David Trinidad’s poetry collection "Peyton Place: A Haiku Soap Opera" (Turtle Point Press, 2013), ushers haiku into the 21st century. While Ashbery, Merrill, and Sedgwick’s queer haiku and haibun extended the tradition of travel narrative to narratives of queer emergence, Trinidad masterfully introduces the gay tradition of camp. Trinidad’s 514 haiku provide brilliant and often hilarious 17-syllable synopses and observations of each episode of the long-running American soap opera Peyton Place. While Trinidad’s haiku are often played for laughs,
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Mia can’t forgive
Dorothy’s deception. I still
can’t forgive her hair.
he also shows a deep appreciation for the history of haiku, with a “Haiku in the Traditional Manner,” and haiku after Kobayahsi Issa, Bashō, and Yosa Buson.