 |
|
 |
|
|
|
|
If I Met Basho, edited by W.F. Owen (San
Francisco, Calif.: Two Autumns
Press, 2005). 29 pages, 5.25 x 8.5 saddle-stapled.
No ISBN. $8.00 plus $1.00 in stamps for postage
from HPNC at 303 Holly St, Mill Valley, CA 94941.
The chapbook commemorating the sixteenth installment
of the Haiku
Poets of Northern California’s annual reading
series features four talented
poets: Patrick Gallagher, Pamela Miller Ness, Laurie
W. Stoelting, and Karma
Tenzing Wangchuk. The editor has done a fi ne job
of selecting varied work
from each poet, so the reader gets a full taste
of the poet’s range. This is a consistently
strong series. A selection from each of the four
poets:
garden pond after
tadpoles dreaming
about their legs to come
Patrick
Gallagher
all these years
ankle deep
in the other ocean
Pamela
Miller Ness
if I met Basho
I would be older than he
how long this road home
Laurie
W. Stoelting
beads of water
on the manzanita leaf
none touch
Karma
Tenzing Wangchuk
Red Rock Yellow Stone, by Edwin Firmage
(Salt Lake City, Utah: Firmageditions, 2005).
108 pages, 10.75 x 13.5, perfectbound. ISBN
0-9765693-1-0. $34.95 from Amazon.com
This coffee table book is remarkable for its
stunning color photographs
of America’s western national parks —
Yellowstone, Bryce Canyon, Zion,
Grand Canyon — but those, in combination
with more than fifty haiku from
Japanese masters (most translations care of
R.H. Blyth, Makoto Ueda, or David Lanoue) and
twenty-five haiku from Firmage himself, make
this volume
a rare and exciting combination. The photographs
themselves vary from the
majestic to the intimate. The relationship between
the poems and photographs
is more often than not similar to linking in
renku, where each piece stands on
its own, the two disciplines not crowding each
other, yet the combination expands beyond the
limits of each. Firmage’s own poems fit
well, and the reader
can easily sense the awe he feels in our greatest
assets:
boulder and sand bar —
all one
to the river
Turn to the Earth, by Peter Yovu. ISBN
1-893823-16-4.
Crumb Moves the Ant, by Geri Barton. ISBN
1-893823-15-6.
Seaside Moon, by Deborah P. Kolodji. ISBN
1-893823-17-2.
Natural Haiku, by Joseph P. McCauley.
ISBN 1-893823-18-0.
All Normal, Ill.: Saki Press, 2005. 5.25 x 4.5,
saddle-stapled. Available for $5.00 each (plus
postage each $0.60 U.S., $0.98 Canada/Mexico,
or $2.55 overseas) from Saki Press (checks payable
to “Lenore Hutton”), 1021 West Gregory,
Normal, IL 61761.
The four winners of the 2004–05 Virgil Hutton
Chapbook Contest vary in style as well as poetic
maturity. Grand Prize winner Peter Yovu is a mature
poet with an experienced sense of line. The seasonal
references in Turn to the Earth work well
to bring together the poet’s inner and outer
experiences:
rain all morning
the privacy
of minnows
Likewise, Crumb Moves the Ant, by Geri
Barton, contains a number of strong
poems that speak to our collective daily lives:
these forget-me-nots
turning up
in strange places
The poems in Seaside Moon, by Deborah
Kolodji, are for the most part local
to the Southern California area. Her style is
more shasei than the previous two
poets, and many work well.
Black’s Beach
red-faced by the location
of her sunburn
The fourth book, Natural Haiku, by Joseph
McCauley, is from someone still
new to writing haiku. Many of the poems explain
too much and the syntax
often feels forced. The capitalization of all
letters is also distracting. I suspect
what made this book move up in the pile are the
chapbook’s photographs.
WHEN THE BRANCH GAVE WAY
THE HAWK AWAKENED TO
THE STRENGTH OF HER WINGS
Feel of the Handrail, edited by Yvonne
Cabalona and W.F. Owen (Modesto,
Calif.: Leaning Bamboo Press, 2005). 32 pages,
5.25 x 8.5, saddle-stapled. No
ISBN. $7.00 postpaid from Yvonne Cabalona, 709
Auburn Street, Modesto,
CA 95350.
The second collection from California’s
Central Valley Haiku Club. Poets include Yvonne
Cabalona, Mark Hollingsworth, Claris Moore, W.F.
Owen, Lane Parker, Leslie Rose, and June Shook.
