XXI:2 June, 2006

Still Swimming by Amelia Fielden. Ginninderra Press: 2006. Perfect bound, color cover, 8.5 x 5.5 inches, 84 pages, ISBN:1-74027-325-7, US$20 (including airmail postage). Order from A. Fielden, 20A Elouera Ave., Buff Point NSW 2262, Australia.

Rustle of Bamboo Leaves: selected haiku and other poems by Victor P. Gendrano. Lulu Enterprises, Inc. Perfect bound, glossy trade cover, 6 x 9 inches, 228 pages, Tagalog and English.

PEACE: haiku, tanka, renga edited by Giselle Maya. Works by an’ya, Ion Codrescu, Christopher Harold, Kirsty Karkow, Mari Konno, Elizabeth Searle Lamb, Angela Leuck, Giselle Maya, June Moreau, Pamela Miller Ness, and Jane Reichhold. Illustrated by Yasuo Mizui and Louis FulconisHeavy hand-made paper, hand-tied with linen thread, cover, 6.25 by 10 inches, 36 pages. $18, plus $5.20 airmail postage. Giselle Maya, Koyama Press, 84750 Saint Martin de Castillon, France. Email.

& Y NOT: Haibun by Stanley Pelter. Perfect bound, full color cover, 6 x 9 inches, 146 pages, illustrated. Contact the author at Maple House, 5 School Lane, Claypole, Newark NG23 5BQ, United Kingdom

Encounters in This Penny World by Sanford Goldstein. Inkling Press:2005. Edited by E.D. Blodgett. Perfect bound, 8.5 x 5.5 inches, 88 pages, ISBN:0-9737674-0-5. Inkling Press, P.O. Box 52014, Edmonton, AB T6G 2T5, Canada

Haiku Guide to the Inside Passage by Sally Stiles. Peacoat Press:2006 . Perfect bound, 8.5 x 5.5 inches, 114 pages, color cover and color photographs throughout, ISBN:1-59872-305-7, $19.95.

Under the Roan Cliffs - A Collection of Renga, 1994 -2001 by Lorraine E. Harr and Brad Wolthers. Mountains and Rivers Press:2005. Saddle-stapled, 8.5 x 5.5, 52 pages, with computer enhanced photographs by Brad Wolthers. Contact  Mountains and Rivers Press, 815 E. 28th Ave., Eugene, OR 97405.

THE LIGHT INSIDE ME WILD - 
Marjorie Buettner    

                                Paperweight for Nothing
by vincent tripi, (Tribe press, 42 Franklin Street , Greenfield , MA 01312 )
92 pgs., on Bembo type on Crushed leaf text, illustrated and hand sewn,
$20 postpaid

TO TASTE THE RAIN -An Examination of White Flower in the Sky
Marjorie Buettner

White Flower in the Sky by Anna Holley and Aya Yuhki, Published by
Banraisya Inc. Japan . 2005. 164 pages. ISBN4-901221-15-9, 5”x6.5”,
softbound. Available from www.amazon.co.jp and Kinokuniya Bookstores of
America Co. , Ltd. $25.

Still Swimming by Amelia Fielden. Ginninderra Press: 2006. Perfect bound, color cover, 8.5 x 5.5 inches, 84 pages, ISBN:1-74027-325-7, US$20 (including airmail postage). Order from A. Fielden, 20A Elouera Ave., Buff Point NSW 2262, Australia.

Amelia Fielden, is a professional Japanese translator who also writes original English poetry in the tradition of tanka. She has published five books of Japanese tanka in translation: On Tsukuba Peak by Kawamura Hatsue (2002); Time Passes (2002), Vital Forces (2004) and As Things Are (2005) by Kawano Yuki; and Behind Summer (2005) by Kuriki Kyoko. The three previous collections of Amelia Fielden’s own poetry are: Eucalypts and Iris Streams (2002), Fountains Play (2002) and Short Songs (2003).

The tanka dedication that opens Still Swimming is a poem for her husband:

stop trying
to remember me
slender-fit –
in lumpy old age
we’ll still swim along

The cover has an impressive photo of two concrete swimming pools set out in the sea. Amelia wrote that this is where she learned to swim. It is a perfect introduction to the collection and seems to encompass many of the feelings that the images of the tanka incite. There is usually a calmness of a nature image to back, to interface with the wild rushing of the human emotions in the rest of the tanka. This aspect of tanka is so firmly ingrained in her thinking (surely the result of her exposure to Japanese tanka in her translation work) that the two parts of the poem flow together effortlessly. She never has to force the images to obey her desires. The poems have arisen in her as pure as they are. I can think of no higher praise for her work.

