29:1
Febuary, 2014

BOOK REVIEWS

                              
cloudeatsmountain, by William Hart, Red Moon Press, PO Box 2461, Winchester, VA, 22604-1661, USA, 4.5 X 6.5 paper back, unnumbered pages, www.redmoonpress.com, © 2013
ISBN 978-936848-24-9
Review by Dennis (chibi) Holmes

cloudeatsmountain, has three-line English poems, one per page, in varying positions on a white background page. The title, sans spaces, acts as a visual metaphor, I feel. The poems are rather concise and presented in a clever use of space and subject.
William uses personification in his poems about nature and the first poem in the book is a good example (centered in middle page):

cloud glutton
you swallow a mountain
then fall asleep

The poems  continue in that style throughout the book. Some of William’s poems stretch time beyond the moment entangling objects in the time-line, as this poem masters:

while we dreamed
a lily bloomed
in the gift bouquet

This seems more a three line statement, but, has the “ah-ha” element prized in good three-line short poems. Some more on the traditional lines:

spring wind
a rose petal chases
a candy wrapper

I like the juxtaposition of wind, but, still contains personification of the objects. To some, this is desired, although, my understanding that the mark of good short poetry tries to avoid such personifications (a tenant of Shiki’s “sketch” of showing just what is without too much conjecturing).
I like William’s eye in this one:

airport carousel
a suitcase appears
with butterfly aboard

A clever play between “airport” and “aboard”.  And another later in the book:

high in the wind
an October butterfly
travels alone

This poem, to me, shows an appreciation of natural circumstance in that butterflies are more prevalent in warmer months, whereas, this butterfly carries a foreboding of an ill wind implied indirectly by the use of “alone”.  Although, I think the poem would have more impact if “travels” were removed.
I enjoyed the fun, William, can express in his choice of
words in this one:

eating cheerios
with my old buddy
winter moon

The “O” shape throughout this poem is a delight, cheeriOs, Old, and mOOn!

William’s style is delightful to read (although as I said I personally prefer less personification).  I would say a thumb flip through this small book will give the reader a way to find a poem for their day.

Faces I Might Wear,Tanka, by Carol Purington , Winfred Press, 364 Wilson Hill Road,Colrain, MA,01340, USA, 6 X 9 paper back, 131 numbered pages, contact address:
Carol Purington  carolpuringtonbooks@gmail.com, © 2013
ISBN 978-0-9832298-7-2
Review by Dennis (chibi) Holmes

Faces I Might Wear, is a book of English tanka; and, as Carol expresses in her Foreword, “… Because profound differences exist between Japanese and English poetics, I choose to write tanka that are flexible in syllable count and line length.  … “Her tanka attempt “an implicit sensibility” as she also says in her Foreword.
Her book contains tanka written over the past 20 years. She feels her tanka have given her a means, like Akiko Yosano, to inhabit lives of women different from herself.
The first page of poems in Carol’s book has a black and white photo of pussy willows (photo credit: Elizabeth Purington) dominating the page with Carol’s poem in tanka style,  underneath:

Missing
the softness of pussywillows —
  spring is late
    the one who used to pick them
    lives in a different latitude

This poem meets Carol’s desires as expressed in her foreword to evoke an “implicit sensibility” between the reader and the poet.  She accomplishes this by the use of key words and phrases that compliment and focus sensibility.  She uses “Missing” as the first line, then, gives the reader a tactile sense expressed in the object, “pussywillows” which tells not only what is missing but an emotional perch on which the reader can relate through shared experience.  The last two lines set the scene reemphasizing “missing” combined with a loneliness shown by “lives in a different latitude”.  Carol crafts a contrast in the softness of the pussywillow with the harshness of loss because of distance, but, the promise of freshness through the renewal within the season of spring.  This is a deeply layered poem as a good tanka style poem should be, I feel. 
Most of the poems within Carol’s book are not accompanied by photos, and stand on their own. I found one that has a particular edge:

On a Deft-blue plate
the strawberries he picked
while I sulked
and set the stove timer
so his biscuits would burn

Another accompanying a photo contains (perhaps) a seed metaphor:

White butterflies whirl
around pink cosmos
      planted
on a day when I feared wind
would snatch all my seeds

Carol’s “wh…” with “white” and “whirl” reminds one of the antics of a butterfly and the pink cosmos contrast to the white( I believe white cosmos are not common) set a beautiful scene. Although, the implied force of the wind to cause the butterfly to whirl also threatens to snatch her seeds. I paused at the ending phrase, “… snatch all my seeds” to wonder the layers of sensibility.

I’ll close the review with another sample showing Carol’s skill at phrases evoking multiple layers of sensitivity leading to a collective sensibility by connective word weave:

Homesick for summer …
the hermit thrush drops its song
from a high place
deep within the stereo
of a snow bound birder

“Homesick for summer” sets the emotions to stir and if you’re a birder or know the techniques used for birding, “…deep within the stereo of a snow bound birder” will rivet you on the spot. Just listen! If I were to set a single catchphrase for Carol’s poems, I would say, “Just listen” to them… carefully.

