Cruising 99 by Garrett Kaoru Hongo
"Cruising 99" is a prominent poem by Garrett Kaoru Hongo, featured in his collection "Yellow Light." At thirteen pages long, it stands out as Hongo's longest poem, expressing a rich tapestry of experiences through a variety of line lengths, meters, and moods. The poem weaves together a narrative journey along Highway 99, an iconic route connecting the West Coast, reflecting Hongo's exploration of his origins and identity alongside friends. Influenced by Beat generation poets like Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg, Hongo incorporates elements of jazz and meditation, creating a dynamic interplay of voices and themes.
Throughout the poem, Hongo delves into nostalgic and contemporary perspectives, seeking truth and cultural significance in a complex world. His vivid depictions of Southern California's landscapes serve as a backdrop for a broader quest for meaning and connectedness, echoing the democratic spirit of Walt Whitman. "Cruising 99" not only celebrates Hongo's Japanese heritage but also his American upbringing, making it a significant contribution to Asian American literature. The poem's collaborative roots with fellow poets Alan Chong Lau and Lawson Fusao Inada further emphasize its collective cultural exploration.
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Cruising 99 by Garrett Kaoru Hongo
Excerpted from an article in Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition
First published: 1978 (collected in Yellow Light, 1982)
Type of work: Poem
The Work
At thirteen pages and with nine sections, “Cruising 99” is the longest poem in Hongo’s collection Yellow Light. It is also the poem that uses the most variety of line length, meter, stanza, and mood. Though there is a narrative thread to the poem, it is a thin one, broken up with both jazz lyrics and meditative monologue. The many voices Hongo uses in the poem caused one critic to call him “the Rich Little of Asian American writing.” His facility is evident, as he stretches readers’ minds and limbers his own creative sinews by experimenting with forms and focus. His indebtedness to Beat generation writers such as Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg is evident, as is his love of music. Hongo dedicated the volume to his wife, violinist and musicologist Cynthia Thiessen.
Highway 99 is an old route that connects the inland cities of the West Coast from Mexico to Canada. Hongo’s “cruise” along it took him and two friends around Southern California, an area they knew well. In describing rich landscapes of walnut groves, arroyos, and manzanita, Hongo is also obsessively searching for some compelling truths about his own origins and identity as the car heads for a town called Paradise. He has remarked that such preoccupations are “more than a nostalgia or even a semi-learned atavism, though these things certainly play their parts. It is rather a way to isolate, and to uphold, cultural and moral value in a confusing time and environment.”
As the title suggests, the poem offers an expansive journey that is a search for connectedness and meaning. It is reminiscent of the poetry of Walt Whitman, whom Hongo celebrated in a 1992 essay published in The Massachusetts Review and whom Hongo counts as an important influence in developing his own spiritual optimism. Highway 99 is a useful metaphor because so many people have traveled it or live near it. Like elements of Whitman’s vision, it is democratic and encompasses many people, each with a different experience and each with an experience that is changing. Such change creates for Hongo both journey and myth.
The poem was originally published as Hongo’s section of The Buddha Bandits down Highway 99, an early collaborative effort with fellow Asian American poets Alan Chong Lau and Lawson Fusao Inada, who are the two friends who accompany him down Highway 99. The poets believe in illuminating cultural history with ethnic connectedness, and they use jazzy rhythms and verbal syncopations to record sensations and to achieve enlightenment. Because Hongo also selected “Cruising 99” for inclusion in The Open Boat, it is clearly an important poem to him. It is a tour de force in which Hongo celebrates both the past of his Japanese heritage and the present of his American upbringing.
Bibliography
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Ikeda, Stewart David. “The Open Boat: Poems from Asian America.” Ploughshares 20, no. 1 (Spring, 1994): 202-205.
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Pettingell, Phoebe. “The River of Heaven.” The New Leader 71, no. 10 (June 13, 1988): 16.
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Yu, Larry. “Under Western Eyes: Personal Essays from Asian America.” Amerasia Journal 22, no. 3 (Winter, 1996): 169-172.