In her collection the poems are arranged according to the place or the experience where they occurred. To avoid having to title either the individual poems or the sequences, Fielden has chosen to place small place names on the far left of the page. However, when she sees a series of the poems as a sequence, she indicates this with a bold-faced title in the middle of page. She seems to have found an interesting way of guiding the reader and for breaking up the mass of poems into digestible sections. The two years that are recollected in Still Swimming follow Fielden through her retirement, then a move from Canberra to Newcastle, and then to a small coastal town closer to her birthplace, Sydney, Australia. In this time she also got a Master of Arts degree, traveled twice to Seattle, three times to Japan, once staying for three months for a fellowship at Ube University. Not only has Amelia Fielden lived a busy life, she has documented her days with tanka, and now they are available for you to read, enjoy and understand the tanka form even better.

I like her poems least when she is using tanka to make known her feelings on social conditions:

purchasing
bananas to feed
wild possums,
a woman claims a discount
with her pension card

and much prefer her work when she is acutely accurate in her observation and ability to combine this with deeply felt emotions:

the years pass
yearning to fly free
love holds me still –
yachts moored near the pier
move just a little

This poem is a perfect example of how the succinct tanka, by juxtaposing an image and an emotion, can release in the reader a flood of ideas, thoughts and insight. Excellent work abides here in Still Swimming.

Victor Gendrano, a retired librarian, edited and published Heritage magazine, an English-language quarterly dealing with Filipino culture, arts and letters, and the Filipino-American experience from 1987 – 1999. In addition to his longer, free-verse poetry, Gendrano also writes senryu, sijo (you have surely seen his work here in Lynx), tanka, and haibun as well as haiga containing his own haiku.

Rustle of Bamboo Leaves is interesting in a variety of ways, but one of the most unusual is this is the first book I have seen where the poems are published along with the comments of his readers. Thanks to wonder of online forums, where he has posted and published much of the work, he has carefully collected and saved the responses various participants in the forum. Gendrano has found a method of breaking up the monotony of poem upon poem by including the interaction around the poem. This seems an excellent idea!

The other breaks between poems are accomplished by reproductions, in varying degrees of fidelity, of his haiga which were also published in the World Haiku Forum. In addition, the book is filled with snippets of history of the Philippines, introductions of the various poetry forms by Susumu Takiguchi, Ferris Gilli, Larry Gross, James Hackett, Angelee Deodhar, Debbie Bender, Denis Garrison, Luis Cabalquinto, and Michael McClintock.

The haiku encompass the complete range of subject matter from death and disease (his wife Lucy died in 2003 and the book is dedicated to her and their children, Victor Jr., Lorna, Emmanuel, Marissa, Romeo and Juliet) to subtle jokes of male voyeurism. The haiga, several the artwork of Ashe Wood of England, enlarge the meaning of the haiku. For example, the haiku:

nude sunbather
her lotion attracts
A honeybee

Yet the illustration focuses on the perfect jutting bare breasts.

Gendrano’s sharp eye for detail and for association results in such poems as:

a cat blends
with its shadow
mail order bride

PEACE is the fifteenth book edited by Giselle Maya at Koyama Press and I must admit that I am still very astounded at her energy and expertise, and the contribution she is making to the literature of Japanese genres. Due to her years spent living in Japan, Maya brings not only her knowledge of the origins of these poetry, but her books reflect Japanese designs and sensibilities. Due to her own years of writing in all these forms, and being in contact with other authors around the world, her books have a sophistication and status all their own.

I remember Giselle writing to me in the winter of 2002 of her distress about the impending Iraq War. We discussed our shared pacifism, and our feelings of helplessness against decisions made by government leaders, and the question of was there anything that we could do. After several e-mails of discussion, she asked me to do a renga with her about peace without mentioning the word. We wanted to avoid recounting the horrors of war and yet portray the fears, sadness, and unrest that war brings in a peaceful, accepting way.

I wanted to comfort Giselle in far-off freezing France, so I began "Light in the Shadows" with:

slow winter river
with lights in the shadows
glints of ice

And she responded with:

from the pond’s center
a silent ripple

In light of the later disagreements between our respective heads of state, it is marvelous to think that while, on one level, they were in such opposition; here in the background two women were exchanging images to express their unease in a practice of peace.

