Nicholas Anthony Virgilio (June 28, 1928 – January 3, 1989) was an internationally recognized

haiku is a type of short form poetry originally from Japan. Traditional Japanese haiku consist of three phrases that contain a ''kireji'', or "cutting word", 17 '' on'' (phonetic units similar to syllables) in a 5, 7, 5 pattern, and a ''kigo'', or se ...

poet who is credited with helping to popularize the

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

ese style of

poetry Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings i ...

in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

Early life

Virgilio was born in

Camden, New Jersey Camden is a city in and the county seat of Camden County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Camden is part of the Delaware Valley metropolitan area and is located directly across the Delaware River from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. At the 2020 ...

on June 28, 1928, the first of three sons of Anthony Virgilio, an accomplished violinist, and Rose Alemi, a seamstress. He grew up in the city's Fairview section, where he lived much of his life. He graduated from Camden High School, served in the

Navy A navy, naval force, or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval warfare, naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral zone, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations and ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, received a bachelor of arts degree from

Temple University Temple University (Temple or TU) is a public state-related research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1884 by the Baptist minister Russell Conwell and his congregation Grace Baptist Church of Philadelphia then called Ba ...

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

, and began his career as a radio announcer and, as "Nickaphonic Nick", worked as a

disc jockey A disc jockey, more commonly abbreviated as DJ, is a person who plays recorded music for an audience. Types of DJs include Radio personality, radio DJs (who host programs on music radio stations), club DJs (who work at a nightclub or music f ...

with Philadelphia's

Jerry Blavat Gerald Joseph "Jerry" Blavat (born July 3, 1940), also known as "The Geator with the Heater" and "The Big Boss with the Hot Sauce," is an American disc jockey and performer who has been a major influence in promoting oldies music on the radio. A P ...

. He moved to

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

in the late 1950s to become a sports broadcaster.

Haiku

Virgilio moved back to Camden following a bad love affair in Texas A Life of the Poet, reprinted from the 1991 Nicholas Virgilio Memorial Book by Kathleen O'Toole and Dwight Wilson
/ref> and discovered haiku in 1962 in a book he found at the library at

Rutgers University-Camden Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's College, and was ...

. His first published haiku appeared in ''American Haiku'' magazine in 1963, and he wrote thousands, many unpublished, during his 20-plus-year career. The death of his youngest brother Larry in the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...

inspired some poignant and powerful haiku, and made his reputation as a haiku elegist. He is quoted by haiku author and book editor

Cor van den Heuvel Cor Van den Heuvel (born March 6, 1931) is an American haiku poet, editor and archivist. Biography Van den Heuvel was born in Biddeford, Maine, and grew up in Maine and New Hampshire. He lives on Long Island near his niece and still spends time w ...

as saying he wrote haiku "to get in touch with the real". Virgilio experimented with the haiku form, trying several innovations that other American haiku poets were exploring, including dropping the traditional 5-7-5 syllable count in favor of shorter forms. He sometimes included rhyme in his haiku along with the gritty reality of urban America. A collection of his selected haiku was published in 1985. The second (expanded) edition appeared just months before his death and has been called one of the most influential single-author books in English-language haiku. Virgilio became well known after a review on

National Public Radio National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other n ...

, and appeared often on that network as a guest commentator. He was a member of Camden's Sacred Heart Church and helped to found the Walt Whitman Center for the Arts and Humanities (now the

Cooper Library in Johnson Park Cooper Library in Johnson Park is located in the Cooper Grant section of Camden, Camden County, New Jersey, United States. It was built in 1916 and was added to the National Register of Historic Places on March 11, 1980, for its significance in ...

), where he also served as its artistic director and poet-in-residence. Virgilio was a long-standing member of the

Haiku Society of America The Haiku Society of America is a non-profit organization composed of haiku poets, editors, critics, publishers and enthusiasts that promotes the composition and appreciation of haiku in English. Founded in 1968, it is the largest society dedicat ...

and was the co-director of the First International Haiku Festival, held in 1971 in Philadelphia. While Virgilio's classic collection, ''Selected Haiku'', is out of print, Turtle Light Press published a volume in 2012 -- ''Nick Virgilio: A Life in Haiku''—that features 30 of Virgilio's classic haiku, 100 previously unpublished poems, two of his essays on the art of haiku, an interview with him on Marty Moss-Coane's WHYY show, "Radio Times," a tribute by Michael Doyle, family photos and reproductions of some of his original manuscript pages. As Virgilio said in his interview with Moss-Coane on "Radio Times," "I try to make my life count for something. We all have these tragic experiences, and life basically is tragic, nobody lives happily ever after. So what I hope to do is to uplift it and bring it into the realm of beauty." Until his death, Virgilio had a program on WKDN-FM, a radio station in Camden, NJ.

Death

On January 3, 1989, Virgilio had a heart attack while taping an interview about haiku for ''

CBS News Nightwatch ''CBS Overnight News'' is an American overnight news broadcasting that is broadcast on CBS during the early morning hours each Monday through Friday. The program maintains a infotainment format, incorporating national, international and busines ...

''. He died at George Washington University Medical Center. He is buried at Harleigh Cemetery in Camden. His well-known "Lily" haiku is engraved upon his gravestone: Virgilio's papers are housed at the Paul Robeson Library at

Bibliography

* ''Selected Haiku'' * ''Nick Virgilio: A Life in Haiku''

Notes

External links

The Nick Virgilio Poetry Project at Rutgers University Camden Campus.
* ttp://www.hsa-haiku.org/hsa-contests.htm#virgilio Nicholas A. Virgilio Memorial Haiku Competition for Grades 7-12- Haiku Society of America.
Nick Virgilio: A Life in Haiku
- Turtle Light Press. * {{DEFAULTSORT:Virgilio, Nick 1928 births 1989 deaths English-language haiku poets United States Navy personnel of World War II American poets of Italian descent Camden High School (New Jersey) alumni Writers from Camden, New Jersey Temple University alumni Burials at Harleigh Cemetery, Camden 20th-century American poets