The Last Leaf Decides, Poems of Life, Love, Loss, and Life Again in Haiku & Other Forms, by Robert Henry Poulin, Published by Colt Press, Inc., P.O. Box 961163, Boston, Massachusetts 02196, 5 X 8 Paperback 185 numbered pages. © 2013
ISBN 978-0-984506811
Review by Dennis (chibi) Holmes

The Last Leaf Decides, has a dedication for Nancy Ford Poulin who passed in 1996. Many of the poems in Robert’s book resonate this loss. His book is divided into sections, numbered 1 – 4. The poems in each indicate a season starting with spring in section 1, and ending with winter in section 4. The poems are mostly presented in three lines, but, I found five, two, and one line forms. I feel a poem from each section will give a sample of Robert’s style and heart:

big
chrysanthemum fist
smacking my face

plum wind
holding a bouquet
of blossoms

rain
and your tears
on my face
such a torrent
against me

I don’t know the snowflakes of the storm —
now my night is gone

Robert’s poetry is crisp and simple.  His skill allows him to express and convey strong emotional lines that can softly vibrate the reader.

Dupa Furtuna –poeme tanka-, After The Tempest –tanka poems, by Vasile Moldovan, Copyright 2013, Societatea Scriitorilor Romani, Bucuresti, paperback 5.5 X 8, 99 numbered pages.
ISBN 978-606-8412-08-5
Review by Dennis (chibi) Holmes

Dupa Furtuna – poeme tanka – After The Tempest –tanka poems-,  has eight sections varying with 8 to 20 tanka poems, both in Romanian with English translations, two poems per page, throughout each section.  The section titles indicate the topics approached in the collection of poems:
Desteptarea primaverii / Awakening of Spring
Arsita verii / Summer Heat
Dupa furtuna / After the Tempest
Chemarea marrii / The Call of Sea
Asuritoare linisi / Deafening Silences
Valurile vietii / Waves of Life
In asfintit / In Twilight
Cu zambetul pe buze / With a Smile on the Lips (quioka)

There are drawing illustrations at the beginning of each section with a subject connected to the theme of that section, for example, in Despeptarea Primaverii Awakening Of Spring there is a drawing of budding flowers which is followed by two poems on the facing page (Romanian with English translation):

Flore ratacita
printer focuri de artificii,
anul ce s-a dus…
ae pur in casa veche
mireasma cetinii de brad

A flower lost
among the fireworks,
the yesteryear…
fresh air in the old house
fragrance of fir branches

Quite alone.

Amici De-O Clipa, Friends For A Moment, haiku, senryu, tanka by Vali Iancu, Coperta si grafica: Dumitru Rosu, Traducerea in engleza: Ana si Dumitru Rosu Technoedactare:Alexandru Petrea , Descierea CIP a Bibliotecii Nationale a Romaniei, Bucuresti,: Betta 2013 paperback 5 X 8, 133 numbered pages.
ISBN 978-973-92346-0-8
Review by Dennis (chibi) Holmes

Amici De-O Clipa, Friends For A Moment, has a Foreword by the author, that I would like to quote statements I feel important to understanding the author’s idea of haiku,”… Behind the simplicity of haiku an aesthetic is hiding, that allows to be revealed only by those who believe that poetry means something else than what they already knew. …” and the Foreword ends with, “ … The haiku is the poetry of instance”.  These statements support the “sketch” idea introduced by Masoaka Shiki, the Japanese poet who established haiku as a Japanese literary form. Although, Vali’s book contains haiku, senryu, and tanka-like poetry, the Foreword focused on haiku.
Vali flows her poems in a seasonal sequence starting with spring, and ending the haiku-type poems with Winter.  Vali continues with other sections: Meditation; Senryu; and, Tanka.  In these sections I found Meditation and Senryu to be similar, in form, but, the Senryu had more a traditional haiku-feel, to me, in that it contained strong seasonal references (I will give example, later in this review).
Vali’s haiku-type poems follow a traditional flow with characteristics found in Japanese haiku, some with cut and seasonal references.  For example  in Vali’s Spring section (each section has two poems on a set of pages, the even numbered page containing the Romanian, and the odd numbered pages, the English translation, the exception being when an illustration, a sort of haiga with the Romanian within the illustration is on the odd numbered page, only one poem with Romanian and English translation is on the facing page):

Iar primavera-                                      Spring again
aceeasi tresarire                                    the same start in people
in om si-n mugur.                                  and in buds.

Pictat in galben                         Yellow painted
in mijlocul panselei                                in the middle of a pansy
mereu in fluture.                                    always a butterfly.

I am unsure about the aesthetics in translation, but, one of the tenets of modern popular Japanese haiku is to avoid too much repetition; and, although, both the poems have a repeat of season (Spring and buds, in the first) and (pansy and butterfly, in the second), Vali’s sense of form and position make the break with the less repetition “suggestion” work.  The “cut” in the first line of the first is straightforward; and, in the second pivots on “always” another risk in making the poem a poetry of “instance” for “always” indicates a continuation rather than momentary.  The “always” in this “instance” does give the reader a feel of revealing “something else than they already knew”, though.
As to the Meditation and Senryu sections… Meditation poem:

Vechea oglinda-
timpul in linii adanci
pe acelasi chip.

