold. His ability to see the depth of a moment and carve out the best part is one of the best things about this collection."
-Aleathia Drehmer, author of “Layers of Half-Sung Hymns (Cajun Mutt Press)
“With a sober, unflinching eye, poet Scot Young unfurls
sketch after sketch of the quiet awe of the country life, the
animal and plant kingdom at odds with barbed wire and rusty
trucks emphasizing the tending of a wild land. The absurd,
and the occasional nod to the occasional hero (“brautigan
is taller/than a rainbow breaking the/surface of quiet”) the
poet turns the haiku form on its head as he hybridizes the
form with the sonnet, with free flowing variations along the
way, and in doing so, Scot continues to show us how the
message informs the form, but also how the form informs
the message.”
-Paul Corman-Roberts, Beast Crawl Literary Festival, Operations
“Scot Young is a poet whose work I genuinely get excited
about, especially his haikus. Scot titles his haikus, which I am
a huge fan of. It adds an extra layer to his poems, establishing
individuality, location, and relatability. The poems in this
collection are memorable. They exude life, nature, love, death,
and humor. And this comes as no surprise. I truly believe that
this is an important collection by an important writer.”
– Tohm Bakelas: poet, editor of Between Shadows Press
Scot Young’s new book of poetry ‘American Haiku’ is one of the more unique books of poetry published this year. The book takes the traditional 5/7/5 haiku and body slams it. The result? Poetry written so that every word somehow has more impact. More meaning. It’s refreshing.
-Dan Denton, blue collar poet and author of The Dead and the Desperate
“If you’re a fan of tradition, Scot Young’s American Haiku
may just take you by surprise, but what else is tradition there
for than to give those seeking different paths in this world
something to break away from. Young does just that, coming
closer to modern poets like Ted Berrigan or Cid Corman
than those writers of more formal haiku, but with a more
Midwestern spin on things, words hung together by rural
poverty, by the peace found in a quiet breeze, by all of the
things we turn away from and those we rarely take the time
to notice.”
-John Dorsey, Pocatello Wildflower
“In this fine collection of unconventional haiku, Scot Young
successfully breaks all the rules and offers us sequenced and
sonnet haiku, one-word lines and other breaks from the
traditional three-line haiku. He covers a wide array of topics
from observations about nature to poverty, love, road kill,
fish, animals, and education. The poems include nods to his
poetic heroes including jazz stars, Bob Marley, Basho, Bob
Dylan, Richard Brautigan, and Charles Bukowski. These
poems are both thoughtful and visceral, and any reader will
find plenty to enjoy and want to carry around to reread for
when the need arises.”
-Maryfrances Wagner, Missouri’s 6th Poet Laureate,
