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XXVII:2
June, 2012

LYNX  
A Journal for Linking Poets  
  
   
     
     

 

BOOK REVIEWS

                                            

BREASTS OF SNOW: TO A NEW DIMENSION     
Konno Mari

[As part of our efforts to honor the work of Hatsue Kawamura, Konno Mari has translated into English a review she wrote of Breasts of Snow in 2004.]

Breasts of Snow -- Fumiko Nakajo: Her tanka and her life. Translated  by Hatsue Kawamura And Jane Reichhold. Tokyo, Japan. The Japan Times, Ltd.  [2004] Soft cover 15x21cm.152 pages. ¥2,000 ISBN4-7890-1161-5. Available from AHA Books.
  
A beautiful bilingual tanka collection was published in April. 
On the cover is a violet-toned photo of a big tree in a field, with a tanka poem in Japanese.

haha wo jikuni
ko no kakemeguru
hara no hiru
ki no me wa chikaki
hayashi yori niou

children run around
the axis of their mother
in a daytime field
the fragrance of leaf bud
comes from a near-by forest

The author of this tanka, Fumiko Nakajo (1922-54), was a talented Japanese poet who lived a tragic life. She died from breast cancer at the age of 32, four months after her first tanka collection Chibusa Soshitsu (The Loss of Breasts) won an award from a renowned tanka magazine Tanka Kenkyu. Her tanka poems are the expression of her love and desperate struggle with death, as a single mother of three.

This book includes Fumiko Nakajo’s major tanka poems from Chibusa Soshitsu, mentioned above, and Hana no Genkei (A Prototype of Flowers), published after her death in 1955.
Each page contains one tanka poem; written in Japanese, in romaji to show the pronunciation, and in English, along with the explication and the detailed biological background. Readers can appreciate her tanka from various aspects with necessary and sufficient information on a page of beautiful layout. 
This is a perfect way to introduce tanka to foreign countries English readers. It offers the supplementary information foreign readers may lack. Some anthologies have adopted this style, but this book seems the first to introduce a contemporary tanka poet in this way. In that sense it is innovative.

Hatsue Kawamura, [then] the editor of The Tanka Journal, an English/Japanese publication of the Nihon Kajin Club in Tokyo. She was the author of four tanka collections and three books on tanka. Jane Reichhold is one of America’s leading tanka poets and has been active in bringing tanka to an English-speaking audience. She is the editor of Lynx – a Journal for Linking Poets. They have co-translated three books:  White Letter Poems by Fumi Saito, Heavenly Maiden Tanka by Akiko Baba, and A String of Flowers, Untied…Love Poems from The Tale of Genji.

Like their latest publication, Love Poems from The Tales of Genji, they adopted the form of Uta-monogatari, tanka poems interwoven with stories, in this Breasts of Snow.
We can appreciate Nakajo Fumiko’s exquisite tanka more clearly  and more deeply with this book.
Breasts of Snow brings a new dimension to introducing Japanese tanka to non-Japanese readers.

 (This review was originally published in Japanese in Tanka Orai magazine 2004 December by Konno Mari, and translated by her.)

 

HOSHIJO - ROKKA by Konno Mari,[Japanese writer, Snow Crystal * Star-shaped, Amelia Fielden: English, Zvaigznveida sniega kristals, Victor Kravcenko, Liga Busevica: Latvian, plus CD of Sinobue flute composed and performed by Akihiro Hara, book publisher, Kadokawa Shoten Publishing Co., Ltd., 2-3-3 Fujimi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, 102-8078, Japan. ISBN 978-4-04-652281-8 C0092
(the CD is not sold with the book, but, accompanied the book as a gift)
 Review by Dennis M. Holmes

This is a trilingual (Japanese, English, Latvian) book of tanka, but, also contains tanka chains and a renga. I am not familiar with tanka chains; and, as to renga, I am most familiar with renku. I believe what separates renga from renku are the different rules for the same type of structure and linking.[See Letters to Lynx for correspondence on the subject.]

There is an explanation in the book as to why Latvian was the third language. I will not give it away in this review.