Old mirror-
time in deep line
on the same face.

Seems to me this has an underlying meditational feel, but, could be along the lines of a senryu, due to the lack of seasonal reference (if one subscribes to the notion that senryu tends not to be a reference to seasonal nature but rather human nature).
On the other hand, Vali’s senryu:

Autumn abundance-
electoral sheets spread
all over the market.

The reference to autumn leans this more toward the haiku-type.
I admit, today, as well as in the past decade, adaptations to Japanese poetry forms such as haiku, senryu and tanka can promote a high degree of confusion as to just what is what, but, my final approach to it all is whether I enjoy it.  And, I did and do enjoy Vali Iancu’s poems.

Duhul Ciresului, Cherry Tree Spirit –Haiku-, by Oprica Padeanu; translator: Vasile Moldovan; ed.: Tatiana Barbuceanu, Descierea CIP a Bibliotecii Nationale a Romaniei, Bucuresti :Verus, 2012 paperback 5.5 X 8, 109 numbered pages.
ISBN 978-606-8343-12-9
Review by Dennis (chibi) Holmes

 Duhul Ciresului, Cherry Tree Spirit –haiku-, has four sections:
Cuiburi de lunina / Nests of light;
Cunana de spice / Wreath of ears;
Colb de stele / Stary dust; and,
Scrasnetul cariilor / Gnawing of death watch beetles.
Each page has two poems in Romanian and an English translation. There is a standard filigree of a stylized flower in the center of vine tendrils separating each set.
Oprica’s uses the modern haiku standard of three lines using an explicit or implied cut and includes a seasonal reference. Oprica’s is quite skilled in her styling of her poems, some paint a surreal fantasy scene, for example the poem on which the book takes its title:

Stapanul placat,
duhul ciresului
strajuie casa

The owner is far away
but the cherry tree spirit
watches the house

I’ve found many of the poems a bit abstract (at least in the English translation) and slightly distracting, although, I sense this is Oprica’s style. I recognize that translations are difficult and some of the English need a bit of grammar editing. I have to admit I was most intrigued about the possible poems in Scrasnetul cariilor / Gnawing of death watch beetles. But, as I examined them they were more or less about the close of the year. I did enjoy:

Mos Craciun incalzit
de lumina dradului-
flori de geata pe geam

Santa Claus warmed
by the light of Christmas tree—
frost flowers on the window

I liked the scene with Santa and the juxtaposition of the frost flowers. It’s a cheer filled picture! No gnawing of death watch beetles here.

Finding Treasure, a haibun renga by Amelia Fielden, Anne Benjamin, Carmel Summers, Jan Foster, Jane Reichhold, Keitha Keyes & Marilyn Humbert. Available on-line at Haibun Renga Corner: http://www.haibunrenga.com/finding-treasure.html

Reviewed by David Terelinck.

The title of this haibun renga becomes a vital clue to what will happen as readers open the cover and turn each page. There are indeed treasures to be found inside this small chap-book of poetic works.

The treasures that are revealed to us come through observations of the natural environment. This includes sunset across the lake, opals and underground living, the threat of devastation by fire, the meditative calm of forest and beach, and the unexpectedness of a full moon rising up.

Nature is a predominant theme within this haibun renga, but not only the nature observed around us. There is also the nature of individual exposure to the challenges of life. And from this internal vista arises the treasure of one finding oneself in control when control seems the least viable option available at the time:

White Glare

The specialist is kindly but clear: the options are yours now, not theirs. Yours to choose the rest of your life. You choose, simply, as you always have.

a white glare
in the mottled sky –
is it dawn or early night?

In this short work within the collective Anne Benjamin clearly demonstrates the power of these short masterpieces. A potent message is delivered with sensitive style and delivery. Neither the prose or the poetic lines seek to explain each other; they work in harmony to make the whole greater than the individual parts.

And this is equally true for the overall work of Finding Treasure. Each poet’s work can be read individually as a complete vignette and stands alone with integrity. But together they complete a lyrical journey of awakening and awareness of our inner and outer environments. Each writer has the ability to gently dovetail from the preceding work, yet leaves sufficient room for the following poet to link and shift without being blatantly obvious.

Nothing is over-explained or fully fleshed out. Each poet’s sensibly leaves the reader with enough elbow room to place their own interpretation upon intuitive meaning of the words. An example is Amelia Fielden’s observation of spring awakening in her world on the morning of a departure. She finishes with the following renga lines:

as always
missing something here
missing something there

The reader does not have to have this intangibility spelt out to them. It is for them to insert their own desires into this picture and then nod and say, ‘yes, I know what Amelia means.’

In Finding Treasure there is no flaccid, redundant, or verbose writing. What we have is a journey of awakening to the treasures of life. And a revelation that there are treasures to be found among the challenges of adversity as well. We have so many examples of originality and individuality. Yet within the distinctive voices of these writers is a cohesiveness that sees them blend sensuously together to paint a greater masterpiece than each individual colour can convey.

