(Source) Poet Violet Kazue de Cristoforo died last week at age 90.
Now that’s a long a fruitful life. I really like that she documented life in U.S. detention camps in her haiku poems.
Christoforo lived in California. She died just two weeks after receiving a National Heritage Fellowship Award from the National Endowment for the Arts. She was originally from Hawaii and was sent to a detention camp in the land of the free after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.
During incarceration, Christoforo spent time at Jerome, Arkansas and Tule Lake Relocation Center in a high security for prisoners who refused to sign a loyalty oath. She was released in 1946.
Listen to an NPR podcast on Christoforo here.
Order a copy of Violet Kazue de Cristoforo’s book of haiku
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indeed. it’s unfortunate that she had to go through with that. i wonder what her haiku are like.
kouji haikus last blog post..blog action day 2008: philippine poverty haiku poems