The author explains that her principal theme addresses the dangerous state of the current world. I felt this a true assessment from reading her tanka. She enthusiastically admits her fascination with snow and the magical shapes water can take. These are also reflected in her tanka. An example:


yoru fukaku
tsuchi no omote ni
todoku mono
shizumarite yuki wa
hikari to narinu


in the deep night
snow floating slowly down
onto the ground
settled there
to become radiance

vakara dziluma
balta parsla slideja lejup
gausi
lidz ta rimusi stajas zeme
atskartu - sniegs ir gaisma


There is a section:
 
shiori, introduction notes to Snow Crystal * Star-shaped
 in Japanese, English, and Latvian. The notes are divided into three parts: An Unrestricted Poet; Poet Who Continues to Question ‘Tomorrow’; and, The Intricate Pattern of Words. These are worth exploring and give insight into author and the body of her work.
What is a "tanka chain"? The partial-definition I found on the World-WILD-Web was embedded in a PDF, Three Tanka-Chains from the Private Collection of The Emperor Kougan'in, by William Rithie Wilson (the author is in the Department of Asian Studies, University of Southern California):

"... sequences of tanka linked together by diction, imagery or development of an idea ... "

Although, tanka chains, are only in a small section in the book, I felt it begged at least a definition.
As a collection of modern Japanese tanka, the book is excellent, I feel. Each page of tanka consists of the Japanese printed in the original Japanese script, then the romaji (Romanized Japanese showing a way to pronounce the script), an English translation, and a Latvian translation.  Since, I have a penchant for multilingual treatments of poems, I feel, this book a treasure.

 

Mandrakes Round A Gibbet by Anthony Knight.  (self published 2011, contact knight.pages@hotmail.co.uk for copies).
Review by Dennis M. Holmes

Anthony Knight is a bit of a mystery to me as I tried to find the scores of poems and anthologies he is published in on both sides of the Atlantic by using a web search, but, to no avail.  I am not familiar with any of his work except the book I am reviewing.  Mandrakes Round A Gibbet is his second collection according to a blurb in the book.  A return address in a portion of envelop I found within the book has him hailing from Essex in the UK.  He includes references to prior works on selected poems in the Contents.  The references (on ten of about 100 poems) were between the years 1992 and 1996.

He explains the title of his book which is key to the nature of his poems.  Mandrakes Round A Gibbet is, after all, literally a paradigm for his poems.  My advice to the reader is to read carefully the paragraph in the first page of his book that explains mandrakes and gibbets (I had to look up "gibbet" among the other lore and legend references he uses in many of his poems).  I suspect, Anthony is well-read.

As to the poems, they are a refreshingly peculiar mix of haiku-tanka type forms strung together in an association with their titles.  An example may give you an idea:

 

A FLY IN A WEB

After people died
You thought they went to Devon!
When you lost a friend
I told you he had returned
To where he was before birth.

I caught you watching,
As you sat with your homework,
A fly in a web,
When your next question arrives
I haven't got an answer.

 

There is something compelling in the stories within the poems, but, I find them neither haiku-like nor tanka-like. Perhaps, Anthony's work will foment another permutation on the forms? I speculate that with proper ground, maybe so. I encourage him. I suspect I just don't know enough of the author to give him more than a nudge. His poems, as I said, tell compelling stories that in itself says something.

 

Haiku and Tanka Harvest by Victor P. Gendrano.  Published by Heritage Publishers, Lakewood , California , (2012).ISBN: 9781468017854
Review by Dennis M. Holmes

Victor P. Gendrano is a member of the Haiku Society of America , World Haiku Club, Tanka Society of America, and, the Anglo-Japanese Tanka Society. He has authored one other book, Rustle of bamboo leaves, selected haiku and other poems, 2005.
Victor's book has two main chapters dealing with HAIKU and TANKA, respectively.  He also includes an epilogue containing memorial and death poems.  The HAIKU chapter is introduced by Susumu Takiguchi and the TANKA chapter by Marjorie A. Buettner.

Victor has a section in the HAIKU chapter called "HOW I WRITE HAIKU AND OTHER POEMS", that I found a personable insight into his process. There is a similar section for the TANKA, too, that I found equally informative. A multi-lingual section: MULTI-LINGUAL HAIKU, has English, Spanish, and Filipino (tagalog), although this is a relatively small section. I would like to see more.

His poetry in the book is collected between the years 2006-2011; and, he has used throughout the book, samples of his photo haiga (crediting the photographers) from the present back to 2000. Each and every poem is accompanied by a reference to the publication in which it was previously published.

