A poetic journal is a literary genre combining aspects of poetry with the daily, or near daily, "takes" of journal writing. Born of twin impulses: to track change in daily life and to memorialize experience, poetic journals owe allegiances to Asian writing — particularly the Japanese haibun

Haibun

Haibun is a literary composition that combines prose and haiku. The range of haibun is broad and includes, but is not limited to, the following forms of prose: autobiography, biography, diary, essay, history, prose poem, short story and travel literature....

 of Matsuo Bashō

Matsuo Basho

, born , then , was the most famous poet of the Edo period in Japan. During his lifetime, Bashō was recognized for his works in the collaborative haikai no renga form; today, after centuries of commentary, he is recognized as a master of brief and clear haiku...

, The Pillow Book

The Pillow Book

is a book of observations and musings recorded by Sei Shōnagon during her time as court lady to Empress Consort Teishi during the 990s and early 11th century in Heian Japan. The book was completed in the year 1002....

of Sei Shōnagon

Sei Shonagon

Sei Shōnagon , was a Japanese author and a court lady who served the Empress Teishi around the year 1000 during the middle Heian period. She is best known as the author of The Pillow Book .-Name:...

, and the poetic diaries

Poetic diary

Poetic diary, or Japanese poetic diary, is an English term coined by the Princeton University scholar/translator Earl Miner in his book, Japanese Poetic Diaries. In Japan, poetic diaries date back to Ki no Tsurayuki's Tosa Nikki compiled in roughly 935...

 of Masaoka Shiki

Masaoka Shiki

, pen-name of Masaoka Noboru , was a Japanese poet, author, and literary critic in Meiji period Japan. Shiki is regarded as a major figure in the development of modern haiku poetry...

 — as well as Objectivist poets

Objectivist poets

The Objectivist poets were a loose-knit group of second-generation Modernists who emerged in the 1930s. They were mainly American and were influenced by, amongst others, Ezra Pound and William Carlos Williams...

 and others associated with Donald Allen

Donald Allen

Donald Merriam Allen , influential editor, publisher, and translator of contemporary American literature. He is perhaps best known for his project The New American Poetry 1945-1960 , among the several important anthologies of contemporary American innovative writing he made available to the public...

's anthology The New American Poetry 1945-1960

The New American Poetry 1945-1960

The New American Poetry 1945–1960 was a poetry anthology edited by Donald Allen, and published in 1960. It aimed to pick out the "third generation" of American modernist poets, and included quite a number of poems fresh from the little magazines of the late 1950s. In the longer term it attained a...

. Unlike traditional diaries

Diaries

As a proper noun, Diaries, the plural of diary, can refer to:*Diaries: 1971-1976, an 1981 documentary by Ed Pincus*Diaries 1969–1979: The Python Years, a 2006 book by Michael Palin...

 or journals

Diary

A diary is a record with discrete entries arranged by date reporting on what has happened over the course of a day or other period. A personal diary may include a person's experiences, and/or thoughts or feelings, including comment on current events outside the writer's direct experience. Someone...

 that focus primarily on recounting a day's experience, poetic journals emphasize the act of writing itself in collaboration with the day's account. Taking its cue from post-Jack Kerouac

Jack Kerouac

Jean-Louis "Jack" Lebris de Kerouac was an American novelist and poet. He is considered a literary iconoclast and, alongside William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, a pioneer of the Beat Generation. Kerouac is recognized for his spontaneous method of writing, covering topics such as Catholic...

 writers, like Bernadette Mayer

Bernadette Mayer

Bernadette Mayer is a poet and prose writer. In 1967 she received a BA from New School for Social Research. She has since edited the journal 0 TO 9 with Vito Acconci and the United Artists Press with Lewis Warsh...

 and Clark Coolidge

Clark Coolidge

Clark Coolidge is an American poet born in Providence, Rhode Island.Often associated with the Language School, his experience as a Jazz drummer and interest in a wide array of subjects--- including caves, geology, bebop, weather, Salvador Dalí, Jack Kerouac, and movies--- often finds...

, the poetic journal aims to be all inclusive as well as timely and attentive. To quote Tyler Doherty in his introduction to For the Time Being: The Bootstrap Book of Poetic Journals, "[The poetic journal] doesn't try to tell us what the world is, so much as remind us that the world is."

Influences

Asian Influences: Matsuo Bashō

Matsuo Basho

, born , then , was the most famous poet of the Edo period in Japan. During his lifetime, Bashō was recognized for his works in the collaborative haikai no renga form; today, after centuries of commentary, he is recognized as a master of brief and clear haiku...

, Sei Shōnagon

Sei Shonagon

Sei Shōnagon , was a Japanese author and a court lady who served the Empress Teishi around the year 1000 during the middle Heian period. She is best known as the author of The Pillow Book .-Name:...

, Masaoka Shiki

Masaoka Shiki

, pen-name of Masaoka Noboru , was a Japanese poet, author, and literary critic in Meiji period Japan. Shiki is regarded as a major figure in the development of modern haiku poetry...

