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Gerald Robert Vizenor
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Favor of Crows: New and Collected Haiku Kindle Edition

by Gerald Vizenor (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.3 out of 5 stars 9 ratings

A collection of original haiku from a preeminent Native American poet and novelist.

Favor of Crows is a collection of new and previously published original haiku poems over the past forty years. Gerald Vizenor has earned a wide and devoted audience for his poetry. In the introductory essay the author compares the imagistic poise of haiku with the early dream songs of the Anishinaabe, or Chippewa. Vizenor concentrates on these two artistic traditions, and by intuition he creates a union of vision, perception, and natural motion in concise poems; he creates a sense of presence and at the same time a naturalistic trace of impermanence.

The haiku scenes in Favor of Crows are presented in chapters of the four seasons, the natural metaphors of human experience in the tradition of haiku in Japan. Vizenor honors the traditional practice and clever tease of haiku, and conveys his appreciation of Matsuo Basho and Yosa Buson in these two haiku scenes, "calm in the storm / master basho soaks his feet /water striders," and "cold rain / field mice rattle the dishes / buson's koto."

Vizenor is inspired by the sway of concise poetic images, natural motion, and by the transient nature of the seasons in native dream songs and haiku. "The heart of haiku is a tease of nature, a concise, intuitive, and an original moment of perception," he declares in the introduction to Favor of Crows. "Haiku is visionary, a timely meditation and an ironic manner of creation. That sense of natural motion in a haiku scene is a wonder, the catch of impermanence in the seasons." Check for the online reader's companion at favorofcrows.site.wesleyan.edu.

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  1. Print length
    165 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Wesleyan University Press
  4. Publication date
    April 14, 2015
  5. File size
    3.1 MB
  6. Page Flip
    Enabled
  7. Word Wise
    Enabled
  8. Enhanced typesetting
    Enabled
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Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Accomplished novelist, poet, and scholar Vizenor has written dozens of books dealing with Native American identity and culture, specifically those of the Anishinaabe of Minnesota, including Shrouds of White Earth (2010) and Chancers (2000), a humorous take on traditional native dance. For this collection of new and selected haiku, Vizenor begins with an elucidating essay on the similarities between Anishinaabe dream songs and Japanese linked verse, both of which emphasize natural imagery, short bursts of emotion, and occasional wordplay or humor. Vizenor’s tiny stanzas span an impressive breadth of thematic matter, from meditations on everyday objects (“august sunrise / shimmers on the lawn chairs / drops of dew”) to idyllic pastorals (“white butterflies / flutter around the children / picking flowers”), allegorical snapshots (“snowflakes / alight in a cup of tea / temple stories”), and narrative snippets (“broken fence / horses browse in the orchard / crack of apples”). Like zen koans and meditative mantras, Vizenor’s haiku invite readers to ponder and appreciate without overthinking and, like Basho and Issa, Vizenor deserves to be remembered as a master of the form. --Diego Báez

Review

"Joining the traditions of Japanese haiku and Chippewa dream songs, Vizenor has created a memorable book of intuitive, visionary, one-breath nature poetry in which ordinary moments come to shimmering life on the page."―David G. Lanoue, president of the Haiku Society of America

"Gerald Vizenor has assembled a lifetime's devotion to the spiritual and poetic value of the haiku tradition in this graceful and memorable collection. His introduction helps set the stage for the four sections, organized by season, in which readers may wander and admire at will, finding moments to cherish (and return to) on every page. How grateful this should make any reader who is interested, not only in the specific Japanese tradition, but in the insight and enlightenment that poetry at its best can offer us.""―David Young, author of Field of Light and Shadow: Selected and New Poems and Moon Woke Me Up Nine Times: Selected Haiku of Basho

"Joining the traditions of Japanese haiku and Chippewa dream songs, Vizenor has created a memorable book of intuitive, visionary, one-breath nature poetry in which ordinary moments come to shimmering life on the page."―David G. Lanoue, president of the Haiku Society of America



"As a volume of nature poems, Favor of Crows: New and Collected Haiku is a joyous, flamboyant, and radiant collection that sharpens our ability to perceive and appreciate discrete manifestations of the natural world. Through the vehicle of these wondrous and succinct poems, Vizenor reinforces the reality of our human dependency upon the natural world as the source that sustains us within the cycle of life. He reminds us that we are born to perceive the beauty of our surroundings and, by doing so, celebrate life in all its majesty."―Sonja James, The Journal

"Vizenor's word, survivance, also is there in the opening of the introduction. It is the survivance of the native mindset after all that survive. Vizenor explains that he sees the virtual world in haiku. Almost as if they were film. Or images on a scrim Vizenor's new collection still finds him in his waders in the steady stream of the evocative."―Diane Glancy, Transmotion

"The ability to bring out so much in so little is truly amazing and what makes this so enjoyable. These are short stanzas to be cherished and not rushed."―Kevin Winter, Portland Book Review

"As a volume of nature poems, Favor of Crows: New and Collected Haiku is a joyous, flamboyant, and radiant collection that sharpens our ability to perceive and appreciate discrete manifestations of the natural world. Through the vehicle of these wondrous and succinct poems, Vizenor reinforces the reality of our human dependency upon the natural world as the source that sustains us within the cycle of life. He reminds us that we are born to perceive the beauty of our surroundings and, by doing so, celebrate life in all its majesty."―Sonja James, The Journal

"With patience, Favor of Crows opens a deeper understanding of Vizenor's poetics The book benefits from reading little by little, so you can be drawn into the poems' precise focus and encounter a speaker who seems to see the world in haiku moments."―Janna Knittel, Rain Taxi

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0BPXH2XZN
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Wesleyan University Press (April 14, 2015)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ April 14, 2015
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 3.1 MB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 165 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.3 out of 5 stars 9 ratings

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Gerald Robert Vizenor

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4.3 out of 5 stars
9 global ratings

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Top reviews from the United States

  • Joan
    5.0 out of 5 stars my heart’s favorite, by my favorite poet/writer
    Reviewed in the United States on September 18, 2020
    Verified Purchase
    I read this book every day. The haikus are part of my spiritual life, the world, and are always a new and moving experience!
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  • R. Jackofsky
    4.0 out of 5 stars Worth a Read
    Reviewed in the United States on February 26, 2024
    Verified Purchase
    Fifty years worth of haiku from Gerald Vizenor, with an interesting introduction that compares Japanese haiku to Anishinaabe (Chippewa) dream songs. As with any gathering of poems, some will resonate with you, and some will not, but this collection, arranged by season, is worth a read.
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  • D. Rachlin
    5.0 out of 5 stars An important addition to the haiku library
    Reviewed in the United States on August 15, 2016
    Verified Purchase
    This is a brilliant collection of haiku, made even more significant by the exceptional and in-depth introduction. The comparison to Ojibwa dream songs is wonderful and a welcome insight into the international and multi-ethnic phenomenon that haiku has become.
    3 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

  • Sardis Siren
    2.0 out of 5 stars I guess its the poetry that I didn't like..
    Reviewed in Canada on November 19, 2015
    Verified Purchase
    Eh....I guess its the poetry that I didn't like...Vizenor's poetry seems frameless...and perhaps that is about crows...but for me the form of the haiku requires a frame...much like the islands of Japan provide a frame for the development of haiku
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