I generally agree with Susumu Takiguchi in the first chapter's introduction that Victor is something of a quiet observer, but, I must add there is a melancholy woven in the fabric of Victor's words, as example:

alone
in a moon's shadow
the owl's sigh

Even in his use the other forms, haiga and tanka, there is a blue note. An example of this in one his haiga/tanka:

spring time
sunflowers follow
the morning sun
a rocky road
for migrants

As in the introduction to the tanka section by Marjorie A. Buettner, I agree with her that his tanka internal and emotive.

I consider his book a fine and informative read.

 

Connections to this World by Jamese Fowler.  Edited by Leah Maines. Published by Finishing Line Press, Georgetown, Kentucky 40324
ISBN: 978-1-59924-970-4
Review by Dennis M. Holmes

The author, Jim Fowler, is retired Navy and has a master's degree in Environmental Science from Antioch University New England. He teaches privately at the Village Square Booksellers (I assume is in Georgetown, Kentucky) and has written a role-playing fantasy five book story, "The Silenian Wars.” 
"Connections to this World", is a small book composed mostly of English haibun, but, has a few interspersed haiku-like poems, separate from the haibun. There are also a few interesting impressionistic sumi-e type haiga.  

I feel that the author, James Fowler, has a world of experience and presents these concisely in his haibun, which follows a style reminiscent of Master Basho.  The little slices of his life relate to his "world" which includes his veteran experiences in Viet Nam as well as his current life.

His haibun is written in a well crafted style that tends to bring you into the scene, demanding a reread to get between-the-lines nuances.

One of his small poems at the end of the book struck me as perhaps an insight to the tone and mood of his book:

the rain-line
crosses the field
Gettysburg

This is warrior's poetry.

 

breath by Sandra Simpson. All photographs and poems by Sandra Simpson. Published by Piwakawaka Press, Tauranga, 2011.
ISBN: 9780-0-473-19150-4
Review by Dennis M. Holmes

The author, Sandra Simpson, grew up on a farm in Manawatu.  She has been a journalist for over 30 years, living and working in England, Qatar and Lebanon; but, now lives in Tauranga.  Her first haiku was published in 1995. She has won several international awards and has been in several anthologies. "breath" is her first collection representing her work from that last 10 years.

In the introduction she explains her approach to haiku being as "single-breath poems" (her quotes). Her poems adhere to this approach throughout her collection. She goes on to say she feels that poets writing this style hope that their words will "disappear" (her quotes) so the reader will also experience a moment of finding the extraordinary in the ordinary.  I feel her poems very successful at this.

"breath" is arranged in the traditional way of grouping poems by the standard four seasons, although, she feels she pays tribute to the majesty of life on Earth by photos of tree leaves and branches marking the beginning of each season section. Photos of wildlife and nature are also interspersed throughout the book.

She mostly uses a seasonal reference in her poems, and, sometimes arranges her words in a novel way:

frog       frog
       gaps
in the cattlestop

She also uses notes occasionally at the bottom of a page to explain some regional or national reference:

pausing also
at the sacred matai ...
a wood pigeon

Matai - Prumnopitys taxifolia or black pine. The Haiku refers to Hinehopu's Tree near Lake Rotoiti.

I found, these notes provide information, but, tend to be a bit sparse, leaving, the reader to further explore to get the full meaning. I would have preferred to just decide to "google" "matai" on my own. In this age of almost limited instant access to encyclopedic information, notes of this nature are a bit hard to let the words, "disappear" as the author desires (although, this only a minor nit considering her success at other poems).  Eventhough, she doesn't explain it, most of her regional references are about New Zealand as I deduced from her bio at the end of the book. As such, I believe the traditional seasons may not be "traditional" events readily interpreted by non-New Zealanders.  An example of one of her poems that gave to me a word-disappearing moment of the ordinary transmuted to the extraordinary was a "winter" (my quotes) poem:

rain and more rain
the welcome mat
begins to spout

All-in-all her book, appropriately short (resonates nicely with the haiku-style), was delightful to read.