It may well be that these seven poets are magicians at their craft. They have the ability to take a handful of words and spin these into golden threads of awareness. These haibun renga poets have the ability to create their own alchemy in order to share ordinary moments of life with readers in the most extraordinary ways:

I wonder
at the beauty
of Nature’s alchemy

Keitha Keyes.

Petrichor, Anthology of Short Verse, produced by Brendan Slater, Illustrated by Johannes S. H. Bjerg, contributing poets: Pamela A. Babusci, Collin Barber, Claire Everett, Colin Stewart Jones, Kenneth Slaughter, and Jeffery Winke, published by Yet To Be Named Free Press, Stroke-on-Trent, England, 5 X 8 paperback, 151 numbered pages, ISBN: 9781492823063,©2013
Reviewed by Dennis (chibi) Holmes

The anthology contains a forward by Brendan Slater which posits that within the anthology the reader should find at least one poem that inspires a reevaluation of the reader’s world and entreats us to read Petrichor “… with an open heart and mind, …”.  I agree, the best way to read poetry is within such a posture.

Petrichor has a section for each of the contributing authors:
lying in a field, Pamela A. Babusci
Further Down the Starlit Road, Collin Barber
Sticks and Stones, Claire Everett
Love, Slugs & other Drinks, Collin Stewart Jones
Secrets, Kenneth Slaughter
The Stillness, Jeffrey Winke

I found a representative poem from each section more or less based on the title of the section. I feel this indeed sets the tone of each section. Each section has around 20 poems with interspersed black and white illustrations by Johannes S. H. Berg. The last section in Petrichor gives the bio of each of the contributing authors in the same order in which they are presented in the anthology (alphabetically by last name).
Pamela Babusci’s section, “lying in a field” exposes feelings during the struggle with malaise.  Her first poem sets her section’s tone:

having cancer
& losing all my hair
this humbling journey
has brought me closer
to my sisters & God

Collin Barber’s section, “Further Down the Starlit Road” sets a mood for questioning one’s path found within the sometimes dark side of the mundane. I, also selected his first poem as representative:

staring into
the refrigerator’s
cold breath
I look for something
that isn’t there

Claire Everett’s section, “Sticks and Stones” suggests evidence of struggle, strain, and action manifest in the physical, although, a deeper layer is evidenced. Claire’s poem with the first line as the title of her section exemplifies her section’s tone:

sticks and stones
all that’s left of the roost
in the lightning tree…
we pack what we carry
take the first Northbound train

Colin Stewart Jones’ “Love, Slugs & other Drinks” title gives a heavy hint of the struggle exposed in his poetry.  I selected a representative poem:

the half moon
tips at a funny angle
my first shot
beginning the war
with a Mescal worm

Kenneth Slaughter’s, “Secrets” contains short poems, too, but one longer poem, with the same title as the section reveals the “secret” of his section:

Secrets
at four AM
the katydids
stop chirping…
all my worries
have come to nothing

lying in bed
no strength to lift
this day
a stack of what-ifs
sitting on my chest

invisible fence
on a yard we walk by
the dog paces
while I ponder
what to say next

my wife finds
a longhorned beetle
on our tree -
what will it take
to save this marriage?

all the ducks
take flight a once…
secrets
everyone else
seems to know

Jeffrey Winke’s, “The Stillness” section gives the feel of nightlife with music and light.  His first poem sets the scene:

the stillness
in the full jazz club…
that first note

I do not feel I’ve given the sections within Petrichor their proper due as all explore and expose a deeper emotional tone and mood than can be given in a review. To get their dark and smoky depths layered with emotions that could resonate in anyone going through such experiences, one must read more of their words. The selection of poems I chose are just the surface. I recommend a deeper dive.

Journeys Far and Near: tanka roads by Sanford Goldstein. Inkling Press, POB 52014. Edmonton, Canada: 2013. Flat-spined, 81 pages, 5.25 x 8.25. Send a check for $25 to Magpie Productions, POB 52014, Edmonton, Alberta, T6G2T5.
Review by Jane Reichhold

Thank goodness Sanford knows how to value his work! While cleaning out old files of correspondence he discovered this cache of poems. Someone else  had already begun to correct and arrange them into a book. Like a fine day the poems took their goodness and disappeared again. During the summer of 2013 Goldstein reviewed the lost-found-lost-found works, added some new poems and made changes in others. The work is now divided into  series of tanka on the subjects of his relationships. Printed one or two to a page, the poems give the reader glimpses into Sanford’s life over the last ten years. If you are seeking the truth of his daily inner life, here among the hints and tanka twists one is permitted to completely view the whole man with an honesty I have not seen before in his writings.