For this reason I was touched to see Giselle had prefaced this book with Thich Nhat Hanh’s quote:

"Peace is all around us
it is not a matter of faith
it is a matter of practice"

This book PEACE is the result of her practicing peace with an’ya, Ion Codrescu, Christopher Herold, Kirsty Karkow, Mari Konno, Elizabeth Searle Lamb, Angela Leuck, June Moreau, and Pamela Miller Ness as she collected their haiku and tanka. Each of these authors are outstanding and well-known in the international scene, so it is an honor to have their best works compiled and arranged on these silver sifted papers.

The artwork, by two artists from the Provence, reflects the fine taste of Giselle, herself a regularly exhibiting artist. The other collaborative poem in the book was written with Ion Codrescue on the occasion of his coming to Martin de Castillon to hang a show with Giselle.

To Giselle’s verse:

hairpin curve
hanging our paintings
in an ancient chapel

Ion Codrescue responded with:

the first visitor
a motionless lizard

It seems that collecting, sifting through, and absorbing the words of her friends gave Giselle the peace that she sought. In doing this, It seems each verse is instilled with Giselle’s own spirit of peace The book is not about peace, it is peace – on every page.

& Y NOT, the second of Pelter’s books of haibun, is to my joy, even more experimental visually and linguistically than his first book, "past imperfect." From the marvelous cover, a collage of images that accurately portray the techniques and subject matter of the enclosed poetry, to the concrete poetry that close the book, I found so much inspiration and and excitement in seeing someone do something expertly.

The spirit and excitement of using words well sets Pelter's work above most of the other haibun currently being written in English. Here is no imitation, or hesitation. He has taken on the Japanese form and made it his own. The amount of growth from his book last year is astounding. Perhaps being freed somewhat from his need to tell his life story, as in "past imperfect," has allowed Pelter to expand and accept the truly individual twists of his thinking processes. It takes careful reading and there are times one can get lost, but his professionalism and generosity hold the reader in his grasp.

Peltier has written, "The inexpressible is my cloak" but I find his spirit shines out with humor and poignancy in each jumble of images and concepts. He brings James Joyce to a new destination.

Pelter's prose surely has Basho, the exponent of simple language about simple images, rolling over in his grave but by following Joyce with his prose and Basho with his haiku, he has made an important contribution in English-language haibun.

Not only does & Y NOT explore graphics and language, but also typography and formatting. A sample paragraph from "Camera Obscura" shows how Pelter's mind works to touch the reader with the spinning around of his truths and how he uses our old conventions to show his newest understanding.

"Crevices still fill. Holes still squeeze shut. But One. center of the black The Shutter. Small hand. feels. So i do. scenes trap. outsidespaceinside. insidespaceoutsidein. upsidedownside. i am Fed. i am led. turned inside out."

When you combine that paragraph, with the title, and its Latin meaning, you can see the genius of his reasoning.

it begins
an open dictionary
falls to the ground

Ironically, Pelter's tanka are the most Japaneseque in form and subject matter. A sample tanka from the closing of "pre postmodernist baby" is:

as white eyes blink
they lie on the single bed
oil patches spread out
and began to flow over
fragments of a shared shadow

and yet, and yet, this could only have been written by an Englishman willing to risk all in his dance with the language and his life.

Encounters in This Penny World by Sanford Goldstein. Inkling Press:2005. Edited by E.D. Blodgett. Perfect bound, 8.5 x 5.5 inches, 88 pages, ISBN:0-9737674-0-5. Inkling Press, P.O. Box 52014, Edmonton, AB T6G 2T5, Canada

For over forty years Sanford Goldstein has been involved with either translating the tanka of famous Japanese poets (Akiko Yosano, Mokishi Saito, Takuboku Ishikawa, Masaoka Shiki, Ryokan and Yaichi Aizu) and the writing of his own tanka poems. He was writing and trying to publish tanka when all the literary journals wanted only haiku. He is rightly called the Father of English Tanka for not only his work, but for his being there in the beginning. This, the seventh publication of anthologies of his tanka, contains sequences of tanka collected from various periods of his life. Beginning with "Childhood," through "Adolescence" and "Education," "Marriage," "Zen" and "Euphoria," into "Retirement" and "Old Age" and even advancing into "Illness/death." The book ends with "A Summing up," a sequence that provides an even clear view of how Goldstein sees himself.

his brief poems
never caught on over the years
to make a stir;
again he reads them aloud
and finds them still okay

Somehow this verse makes me feel profoundly sad. Sad that he cannot see the influence and interest he has raised in the genre of tanka. Perhaps no one hails him as an Allen Ginsberg, yet in this sphere that he kindly calls The Tanka World or This Tanka Whirl (both titles of his books) or depreciatingly, in this volume, calls a "Penny World" he has been given honors, tribute and publication.