 

Biglisanje / Song Of A Nightingale by Stjepan Rozic. Edited and translated by Durda Vukelic Rozic. Illustrated  by Ljubomir Radovancevic. Photography by Stjepan Rozic. Published by "Otok Ivanic", 2010.
ISBN: 953-7205-36-2
Review by Dennis M. Holmes

The author, Stjepan Rozic, is a lifelong resident of the town of Ivanic-Grad where he was born in 1946. His profession was electrician, but, retired after 40 years.  He has interests in music, photography, and poetry. He is a father as well as a grandfather.

He has been writing haiku-like poems since 1996 in Croatian and Kajkavian dialect.  He has published one other collection, besides, Song of the Nightingale; and, has contributed to three collections with other authors.
The best approach, I've found, to organize a review of this book is to list the Table of Contents in general groups, in that the titles give a reasonable outline of the authors/editor/publisher's approach:

CONTENTS (my grouping, although retaining the original book order):

Biglisanje / Song of a Nightingale Review by Klaus-Dieter Wirth
Biglisanje / Song of a Nightingale (poems in Croatian and English about nightingales)
Proljece / Spring (poems in Croatian with English translations)
Ljeto / Summer (poems in Croatian with English translations)
Jesen / Autumn (poems in Croatian with English translations)
Zima / Winter (poems in Croatian with English translations)
Kajkavsko narjecje / Kajkavian dialect (poems in this dialect with English translations)
Moji zvonici / My belfries (poems about bells, churches, and belfries, in Croatian with English translations, and accompanying photographs)
Senrju / Senryu (poems in Croatian with English translations)

The next sections are a collection of reviews (in Croatian with English translations) by: Sasa Vazic, Eduard Tara, Darrell Lindsay, and Zinovy Vayman.

The last group of sections include the biography, a list of awards, internet links, the author's gratitude, and a bio on the illustrator.

As to the poems, some poems, I felt, used mild personification.  Examples:

daybreak
the nightingale greets me
through the open window

among bare boughs
agile wind sneaks through
a bare fruit tree

Although, most poems, I would consider traditionally using season words and phrases along with similar traditional approaches as to structure and form.  This was very pleasing to me, because, I enjoy the traditional approach to haiku/hokku - like poems. I also enjoyed the senryu section.

The book was interspersed with black and white illustrations of what I would call "kanji-like abstracts" (my quotes) sumi-e as well as black and white photo haiga.

As I've said in other reviews, I do enjoy books of poems with multiple languages (in this case, Croatian with English translations).

 


Cantecul Mierlei * Blackbird's Song, Haiku by Oprica Padeanu. Translated to English by Vasile Moldovan. Edited by Tatiana Barbuccanu. Published by Verus, Bucharest, Romania, 2011.
Review by Dennis M. Holmes

This book is a collection written in both Romanian and English. I, as a reviewer, do not read or write Romanian; and, as such, limited to only reading the English translations.

It is encouraging to see a multi-lingual book on short poetry (especially those containing short poetry base on the Japanese haiku tenets). 

I know little of the author, save, what I have read as a biography included in the book. In summary, Oprica Padeanu, is an author of several poetry and prose books within the genre of Japanese poetry. Books to her credit are Dragonfly's Play and Blackbird's Song as well as a forthcoming tanka book, Mother's Smile.  She has contributed to magazines, anthologies, and contests in Romania as well as abroad.

Cantecul Mierlei * Blackbird's Song is divided into 4 sections, roughly corresponding to the seasons ("Clinchet de Muguri * Tinkling Buds", "Umbrele Verii * Summer Shadows", "Licurici si Greieri * Fireflies and Crickets", and "Panza de Paiarjer * Cobweb") and features 2 haiku on each page, the poems appearing in Romanian and English.

A few examples of Oprica's poems (one from each "season"):

Casa natala-
cubul de sub fereastra
atupat de ploaie

Native house –
a nest under the window
plugged up by rain

-----------------------------------

Buchet de iasomie,
acoperind nudul
paparedei

Bunch of jasmine
covering
the rainmaker's nude

-----------------------------------

Linistea noptii –
calacator la lumina
licuricilor

The night silence –
a traveler
in the fireflies light

-------------------------------------

Turturi la geam-
paianjenul pazeste
carti vechi, necitite

Icicles at the window –
a spider is watching
the old, unread books

(translations as appear in the book)

In a short review about the book from the New Zealand Poetry Society, there is concern about the English translations (ref. http://www.poetrysociety.org.nz/node/530 ).  Although, I feel this a general concern about translating poetry from the original language to any other language(s).

