Jack Kerouac's Book of Haikus Week #2

Eyes on the western sky

Hello, Intellectual Wayfarers!

This week I want to look at Kerouac’s obsession with the western United States. For today’s purpose, I’m defining west broadly as everything west of the Mississippi River.

I’m only examining poems found between pages 41 and 100, however, you will see these same themes and references throughout all of Kerouac’s haiku.

One programming note: I will be taking a break from the Asynchronous Book Club in April and will resume the club in May. However, the rest of the Weirdo Poetry newsletter will continue as weird as always.

The rest of this post is for paying subscribers. You can become a paying subscriber by choosing your own discount for an annual subscription with this link, if you do so before March 19, 2024. Discounts range between 10% to 100%. Below the paywall, you will find a haiku comic inspired by a Kerouac haiku as well as a discussion of Kerouac’s frequent use of the west as the subject of his poems.