His style of writing has varied over his long career, as one would expect of any innovator, and his poems have drastically changed in tone as he has worked through his early fascination with Takuboku. I would even underline the suggestion that his work has been influenced, as he admits in the "Afterword" of Encounters in This Penny World, by that of the influx of writers who have taken up tanka study and writing since he began, and has has had a positive influence on his own work. Yet, as one who has read all his books, what one ends up on the last page, is a very clear feeling for the emotional life of this poet. He is who he is, and this over-rides any small changes in style, or word-count as he had kept true to himself and the five lines.

This book takes you from Puget Sound to Skagway, Alaska on a 31-foot trawler via forty stunning photographs and marvelously evocative haiku. You will feel as you have anchored in deep fjords, watched wildlife graze, whales feed, dodge icebergs, and visit First Nation villages. As one reviewer wrote, and I agree, "It’s a travelogue, love story and fine poetry collection wrapped in one lovely package."

Sally Stiles is an experienced journalist, fiction writer, and photographer with an MFA in writing from Vermont College. She is now teaching in the continuing education program at the College of William and Mary.

How great it is when a writer of such statue discovers haiku, takes the time to really study and learn the form, and then is able to produce such a haiku-true collection of poetry. Sally Stiles is definitely committed to haiku, she and her husband David even named their boat that made this trip – Haiku. I like to think of the good ship Haiku and all the adventures this still new-to-us form takes us. Just reading Stiles haiku gives the reader the feeling that anyone can be a poet. She makes it look so easy.

As the book sits propped up here on my desk I have looked at the cover for long, enjoyable moments wondering if that illustration is a photo (as it must be) or is it a painting, or should it be a painting? I do not know when a picture has brought me such far away pleasure and engaged me so much. I have also found the haiku to be equally evocative. I love flipping open the book to any page, reading the three haiku and letting their images merge with the photo to the left, and then going back into my day, richer and deeply influenced with dreams and journeys. Whether you are a sailor or not, here is book for your summer trip.

ancestor voices
louder with each beat
Chilkat drums

written by ice
line after slanted line
earth's history

Under the Roan Cliffs - A Collection of Renga, 1994 -2001 by Lorraine E. Harr and Brad Wolthers. Mountains and Rivers Press:2005. Saddle-stapled, 8.5 x 5.5, 52 pages, with computer enhanced photographs by Brad Wolthers. Contact  Mountains and Rivers Press, 815 E. 28th Ave., Eugene, OR 97405.

Calmly and serenely these fourteen renga are presented to the reader without an education on renga or Japanese culture. The warm brown cover and cream text pages hint at times past, and the Old West. And indeed, the poems are those of two people who have grown up in the western United States, in small cow towns. There is a treasure of cowboy lore, atmospheres of hot dusty landscapes, and universal feelings.

Part of the old-fashioned feeling of the poems comes from the fact that each of the 36 links of these fourteen renga are written in the strict 5,7,5 and 7,7 syllable count. What a joy to read so many, many excellent haiku and links! What a proof this book is that great writers can follow the syllable count and write excellent links. 

I know everyone (almost - it seems) discredits this method of haiku writing by claiming that the verse comes out with too much padding or at least, too much information, but as someone who occasionally gets weary of typesetting a renga link with only two or three words, it is a real joy to let one's mind relax into following links as Harr and Wolthers write them.

Even though Lorraine wrote these renga in her late eighties, and she was the one who stressed the rule that haiku never mentioned sex, notice the sizzle in this exchange from "Drumbeat Moon." Wolther's links are in italic, Harr's in roman.

tales around the campfire
of Crazy Horse and his tribe

along this small creek
a trail that leads to the site
of Little Big Horn

deep in the pine woods searching
for the herb that brings true love

over a cold beer
watching the ladies pass by
in afternoon heat

And notice how they shift and link in this sample, also from "Drumbeat Moon."

the Moon of Green Leaves
thin coyote lays panting
in pecan tree shade

he dreams of prey escaping
recalls prey that he's gotten

and dreams of chickens
some that he's caught and some not -
dog on the farm porch

The subtle shift from coyote in the wild to a dog on the porch is achieved through the images of their shared prey. Because Harr used "prey" twice in her link, Wolthers uses a repeat in his link with "some that he's caught and some not" to support and verify Harr's repeat. No greater kindness can one renga partner do for another. This kind of interaction between the writers quickly approaches a kind of love.