As an introduction to each section, there is an ink drawing depicting a scene associated with the "season".  On the back cover is reference to an email: verus@clicknet.ro and a site www.verus.com.ro where more information on the author and the book may be obtained.

I enjoyed reading the poems, and, could at times get the notion of matching the Romanian to the English with similar "root words.” Many of the poems seemed a bit "formalistic,” but, admittedly, short poetry, has by its nature has a limited short-long-short set of variations.

I think the author successful in conveying sincere feelings in her poetry in her book.

 

BOOK ANNOUNCEMENTS

NOW AVAILABLE!  
Nick Virgilio: A Life in Haiku

Mural of a Nick Virgilio poemIn conjunction with National Poetry Month in April, Turtle Light Press is releasing a new collection of haiku by Nick Virgilio, one of the most beloved haiku poets in the country.

The book, which contains 100 unpublished haiku as well as 30 old favorites, also features excerpts of an interview with Virgilio on Marty Moss-Coane's "Radio Times" show, two essays by Virgilio on writing, a tribute by Monsignor Michael Doyle of Sacred Heart Church, photos and facsimiles of some of the original manuscripts.

"Virgilio was intensely American, with a generosity of heart and spirit that recall Walt Whitman," said Rod Willmot, a Canadian haiku poet and former publisher of Burnt Lake Press, which issued Virgilio's first book, Selected Haiku.

"He was a people's poet, touching readers through the universality of what moved him and the honesty and dedication with which he wrote," he added.  

As part of the book launch, the Paul Robeson library at Rutgers University-Camden is hosting an exhibition of Virgilio's papers as part of their "American Haiku Masters" collection; and a community reading of the new book, Nick Virgilio: A Life in Haiku, will be held at Sacred Heart Church in Camden. Both events will take place on the last weekend in April and we will be posting more details on our blog. 

"I think the book is a wonderful celebration of Nick's life," said Monsignor Michael Doyle, pastor of Sacred Heart. "He created beauty out of the gutters of Camden and, by reading these new poems, everyone will be uplifted."

BKCOV
The Window That Closes
By Graham High
After a very close competition, the winner of the third Turtle Light Press biennial haiku chapbook competition is Graham High’s The Window That Closes, a threnody for his mother that movingly follows her illness and death over the course of a year. It opens with a poem that demonstrates High’s deft use of language and sets the scene of the ensuing drama:


high hospital bed
my mother and I must cross
the rift of waiting


Soon this rift is filled with the familiar elements of illness, death and grieving; they wait for doctors, for solitude, for each other; and, of course, for death to come to separate them by closing the window of his mother’s life. In the meantime, however, they have each other and the times that are left to them to cherish.


all sounds alarm her
the tea trolley’s dull rumble,
the distant church bells


sun rays filter through
the petrol station flowers –
her thin eyelashes


For us, High’s book demonstrates a complexity of language, a variety of syntactical structures and a keen sense of pacing. But most importantly, despite the sad inevitability of her death, the poems manage to draw us into a pattern of reflection and memory through the close and moving study of details surrounding their lives in the hospital and at home.


back home and she’s calm –
gone the workman’s rock-hammer
and the woodpecker


framed in autumn rain
a neighbour meets her gaze from
a facing window


In these poems, High takes us on an emotional journey that resists the temptation to succumb to the maudlin and overt sentimentality. While the ending is expected, he digs even deeper towards the end of the book in his search for solace.


dusty rectangles
where her paintings used to hang –
I close the door slowly


A painter and sculptor who lives in London, England, High came to haiku quite late, having written mainstream poetry since the 1970s. He entered both of TLP’s prior contests before being named this year’s winner. He has published six haiku collections and been editor of the British Haiku Society’s journal, Blithe Spirit.

 



The Little Book of Yotsumonos
by John E. Carley with six other poets from Darlington Richards Press, publishers of Journal of Renga & Renku.