From ‘sister’ section:

bitterness
in my brother’s
ailing voice.
the long silences of my sister
in her limited wheel-chair world

Illness

I try to bring down
my enormous blood pressure
gone berserk,
I write a mind-poem
on the corridor wall

Houses Old and New

the Japanese spirit of
Yomato-damashii remains
with me now,
my ill friend out in the cold
building my Snow Country rural house

Soulmate

my soulmate
tells me he will plant
plum to blossom
these will bloom over my pin-point ashes
in the garden by our rural home

This too-late Life

sad and miserable
my older friend confesses
and I reply,
am I not the very same?
let’s toss dimes against the wall

Faith

what soothes me
these horrific terrorist days,
my kid’s dog,
its precious eyes starring,
its devotion in its tail

Tanka Riverby Jim Wilson. Trade-paperback, 5.5 x 8.5, 192 pages, music for 7 tanka melodies. Available at Amazon.com for $10.80. ISBN-10: 1490550755
ISBN-13: 978-1490550756.
Review by Jane Reichhold

Within this book lies a marvelous gem. Surrounded by tanka written on the usual tanka subjects – loss, regret, aging, dissatisfaction – is a section named “Still Life” on page 92. Here Jim Wilson demonstrates a new and very valuable way of finding and fulfilling the greater tanka spirit. The tanka in this section have the depth of unspoken feeling that is so often missing in all the other tanka because there is no mention of humanity. Tanka about things! How marvelous. They have the feel of well-tailored “Tender Buttons” from Gertrude Stein. Congratulations to Jim for making this huge step for the rest of us.
Because Jim writes his tanka in strict syllable count, it was possible for him to write several melodies, which are included in the book, to fit to any of the poems. He gives the musically inclined is the opportunity of singing the poems. This feature is also new (in the English tanka world) and makes it even more imperative that other tanka poets see what Jim is doing for this poetry form.

So I have cheated. The above is borrowed back from my Amazon review of Jim’s book. I want to share with you, however, here are some of the poems from the Still Life section. I find these so elemental, so exactly real that Wilson is able to elevate the smallest simplest images into poetry.

Still Life with Sandals

On the wooden steps
A pair of leather sandals
Next to the front door
A pot of geraniums
With the label still attached

Still Life with Steam

Steam slowly rising
From the white porcelain bowl
Of macaroni and cheese
And non-alcoholic beer
In a gold-labeled bottle

Still Life with Letter

A calculator
A letter that’s been opened
From the IRS
Next to a bottle of beer
The page-a-day calendar

I love these tiny intimate glimpses into a life not my own but yet such a deep part of our shared humanity. I would like to see more tanka written from this perspective. I think it has great potential for getting our tanka out of this “oh woe is me” rut in which way too much of English and Japanese tanka wallows.

While following Wilson’s example I hope other writers will avoid that step backwards in the use of caps as he does to begin each line and the unnecessary title. In spite of the fact that Jim is a strong proponent of counting syllables, still his tanka end up close enough to the length of 75% of English tanka that it is not really an issue. His tanka are so full and rich that the reader never feels that Wilson has padded the line to make the count.

Just This - Tanka by Margaret Chula. Mountains and Rivers Press: 2013. Trade paperback, 5.5 x8.5, 86 pages, indexed, $16. Order from http:mountainandriverspress.orgReviewed by Jane Reichhold.

It is quite a leap to close Wilson’s book of tanka and open Just This by Chula. Margaret Chula, with her years of living in Japan, closely follows the examples of modern tanka. Her poems are spare, often a line will contain one to three words. There are no caps or punctuation to get in the way of the words. The images and the word contain the grace and elegance of the courtly way of writing tanka. She is such an expert that there is never a word wrong or out of place. The reader is lulled into silken luxury of perfection

Margaret may have learned her tanka smarts from the Japanese, but she is a real woman and a brave one, even in these times of honesty.

when I was twenty
I sang like Mozart’s
Queen of the Night
now I hum like a cello
between the legs of a lover

From this sample you can clearly see how classical is her use of pivot — exactly there in the middle. She makes the change in time right on cue so adroitly that until someone points it out, her tanka just feel perfect.

Anyone wishing to learn how to write tanka should buy Chula’s book as study aid to explore the finest example of the form. Margaret is poet enough to be able also to offer some marvelous twists that so enliven tanka.

those half-empty jars
of her cosmetics
why did I keep them?
rubbing in face cream
I feel my mother’s bones

I feel tanka need more of this kind of vision — where the poet’s spot-on fantasy takes our minds where none have gone before.
Oh, the book is beautifully made and the cover photo speaks worlds about life, tanka and Margaret Chula.

micro haiku – three to nine syllables by George Swede. Inspress, 2014. Trade paperback.  5.5 x 8.5, 108 pages, $15. Order from Inspress, Box 309, Station P, Toronto, ON, M5S 2S8 or azarins3@gmail.com

Reviewed by Jane Reichhold

The purpose of this book, as stated by George Swede, is to make the haiku even shorter and to demonstrate that even with only three to nine syllables the poems can create a resonance. From the title one can see that he, too is seeking for a better word for his work.

These poems are short. Some are one-liners and some are so short they cannot even be called ‘haiku’ because they contain, at best only two images and not the three required by the haiku form. Even when he puts the words into three lines, they still often do not make a haiku. There! I have said what was bothering me. Now I will let you see some of the work to see what you think of it.

Page 34

winter morning   her cold pajamas

                        Cicada, 1980

Page 41

watch repair shop   broken icicle

                        Cicada, 1980.