I cannot tell you when I have enjoyed reading renga as much as I enjoy the ones in Under the Roan Cliffs. Today I am firmly convinced we should return to writing 5,7,5 and 7,7 syllable count. The scope and depth these longer verses give a renga are such a welcomed respite from the current methods and styles. Here is another sample, although it is almost criminal to chop up the whole poem by only giving you a taste.

once the team is out of sight
the "sick" mule kicks up its heels

darkened Music Hall
faint country western music
or just ghosts dancing

it's only when the wind blows
the pine trees find their voices

falling from bare boughs
hanging above the grave stones
dewdrops now and then

a cow looks up from grazing
slobber dripping from its lips

Lorraine E. Harr is the founder of the Western World Haiku Society and the author of fifteen books of poetry. Her haiku, senryu, renga, tanka, haibun, free-verse poetry, and children's stories have been widely published in journals, magazines, and newspapers around the world. She died in Portland, Oregon on March 3, 2006.

Brad Wolthers is a poet and photographer living in Hillsboro, Oregon. His work has appeared in numerous publications in the U.S. and abroad. He is the co-author of Nine Steps: A Japanese Garden in the Fog, a collection of haiku written with Wilma Erwin. You can find out more about Lorraine Ellis Harr.

THE LIGHT INSIDE ME WILD - Two Book Reviews
Marjorie Buettner
                                                                                 

Paperweight for Nothing
by vincent tripi, (Tribe press, 42 Franklin Street , Greenfield , MA 01312 )
92 pgs., on Bembo type on Crushed leaf text, illustrated and hand sewn,
$20 postpaid

I was first attracted to vincent tripi's minimal and mysterious poetry through the journal Hummingbird. His poetry had that magical quality of a Janus: looking ahead and behind at the same time then complimenting the readers by initiating them into his personal vision and wisdom. After reading Paperweight for Nothing, I see once again that same quality in his poetry; it is a poetry--like Janus itself--of transformation, of metamorphosis, and the reader, too, changes at each given phrase, each breath-filled poem.  Since Janus symbolizes change and the transition of time past to time future, Paperweight for Nothing epitomizes such transitions. As Emerson says: "listen to the under song the ever old, ever young."  tripi's poetry as under song circles around us like a chant, guiding us in the right direction toward new beginnings, toward change.

tripi tells us that "change is your mirror." We cross the intersection of time and transformation and are swept along without recognition, not until, that is, we are forced by some certain circumstance to rest, slow down and then stop, do we then realize the full force and magnitude of this constant motion of time and transformation:

Deathbed . . .
an old friend's imitation
of a firefly

A friend has died . . .
migrating geese
still migrating

(--for Sue Stapleton-Tkach)

We look at our children who wake with a different face everyday; we grow up and old with our parents who precede us in this transformation until they become as diaphanous and translucent as a butterfly on the wing, leading the way. At times we take our own initiative and force a transformation which creates invisibility, force our bodies to accept that change by which it was engendered. We are all transformation's children and we sleep on the bed of those who have died before us.

The evening star . . .
our flower-viewing faces
begin to change

(for Peggy Lyles)

 tripi says "all change is wild" while Henry David Thoreau states "all change is a miracle to contemplate." (The Bean Field). Here is a miracle
image:

Pine woods . . .
i look for the perfect place
to be a Christmas tree

tripi admits that "We all pass never having spoken enough about death or about poetry." His eulogy for Robert Spiess is the most powerful haiku I have ever read:

Unafraid
of dying
extraordinary sparrow

(In memory of Robert Spiess)

 Sometimes it is a matter of knowing intuitively the essence of time, the ripeness of it all; then we need to learn--like the hermit thrush--how to let go:

 Hermit thrush . . .
knowing when it's time
for me to go

 But time forever is a jealous mistress; wanting us all to herself, she takes away what once belonged to us--leaving a crystallized memory:

 Where'd it go?
the young boy's imitation
of a butterfly

(for Nick Baronas)

But tripi gives us a hint of joy when he says 'I hope someday to catch the crystal-bluebird flying. i hope someday to find the light inside me wild."