Carley is well known for his ground-breaking and ongoing work in the practice and understanding of renga/renku outside of Japan. He has made valuable and topical contributions to current and previous issues of Journal of Renga & Renku as well as to various internet journals, and his Renku Reckoner website is a well-thumbed resource for poets working in the genre. John Carley’s recently-designed four-verse renku format is represented by 60 poems, wherein Carley collaborates with such well-known haikai poets as Hortensia Anderson, Lorin Ford, Carole MacRury, Sandra Simpson, William Sorlien and Sheila Windsor, together with an introduction to the form.
“I have always been impressed by John Carley’s knowledge of Japanese linked verse… It is my sincere hope that this new form of linked verse will take root.” —Nobuyuki Yuasa, Professor Emeritus, Hiroshima University, and translator of Basho’s The Narrow Road to the Deep North and Other Travel Sketches (Penguin Classics, 1966).
The Little Book of Yotsumonos opens up a world of poetic possibility, sourced by the old, both the Chinese and Japanese poetic traditions, yet fresh and original… I suspect few will be able to read this book without wanting to try and compose a yotsumono themselves.” —Sonja Arntzen, Emeritus Professor of East Asian Studies, University of Toronto, and translator of The Kagero Diary and Ikkyu and the Crazy Cloud Anthology.

Darlington Richards Press
http://www.darlingtonrichards.com

 

Atlas Poetica Announces ‘Snipe Rising from a Marsh’ Special Feature
20 April 2012 — Perryville, Maryland, USA
Atlas Poetica : A Journal of Poetry of Place in Contemporary Tanka is pleased to announce the ‘Snipe Rising from a Marsh’ edited by Rodney Williams of Australia. ‘Snipe Rising from a Marsh’ continues ATPO’s tradition of hosting Special Features devoted to a particular topic in tanka that evokes a strong sense of place. 
Sixty-five poets from five continents submitted two hundred and fifty poems, but only twenty-five were selected, following the standard format of for the Special Features of one poem each by twenty-five poets. Deliberately evoking Saigyo’s tanka about a snipe rising from a marsh, these tanka embody ancient traditions, but are fresh and new. 
Each poem is accompanied by the Latin name and the real world location of the bird, allowing the reader a glimpse into a particular place and time. These are not imaginary birds made up to suit our convenience, but real birds, and they connect us to the larger world of which we and they are both a part. Tanka is not just a form of literature, it is a way of seeing and being that connects deeply to the richness of the real world. 

About the editor:
Rodney Williams’ tanka—often featuring birds—have been published in Australia (especially in Eucalypt); in America, New Zealand, Austria and Canada; and on international websites. Before editing Snipe Rising from a Marsh, he had tanka appear in other ATPO Special Features, plus Take Five and Catzilla! (USA), Grevillea and Wonga Vine, and Food for Thought (Australia). Rodney feels blessed that dairy-farms and eucalypt forests around him in Gippsland, Victoria, boast many Australian parrots and cockatoos.

M. Kei,
P O Box 516, 
Perryville, MD, 21903, USA. 
Email: Keibooks (at) gmail.com 
http://AtlasPoetica.org

 

I hope 2012 is off to a great start for you. It's been a busy one for the press, as is usual at this time of year, but we've managed to pull together another Red Moon Anthology in our usual timing. carving darkness: The Red Moon Anthology of English-Language Haiku 2011 is now available on the website. Just go to www.redmoonpress.com and you'll see it's the first selection at the top of the page. I wanted to let you know about a few other books we released late in 2011 that might have not caught your attention during the holidays, but which I think you'll find worth your notice.

Something old: Those of us who go back a couple (or three) decades in haiku remember the striking work of Bob Boldman. RMP released a selection of his work called everything i touch, which we hope introduces Bob to an entirely new generation of haiku poets and enthusiasts. You'll be amazed at how contemporary his work remains, and will also get an idea of where some of today's most interesting directions first came from.

A couple somethings new: New books by outstanding contemporary haiku poets Allan Burns—distant virga, his first full-length collection—and Paul Miller—few days north days few, his second collection with RMP—will convince you haiku is in good hands. Allan, you will recall, edited the exquisite Montage: The Book for The Haiku Foundation, and Paul is shortly to become editor of Modern Haiku, so both continue to work for haiku at large as well as towards their own practice.

