Poems from the Road: A Travelog Renga in Haiku, Haibun, and Senryū is a poetic journey chronicling a 80-day road trip from Mineral, WA, to Boston, MA, undertaken in 2018. This collection captures the essence of travel through the continental United States, presenting a tapestry of scenic impressions and reflective moments along the way.
The author, a poet with a physical disability who uses a wheelchair, shares the joys and complexities of traveling with a disability. Despite the challenges, the journey unfolds with enriching experiences, showcasing the indomitable spirit of exploration and the profound joy of being alive.
Beginning in Mineral, WA, during a writing residency, the book's inception was inspired by the serene environment and the works of Beat Generation writers, including Jack Kerouac and Matsuo Basho. The residency provided the space to gather fragments of poems, which later blossomed into a cohesive narrative.
Using Instagram to document the journey through photos and videos, the author created a visual and poetic record, reminiscent of the Japanese haiga style.
The haiku, senryū, and haibun forms are meticulously interwoven, creating a rich, layered narrative. The haiku, with its focus on nature, and the senryū, highlighting human experiences, offer contrasting yet harmonious perspectives. The traditional renga structure, particularly the hyakuin renga, guides the flow of the poems, each verse a stanza in the long-form poem.
The collection's aesthetic draws from the vibrant colors of the landscapes encountered, inspired by the Impressionists, especially Claude Monet and Vincent van Gogh. The poet's use of color and imagery echoes van Gogh's Japonaiserie, bringing a vivid intensity to the scenes depicted.
Poems from the Road is not just a travelog but a meditation on life, nature, and the human spirit. It invites readers to experience the changing landscapes and the internal reflections of the poet, celebrating the beauty of the journey and the resilience of the traveler.
This latest work by Cristina Cortez exhibits all of the virtues of her earlier writings: irrepressible love of life, gratitude for all that daily experiences and daring adventures have given her, extraordinary intelligence, the capacity—and generosity!—to share her wisdom with others, the author’s gift of language, and the joy of creation. And this time she has done it all by learning the prosodic uses and traditions of Asian poetry—an ancient culture she has made her own—and now ours.
— Rhina P. Espaillat
Poet, essayist, short story writer, and translator
In Poems from the Road, Cristina Cortez skillfully shares her innate sense of wonder and uncontainable possibility relating her 75-day cross-country journey to national parks and scenic vistas from outside Seattle to Boston, her view from her motorized wheelchair, to mark her transition from student of poetry to writer. In opening author notes, she traces her process to use three apt traditional Japanese forms—haiku, haibun, and senryū—to capture her daily reflections. After sighting an Orca off the Pacific coast (p. 31), she writes, "I am the Orca. I am free from the bonds of my body. I move among the waves that caress my skin." New Mexico’s desert (p. 43) inspires, "Heat waves cascade down/on sunbaked, fading pathways,/desert sands billow." Live her joy and awe experiencing this nation’s astounding natural beauty. Plan your journey.
—Paulette Demers Turco, Shimmer, an ekphrastic poetry collection (Kelsay Books, 2023)