Page 53

half-dug grave    lunch hour

                        Poetry Toronto, 1981.

Each of the 105 pages of this book contain one of these shortened haiku. Does this style give me license to write a very short review? Anyhow, welcome to the first book of the new year – an honor he will have to share with Pamela Babusci and her book of tanka.

A Solitary Woman – Tanka by Pamela A. Babusci.  Trade Paper-Back, 5.5 x 8.5 , 76 pages, $15. Available at the Createspace e-store: https://www.createspace.com/4456445. Introduction by David Terelinck. Cover Art Still Water Bath by Larry DeKock, oil painting. For a signed copy contact moongate44@gmail.com . ISBN-13: 978-1492846741 ISBN-10: 1492846740 
Reviewed by Jane Reichhold

When I first opened this book and began reading of all the people involved in the making of it, I was struck by the contrast to the title. Babusci may see herself as a woman alone in the world, but she has the distinct ability to garner the talents and cooperation of a large number of persons.
I found the introduction by David Terelinck, of Australia, to be especially well-written and luminary with his sensitive insights into Babusci’s tanka poems. The best review one could give this book would be to reprint his words.

Even the blurbs on the back cover seemed to be the best reasons for getting a copy of this book:

"There are many reasons to fall in love with A Solitary Woman. I did! Lovely, sensuous, brave, spirited tanka in the tradition of Izumi Shikubu, Yosano Akiko, Akitsu Ei and countless others who took the joys and pains of love, life and loss and transformed them into poetry. Hats off to Ms.Babusci for digging deep and unearthing the light in even the darkest moments of the heart. The ancient tradition of tanka lives on around the world, and Ms. Babusci is testament to its enduring power and grace."

--Leza Lowitz,  Editor of A Long Rainy Season: Contemporary Haiku and Tanka by Japanese Women and Author, Green Tea to Go: Stories from Tokyo

Pamela A. Babusci is an artist. When she writes tanka she "puts a brush into paint & paint unto canvas" and not one shade of emotion or experience is absent from her palette. Hanging comfortably alongside van Gogh's Starry Night, Picasso's Blue Nude and O'Keeffe's Red Canna are honest self- portraits, passionate abstracts, landscapes of a life and soul laid bare. These are tanka of love, grief, pain, strength, longing, and at the heart of each, the pulse of every woman is palpable. In the hands of this gifted poet, A Solitary Woman is an invitation to a private viewing of a remarkable collection.

-- Claire Everett, Editor of Skylark and author of twelve moons.

Perhaps the only thing missing is a selection of Babusci’s poems.

Here in joy:

skinny dipping
in a summer river
a million stars
clothe us
in liquid light

In hurt:

i walk for miles
after your betrayal
my black beret
white and heavy
in the falling snow

Surviving:

pure moonlight
three years post cancer
the long surgical scar
fading into the belly
of my womanhood

And as a poet:

river of stars
in the pond
i scoop up
Orion’s belt and tie it
around my heart.

Sunset, Sunrise by Din Bosscher. Linen hard cover, 8 x6 inches, 24 pages full color pages. Contact Jane@AHApoetry.com for availability and prices.

Reviewed by Jane Reichhold

On February 10, 2012, a group of four poets were on the balcony of Din Boccher’s house marveling at the sunset. While Din took photos, John von der Drift, Han Messoe  and Silva Ley began writing haiku and tanka. The photos came out beautifully and the poets corrected and revised their poems to fit the book. When they saw they needed more images and poems to make the book that was forming in their hands, they included a “Sunrise” too. From this collaboration Din made a hardcover book in linen to preserve the moment. Then in August 2013 they put their skills together again to translate the poems into English. The four poems are on one side of the page in Dutch and on the verso in English so someone interested in languages can pick up a little Dutch. This project is a marvelous example of people responding to the world around them in art. Here is one sunset that will not be forgotten! I loved how the photos were used as inspiration and background.

clouds are leaking light
gazing to the black horizon
laundry flutters
                        John

the clouds are deep black
the distance full of glow
strongly glittering
                        Han

waving bed of clouds
washes ashore on earth
playful, transparent
                        Din

nightclouds fly
for a golden daybreak
at the farthest line
thus I think of you
merged in spheres of light
                        Silva

BOOK ANNOUNCEMENTS

I'm thrilled to announce that my new book The Resonance Around Us is now in print and available from Mountains and Rivers Press: http://mountainsandriverspress.org/Home.aspx.
Here's the url for the page listing the book. Scroll down to find it, then click on it to find comments, the title poem, and ordering information:
It's lovely to have it now, just in time for Christmas. I hope that if you order it, you enjoy the poems and haibun in it! And please, if you do order it, do so from the press, itself. It will help compensate Ce Rosenow, my publisher, for her press having done my book. Thanks so much, Ce!
Thanks,
Penny Harder

~*~

AHA Books is proud to announce the publication of

SYMBIOTIC POETRY
multi-genre / multi-media in action
by
Jane and Werner Reichhold

 As a backup and a reinforcement to the idea that we need a new term for the poetry inspired by or based on genres from other cultures, Jane and Werner Reichhold have compiled works that prove the richness that results from symbiotic poetry as already represented through their magazine Mirrors and then from Lynx for over 20 years. Here you can discover poetry freed from imitation but still closely inspired by other cultures that appear mixed in startling ways. Poets and writers will be stimulated by the combination of solo works from these two authors plus the unification of their poetry, creating a new kind of multi-genre, multi-media anthology.