Also a couple somethings borrowed—from the Japanese: Turquoise Milk, a selection of haiku by Ban'ya Natsuishi from his 25-year career and from more than 20 previous books, will provide you with the entire range of his oeuvre, including all the high spots that have so charged and polarized haiku east and west in the last few years. And our second (of four) volumes on the haiku and world contribution of Kaneko Tohta, an extended essay called The Future of Haiku (which pretty much says it all), is now available in translation by the Kon Nichi Translation Group, led by Richard Gilbert.

And sadly, too much something blue: postscript volumes honoring three major figures who have passed from among us in the recent days and weeks: phosphorescence (Peggy Willis Lyles), raking aside leaves (H. F. Noyes) and never really mine (Jan Bostok).

You'll find all these and many more on the site. And of course we have other things on the way: contemporary haibun volume 13 will appear in april, and collections of haiku (Mark Harris), haibun (Steven Carter), a haiku novel (David G. Lanoue) and haiku in translation (the first of two volumes of Kaneko Tohta's Selected Haiku covering the early years) will all make their appearance by June. We know you'll find something you like, so come take a look when you can. Thanks, and take care.

Jim Kacian
Red Moon Press

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

BOOK REVIEWS

Breasts of Snow -- Fumiko Nakajo: Her tanka and her life. Translated  by Hatsue Kawamura And Jane Reichhold. Tokyo, Japan. The Japan Times, Ltd.  [2004] Soft cover 15x21cm.152 pages. ¥2,000 ISBN4-7890-1161-5. Available from AHA Books.

HOSHIJO - ROKKA by Konno Mari, , Snow Crystal * Star-shaped, Amelia Fielden: English, Zvaigznveida sniega kristals, Victor Kravcenko, Liga Busevica: Latvian, plus CD of Sinobue flute composed and performed by Akihiro Hara, book publisher, Kadokawa Shoten Publishing Co., Ltd., 2-3-3 Fujimi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, 102-8078, Japan. ISBN 978-4-04-652281-8 C0092
 Review by Dennis M. Holmes

Mandrakes Round A Gibbet by Anthony Knight.  (self published 2011, contact knight.pages@hotmail.co.uk for copies).
Review by Dennis M. Holmes

Haiku and Tanka Harvest by Victor P. Gendrano.  Published by Heritage Publishers, Lakewood , California , (2012).ISBN: 9781468017854
Review by Dennis M. Holmes

Connections to this World by Jamese Fowler.  Edited by Leah Maines. Published by Finishing Line Press, Georgetown, Kentucky 40324
ISBN: 978-1-59924-970-4
Review by Dennis M. Holmes

breath by Sandra Simpson. All photographs and poems by Sandra Simpson. Published by Piwakawaka Press, Tauranga, 2011.
ISBN: 9780-0-473-19150-4
Review by Dennis M. Holmes

Biglisanje / Song Of A Nightingale by Stjepan Rozic. Edited and translated by Durda Vukelic Rozic. Illustrated  by Ljubomir Radovancevic. Photography by Stjepan Rozic. Published by "Otok Ivanic", 2010.
ISBN: 953-7205-36-2
Review by Dennis M. Holmes

Cantecul Mierlei * Blackbird's Song, Haiku by Oprica Padeanu. Translated to English by Vasile Moldovan. Edited by Tatiana Barbuccanu. Published by Verus, Bucharest, Romania, 2011.
Review by Dennis M. Holmes

BOOK ANNOUNCEMENTS 
Nick Virgilio: A Life in Haiku
by Turtle Light Press

The Window That Closes
By Graham High
by Turtle Light Press

The Little Book of Yotsumonos by John E. Carley with six other poets from Darlington Richards Press, publishers of Journal of Renga & Renku.

Atlas Poetica : A Journal of Poetry of Place in Contemporary Tanka announces the Snipe Rising from a Marsh edited by Rodney Williams of Australia.

Carving Darkness: The Red Moon Anthology of English-Language Haiku 2011 is now available on the website www.redmoonpress.com

   
     
     

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XV:2 June, 2000
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XVIII:1 February, 2003
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XVIII:3, October, 2003
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XIX:3 October, 2004

XX:1,February, 2005

XX:2 June, 2005
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XXI:1February, 2006 
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XXI:3,October, 2006

XXII:1 January, 2007
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XXIII:1February, 2008
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XXIII:3, October, 2008
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XXIV:2, June, 2009
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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

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Next Lynx is scheduled for October 2012.


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