Jacks Or Better by Pat Nolan printable pdf

Pat Nolan’s Jacks Or Better is one in a series of travel journals modelled on Basho’s kikō (travel diaries) in which the Japanese poet recorded his travels to meet others engaged in the practice of haikai no renga (linked verse). In Jacks Or Better, Nolan travels by train from the Bay Area to New Orleans to meet up with the poet Andrei Codrescu, and then on to Lakeland, Florida to visit with his parents. Travel journals of this type usually consist of a narrative interspersed with haiku-like poems resembling the prose/poetry form of haibun. Nolan’s other excursions at the behest of the muse include The Cloudy Road To The East (Transfer), Exile’s Return (Exquisite Corpse), Bolinas And Beyond (Exquisite Corpse, later published as Ah Bolinas! in a limited edition by Not My Hat Press), and Irony Road (Milk Magazine).