.

19th Century Naturalist Influences: Henry David Thoreau

Henry David Thoreau

Henry David Thoreau was an American author, poet, philosopher, abolitionist, naturalist, tax resister, development critic, surveyor, historian, and leading transcendentalist...

.

Objectivist influences: William Carlos Williams

William Carlos Williams

William Carlos Williams was an American poet closely associated with modernism and Imagism. He was also a pediatrician and general practitioner of medicine, having graduated from the University of Pennsylvania...

, Lorine Niedecker

Lorine Niedecker

Lorine Faith Niedecker was a Wisconsin poet and the only woman associated with the Objectivist poets...

, Charles Reznikoff

Charles Reznikoff

Charles Reznikoff was the poet for whom the term Objectivist was first coined. When asked by Harriet Munroe to provide an introduction to what became known as the Objectivist issue of Poetry, Louis Zukofsky provided his essay Sincerity and Objectification: With Special Reference to the Work of...

.

Selected poetic journals

Poetic Journal Anthologies:
Tyler Doherty & Tom Morgan: For the Time-Being: The Bootstrap Book of Poetic Journals
Poetic Journals:
Paul Blackburn

Paul Blackburn

Paul Blackburn may refer to:* Paul Blackburn * Paul Blackburn with English group, Gomez* Paul Blackburn , youth convicted of attempted murder in 1978, cleared and released in 2005...

: The Journals

Tyler Doherty: Bodhidharma Never Came to Hatboro

Larry Eigner

Larry Eigner

Laurence Joel Eigner / Larry Eigner was an American poet of the second half of the twentieth century and one of the principal figures of the Black Mountain School....

: Readiness / Enough / Depends / On

Zoketsu Norman Fischer

Zoketsu Norman Fischer

Zoketsu Norman Fischer is a Jewish-American Soto Zen roshi, poet and Buddhist author practicing in the lineage of Shunryu Suzuki. He is a Dharma heir of Sojun Mel Weitsman, from whom he received Dharma transmission in 1988. Having served as co-abbot of the San Francisco Zen Center from 1995—2000,...

: The Narrow Roads of Japan

Allen Ginsberg

Allen Ginsberg

Irwin Allen Ginsberg was an American poet and one of the leading figures of the Beat Generation in the 1950s. He vigorously opposed militarism, materialism and sexual repression...

: The Fall of America

Jack Kerouac

Jack Kerouac

Jean-Louis "Jack" Lebris de Kerouac was an American novelist and poet. He is considered a literary iconoclast and, alongside William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, a pioneer of the Beat Generation. Kerouac is recognized for his spontaneous method of writing, covering topics such as Catholic...

: Book of Sketches

Joanne Kyger

Joanne Kyger

Joanne Kyger is an American poet. Her poetry is influenced by her practice of Zen Buddhism and her ties to the poets of Black Mountain, the San Francisco Renaissance, and the Beat generation.-Overview:...

: Again; As Ever; Patzcuaro

David Lehman

David Lehman

David Lehman is a poet and the series editor for The Best American Poetry series. He teaches at The New School in New York City.-Career:...

: The Daily Mirror

Bernadette Mayer

Bernadette Mayer

Bernadette Mayer is a poet and prose writer. In 1967 she received a BA from New School for Social Research. She has since edited the journal 0 TO 9 with Vito Acconci and the United Artists Press with Lewis Warsh...

: Midwinter’s Day

Michael Rothenberg: An Unhurried Vision, The Paris Journals, Narcissus

Ron Silliman

Ron Silliman

Ron Silliman is an American poet. He has written and edited over 30 books, and has had his poetry and criticism translated into 12 languages. He is often associated with language poetry. Between 1979 and 2004, Silliman wrote a single poem, The Alphabet...

: Bart; Xing

Andrew Schelling: The Road to Ocosingo; Two Elk: A High Country Notebook

Joel Sloman: Cuban Journal

Gary Snyder

Gary Snyder

Gary Snyder is an American poet , as well as an essayist, lecturer, and environmental activist . Snyder is a winner of a Pulitzer Prize for Poetry...

: Earth House Hold

Philip Whalen

Philip Whalen

Philip Glenn Whalen was an American poet, Zen Buddhist, and a key figure in the San Francisco Renaissance and close to the Beat generation.-Biography:...

: The Goof Book

John Wieners

John Wieners

John Joseph Wieners was an American lyric poet.-Biography:Born in Milton, Massachusetts, Wieners attended St. Gregory Elementary School in Dorchester, Massachusetts and Boston College High School. From 1950 to 1954, he studied at Boston College, where he earned his A.B...

: 707 Scott Street

External links

• Practice of Poetry: The Poetic Journal A link to Andrew Schelling's poetic journal course description.
• Cervena Barva Press interview with Mark Pawlak Touches on Poetic Journals.