Lawrence Eyre Returns to Writers' Voices with 'Haiku Americana'

In his third book of poetry, Haiku Americana, retired history professor and local Fairfield poet Lawrence Eyre presents a compilation of haikus that follows the traditional 5-7-5 syllable, three-line structure, but reflects his own personal style. Though not centered on customary haiku themes, Haiku Americana is composed of pieces influenced by the Bible, Shakespeare, Aesop, Mark Twain, and others. In regards to how the book was assembled, Eyre remarked, “It’s not true that there’s no rhyme or reason to what made it into the book. The rhyme or reason may not always be evident…I’ve adopted multiple voices in this book to try to give expression to different points of view about time itself or about history or about now, but from several angles that may, in fact, not blend with each other so well.” Additionally, Eyre noted that while haikus are short and seemingly simple, they can also be surprisingly challenging. “It is easy to write a haiku in one sense, but also incredibly hard because it’s unforgiving. There are only three lines and it’s 5-7-5, and it ain’t haiku if it isn’t that.”

Throughout the collection, Eyre included several poignant haikus that pay tribute to the many people he met in college, some of whom have passed, and whom he had formed lifelong friendships with. It was important to him that their memories were reflected across the anthology. “…one of the poems is about a rocking chair, that an old rocking chair moves to all the memories stirring upon it, and many of those memories are of my classmates and friends from college… and I wanted to give them honor in a way that a short verse possibly could… give me a chance to do.” Another poem was about a friend who became the dean of an esteemed divinity school and held many degrees, but who still loved his Oklahoma roots and playing guitar, “and so I wrote ‘Deep Down, He’s Still an Oklahoma Boy Who Loves Three Chords and the Truth,’ and that was a way to honor him. He just passed on this year.”