List Price: $14.00, 7.5” x 9.25” (19.05 x 23.495 cm), 282 pages, 2014.
ISBN-13: 978-1494422776; ISBN-10: 1494422778; BISAC: Poetry / Anthologies

Available from CreateSpace Store $14.00   https://www.createspace.com/4529473
Amazon.com $12.27; Amazon.de: €9.44; Amazon.co.uk £7.33

~*~

I am delighted to announce the publication of Where the River Goes: The Nature Tradition in English-Language Haiku. This anthology, which has been five years in the making, is a landmark work in English-language haiku, with unprecedented scope and focus. Edited by Allan Burns, Where the River Goes details and celebrates the evolution of the nature tradition of haiku over an active period of fifty years. Featuring more than nine hundred haiku, the anthology highlights and explores the work of forty essential “voices,” from pioneers such as James W. Hackett, Robert Spiess, and John Wills to major contemporary haiku poets who regularly write in a naturalistic mode. The book is available now in a beautiful, 479 pp., hardback first edition.
Advance praise would suggest that the anthology will have very considerable appeal both within and beyond the haiku community. Tom Lynch hails it as an “outstanding volume”, and Jeremy Mynott, the former head of Cambridge University Press, describes it as both “richly varied” and “ground-breaking”. As well as being essential reading for anyone seriously interested in English-language haiku of any persuasion, the anthology makes an ideal seasonal gift for any haiku, poetry, or nature lover. As Ted Floyd, editor of Birding Magazine, has noted, “Anybody interested in nature and in nature writing will delight in this anthology.” Further details, including ordering options, are available on the website at http://www.snapshotpress.co.uk/books/where_the_river_goes.htm

~*~

Tournesol Books
P.O. Box 441152 • Detroit, Michigan 48244-1152
Email: info@tournesolbooks.com
www.tournesolbooks.com

Available through Amazon, Amazon Europe and Create Space. Also available as an e-book on Amazon Kindle.   Jeffrey Woodward, with the exception of abbreviated stints in West Virginia, New Mexico and California, has worked and lived in the Great Lakes Region for much of his life. He graduated with honors from Eastern Michigan University with majors in language arts (linguistics) and political science.  His poems and articles appear frequently in periodicals and anthologies throughout North America, Europe and Asia.  Woodward currently acts as general editor of Haibun Today, a journal that he founded in 2007. He formerly edited Modern Haibun & Tanka Prose and served, in 2010 and again in 2011, as adjudicator for the British Haiku Society’s Haiku Awards.  His selected poems, under the title In Passing, were published in 2007 and he edited The Tanka Prose Anthology in 2008.

~*~

Forthcoming in print from Darlington Richards Press:
Renku Reckoner by John Carley

Descriptions, seasonal schemas, appraisals and examples of twelve traditional and modern renku forms, from the 36-verse kasen to the 4-verse yotsumono.
19 chapters on renku theory and practice, including a series of carefully constructed exercises.
Carley's reputation as a leading theorist in English-language renku is the result of 15 years' work, during which time he has led hundreds of linked verse sequences and translated a significant number of Edo period kasen. This book is the culmination of those efforts.
In addition to reworked and expanded versions of many of the articles originally available at Carley's website, Renku Reckoner will contain several new chapters expounding the author's latest arguments, as well as a dozen complete poems, some never before published, including a new translation of the Basho-school kasen "Purveyors  of Verse" (Shi akindo, 1682).
This authoritative workwill be a welcome addition to the library of any poet or reader, beginner or advanced, with a serious interest in collaborative poetry in English.

Darlington Richards Press
www.darlingtonrichards.com
facebook.com/journal.of.renga.renku
twitter.com/D_R_Press

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

BOOK REVIEWS

cloudeatsmountain, by William Hart, Red Moon Press, PO Box 2461, Winchester, VA, 22604-1661, USA, 4.5 X 6.5 paper back, unnumbered pages, www.redmoonpress.com, © 2013
ISBN 978-936848-24-9

Faces I Might Wear,Tanka, by Carol Purington , Winfred Press, 364 Wilson Hill Road,Colrain, MA,01340, USA, 6 X 9 paper back, 131 numbered pages, contact address:
Carol Purington  carolpuringtonbooks@gmail.com, © 2013
ISBN 978-0-9832298-7-2

The Last Leaf Decides, Poems of Life, Love, Loss, and Life Again in Haiku & Other Forms, by Robert Henry Poulin, Published by Colt Press, Inc., P.O. Box 961163, Boston, Massachusetts 02196, 5 X 8 Paperback 185 numbered pages. © 2013
ISBN 978-0-984506811