Many of the poems do what the best haiku should,
provide a direct sensory experience that reaches
beyond itself as in the title poem:
nursing home
the feel
of the handrail
No Clues, by S.B. Friedman (Greenfi eld,
Mass.: Tribe Press, 2005). 2 pages,
15 x 4, letterpress-printed, hand-bound, accordion-folded.
No ISBN. $4.00
postpaid from the author at 119 Nevada St., San
Francisco, CA 94110.
Number 9 in the Pinch Book Series. Ten poems
that cover a wide spectrum of events and emotions.
cold season —
the herbalist gets a taste
of her own medicine
Letters In Time, by Michael McClintock
(South Pasadena, Calif.: Hermitage West, 2005).
78 pages, 5.25 x 6.75, perfectbound. ISBN 0-9770259-0-X.
$10.00 postpaid from Hermitage West, PO Box
124, South Pasadena, CA 91031.
Subtitled “Sixty Short Poems,” this
collection has more tanka than haiku, but, as
can be expected from McClintock, both are of
the fi nest quality.
each there
for the other
moon and pine
Double Rainbow, by Maeve O’Sullivan
and Kim Richardson (Uxbridge, U.K.: Alba Publishing,
2005). 48 pages, 5.75 x 8.25, perfectbound. ISBN
0-9551254-0-5. £8.70 postpaid by International
Money Order from the U.S. from Alba Publishing,
PO Box 266, Uxbridge, UB9 5NX, U.K.
The two authors divide the book’s ninety-two
haiku and senryu into thematic sections. A nice
variety of style throughout.
mortgage down-payment
outside
snails on the wet stone steps
Maeve
O’Sullivan
fuchsia bushes
drenched
in bees
Kim
Richardson
A Shower of Blossoms, by Elehna de Sousa
(Salt Spring Island, B.C.: Rainshadow Books, 2005).
40 pages, 4.25 x 5.5, saddle-stapled. ISBN 0-9738238-0-1.
US$11.00 postpaid from the author at 401 Reynolds
Road, Salt Spring Island, BC, V8K 1Y3.
A charming hand-produced book with small, pasted-in
photos that tells in haiku the seasonal changes
at the poet’s Salt Spring Island.
another log on the fire—
my fingers fragrant
with balsam sap
Små silhuetter: Haiku antologi,
edited by Sys Matthiesen ([Vordingborg,] Denmark:
Attika, 2005). 88 pages. 147 x 207 mm, perfectbound.
ISBN 87-7528-615-7. No price information; contact
Hanne Hansen, Ringstedgade, 1, 3. ter, 2100 Copenhagen
9, Denmark.
This omnibus volume adds a handful of haiku by
each of eight authors to a collection of historical
and how-to essays. Included, for example, are
a translation of the (old) Haiku Society of America
definitions of haiku and senryu; “Global
Haiku,” Hanne Hansen’s talk at the World
Haiku Association Conference in Tenri, Japan,
in 2003; and the editor’s survey of the Internet
haiku scene.
En orörd sträng: Dag Hammarskjölds
liv i haiku och fotografier, by Kaj Falkman
(Stockholm: Ordfront förlag, 2005). 160
pages. 145 x 175 mm, casebound with x 175 mm,
casebound with x wrappers. ISBN 91-7037-182-2.
SKr 218,— from the publisher at Ordfront
förlag, POB 17506, 118 91 Stockholm, Sweden,
or <forlaget@ordfront.se>.
Ambassador Falkman has compiled a stunning
book of the haiku and photographs of his countryman
(and forerunner in the Swedish diplomatic service)
Dag Hammarskjöld. Falkman digs deep into
the childhood memories and professional travels
of the polymath Hammarskjöld, and his explanations
of the roots of the haiku are indispensable
for an understanding of the writings of one
of the first Westerners to use haiku as a journaling
device.
Phantasm of Flowers, by Toshio Kimura
(London: Stylograph, 2002). 48 pages, 5.75
x 8.5, perfectbound. No ISBN. $12.00 in bills
or International Postal Money Order postpaid
from the author at 4-31-8 Seijo Setagaya-ku,
Tokyo, 157-0066, Japan.
An interesting collection of fifty haiku
in English by one of the rising stars of the
Gendai Haiku Kyokai (“Modern Haiku Association”).
Many of the haiku use keywords in place of
the traditional kigo. An interesting new voice.
Meow meow the violin
kicking the moon
and there goes moo
|
|
|
|
© 2006 Modern Haiku • PO Box 1570 • Santa Rosa Beach, FL 32459
|
|
