Applause for a Cloud

SayumiKamakura’s Applause for a Cloud uses the haiku form to attend to everyday life with acosmological acuteness, invoking wonder on macro and micro scales. Sayumi Kamakura juxtaposes a surreal dailiness with acosmological acuteness, invoking wonder on macro and micro scales. Theparadoxical frictions in her work resolve into moments of lucidity just asoften as they perplex. Although she writes in the haiku tradition, her poemsdetour from the conventional parameters for haiku, such as syllabicrestrictions and a fixed seasonal reference. Her flexible approach to thelong-standing form allows her to explore new emotional frequencies across arange of subject matter. The book’s four sections—everyday life in Japan,experiences in Morocco and Italy, her husband’s cancer diagnosis, andreflections on the pandemic—reveal the preoccupations of a poet invested inrendering her experiences with a mix of traditional and contemporary motifsalongside a subtle wit. The natural world is always close at hand, yet Kamakuradoes not merely depict phenomena. She creates moments of stillness that usherthe reader into her inner world.

Sayumi Kamakura’s Applause for a Cloud uses the haiku form to attend to everyday life with a cosmological acuteness, invoking wonder on macro and micro scales.

Sayumi Kamakura juxtaposes a surreal dailiness with a cosmological acuteness, invoking wonder on macro and micro scales. The paradoxical frictions in her work resolve into moments of lucidity just as often as they perplex. Although she writes in the haiku tradition, her poems detour from the conventional parameters for haiku, such as syllabic restrictions and a fixed seasonal reference. Her flexible approach to the long-standing form allows her to explore new emotional frequencies across a range of subject matter. The book’s four sections—everyday life in Japan, experiences in Morocco and Italy, her husband’s cancer diagnosis, and reflections on the pandemic—reveal the preoccupations of a poet invested in rendering her experiences with a mix of traditional and contemporary motifs alongside a subtle wit. The natural world is always close at hand, yet Kamakura does not merely depict phenomena. She creates moments of stillness that usher the reader into her inner world.

• | Author: Sayumi Kamakura, James Shea
• | Publisher: Black Ocean
• | Publication Date: May 15, 2025
• | Number of Pages:
• | Language:
• | Binding: Paperback / softback
• | ISBN-13: 9781939568991
• | ISBN-10: 1939568994