Dupa Furtuna –poeme tanka-, After The Tempest –tanka poems, by Vasile Moldovan, Copyright 2013, Societatea Scriitorilor Romani, Bucuresti, paperback 5.5 X 8, 99 numbered pages.
ISBN 978-606-8412-08-5

Amici De-O Clipa, Friends For A Moment, haiku, senryu, tanka by Vali Iancu, Coperta si grafica: Dumitru Rosu, Traducerea in engleza: Ana si Dumitru Rosu Technoedactare:Alexandru Petrea , Descierea CIP a Bibliotecii Nationale a Romaniei, Bucuresti,: Betta 2013 paperback 5 X 8, 133 numbered pages.
ISBN 978-973-92346-0-8

Duhul Ciresului, Cherry Tree Spirit –Haiku-, by Oprica Padeanu; translator: Vasile Moldovan; ed.: Tatiana Barbuceanu, Descierea CIP a Bibliotecii Nationale a Romaniei, Bucuresti :Verus, 2012 paperback 5.5 X 8, 109 numbered pages.

Finding Treasure, a haibun renga by Amelia Fielden, Anne Benjamin, Carmel Summers, Jan Foster, Jane Reichhold, Keitha Keyes & Marilyn Humbert. Available on-line at Haibun Renga Corner: http://www.haibunrenga.com/finding-treasure.html
Reviewed by David Terelinck.

Petrichor, Anthology of Short Verse, produced by Brendan Slater, Illustrated by Johannes S. H. Bjerg, contributing poets: Pamela A. Babusci, Collin Barber, Claire Everett, Colin Stewart Jones, Kenneth Slaughter, and Jeffery Winke, published by Yet To Be Named Free Press, Stroke-on-Trent, England, 5 X 8 paperback, 151 numbered pages, ISBN: 9781492823063,©2013

Journeys Far and Near: tanka roads by Sanford Goldstein. Inkling Press, POB 52014. Edmonton, Canada: 2013. Flat-spined, 81 pages, 5.25 x 8.25. Send a check for $25 to Magpie Productions, POB 52014, Edmonton, Alberta, T6G2T5.

Tanka Riverby Jim Wilson. Trade-paperback, 5.5 x 8.5, 192 pages, music for 7 tanka melodies. Available at Amazon.com for $10.80. ISBN-10: 1490550755
ISBN-13: 978-1490550756.

Just This - Tanka by Margaret Chula. Mountains and Rivers Press: 2013. Trade paperback, 5.5 x8.5, 86 pages, indexed, $16. Order from http:mountainandriverspress.org

micro haiku – three to nine syllables by George Swede. Inspress, 2014. Trade paperback.  5.5 x 8.5, 108 pages, $15. Order from Inspress, Box 309, Station P, Toronto, ON, M5S 2S8 or azarins3@gmail.com

A Solitary Woman – Tanka by Pamela A. Babusci.  Trade Paper-Back, 5.5 x 8.5 , 76 pages, $15. at the Createspace e-store: https://www.createspace.com/4456445. Introduction by David Terelinck. Cover Art Still Water Bath by Larry DeKock, oil painting.
ISBN-13: 978-1492846741 ISBN-10: 1492846740 

Sunset, Sunrise by Din Bosscher. Linen hard cover, 8 x6 inches, 24 pages full color pages. Contact Jane@AHApoetry.com for availability and prices.

BOOK ANNOUNCEMENTS

The Resonance Around Us by Penny Harter

SYMBIOTIC POETRY
multi-genre / multi-media in action
by Jane and Werner Reichhold

Where the River Goes: The Nature Tradition in English-Language Haiku, edited by Allan Burns.

Another Garden by Jeffrey Woodward.

Renku Reckoner by John Carley

Back issues of Lynx:

XV:2 June, 2000
XV:3 October, 2000
XVI:1 Feb. 2001
XVI:2 June, 2001
XVI:3 October, 2001  
XVII:1 February, 2002
XVII:2 June, 2002
XVII:3 October, 2002
XVIII:1 February, 2003
XVIII:2 June, 2003
XVIII:3, October, 2003
XIX:1 February, 2004
XIX:2 June, 2004
XIX:3 October, 2004
XX:1,February, 2005
XX:2 June, 2005
XX:3 October, 2005
XXI:1February, 2006 
XXI:2, June, 2006
XXI:3,October, 2006
XXII:1 January, 2007
XXII:2 June, 2007
XXII:3 October, 2007
XXIII:1February, 2008
XXIII:2 June, 2008
XXIII:3, October, 2008
XXIV:1, February, 2009
XXIV:2, June, 2009
XXIV:3, October, 2009
XXV:1 January, 2010
XXV:2 June, 2010
XXV:3 October, 2010
XXVI:1 February, 2011
XXVI:2, June, 2011
XXVI:3 October, 20111
XXVII:1 February, 2012
XXVII:2 June, 20
2XXVII:3 October, 2012

XXVIII:1 February, 2013

XXVIII:2 June, 2013

XXVIII:3 October, 2013

Submit your works to Lynx

Who We Are

Deadline for submission of work is
May 1, 2014.

Send your submissions to: Werner@WernerReichhold.com