Summer sky . . .
the paperweight for nothing
crystal bluebird*

(*a gift from haiku master Charles B. Dickson)

Does not tripi know that these poems verify the fact that he has already captured that "light inside me wild"? This wonderful, necessary gift of a book is illuminating; may it lead you to a deeper, more thoughtful place.

TO TASTE THE RAIN -An Examination of White Flower in the Sky
Marjorie Buettner

White Flower in the Sky by Anna Holley and Aya Yuhki, Published by
Banraisya Inc. Japan . 2005. 164 pages. ISBN4-901221-15-9, 5”x6.5”,
softbound. Available from www.amazon.co.jp and Kinokuniya Bookstores of
America Co. , Ltd. $25.

The essence of collaboration occurs when the boundaries distinguishing the differences between the participants become blurred and ultimately vanish. You see this in old, married couples who have lived together longer than they have lived apart. There is a powerful solidarity which configures an alignment of stars. In White Flower in the Sky, the collaborative correspondence between Anna Holley and Aya Yuhki has engendered a beautiful, creative constellation. 

There are ten thematic sections in this collection which dates from July 2000 to December 2004. Not only is this collection founded upon their shared love of tanka, but it is also inspired by their shared ability to see and feel the external world as if it were an extension of themselves, reflecting it back as if they were a still pond mirroring the night sky. Phenomenologically speaking, (as referring to the characterization of sensory experiences of the world and of ourselves) these poets have attuned themselves so deeply with the world that the world becomes alive through their bodies and their bodies are enlivened by the world. They see the world through their bodies, they feel the world through their bodies, they commune with the world through their bodies; it is a phenomenological approach to creativity which does not divide the body from the mind nor the body from the world.  In the beginning Anna Holley was inspired by a tanka by Priest Jyakuren. The answer/response from Aya soon followed and the journey began.

what is the color
of loneliness?
pine mountain
in gathering dusk
as rain starts to fall
        Anna

a lonely color is
rain on roofs reflecting
evening twilight
this train
has a destination
       Aya

Here the sense impressions of the world are mixed and merged; seeing loneliness as a color is a synesthetic experience which unites the poet in a deeper way with intuition. This phenomenological perspective, which to Anna and Aya seems rooted in the way they perceive the world as nondualistic, also becomes, I believe, their inspiring muse. Here Anna’s heart is a summer cicada and Aya’s becomes the glow of fireflies:

quite unable
to suppress its cry
for lost love
this summer cicada
heart of mine
     Anna

silver drops on twigs
the glow of fireflies--
the short summer night
I slept with you
dawns
     Aya

Love, too, becomes a palpable growing thing which connects the poets to nature through “scented rain”, the “color of butterfly”, “wings of a paper crane” and the “brightness of a shooting star“:

I let it
soak into me
like love
the scented rain
falling from pines
     Anna

I wish
I could dye myself in the color
you like
what color of butterfly
should I become
     Aya

one touch
and my heart began
to live
wings of a paper crane
stir in breeze
      Anna

in the wake
of a shooting star
a brightness
resembling love
shines in me awhile
    Anna

Like love, the absence of love stirs the heart and mind to feel and know. Again, the poem rest on an imaginative, phenomenological perspective of consciousness:

still lonely
as evening comes on
my heart assumes
the shape of a cloud
unmoving over the island
     Anna

from my body
on the verge of awakening
a jade-green
higurashi* cicada
seems to have slipped out
     Aya

(*clear-toned cicada)

This awareness of the ebb and flow of love and time creates a heart verging on collapse; again the world becomes an extension of the poet’s emotional vulnerability:

at dawn
a robust cicada
aftermath of chirping
in the silence
I am manic-depressive
     Aya

verging on
a nervous collapse,
inside of me
I hear repeated
a cicada’s scream
     Anna

 It is poetry which ultimately heals the open wound and sets the broken heart. Read these poems as if they were your private, healing balm, then go out and taste the rain.

your raindrop
and my raindrop
become one
to rest on the soft green grass;
honey drops of dew
     Aya

HELP! ANYONE DESIRING TO WRITE A BOOK REVIEW?

The month of May is ending and I have still not written reviews for all the books piled by my desk. If anyone out there would be interested in helping me out by reviewing these, please let me know. I would gladly mail you a copy in exchange for a review. Jane

Following the Stonewall by Carol Purington. No. 11 from the Pinch Book Series by vincent tripi with artwork by Merrill A. Gonzales.

but then you danced - tanka by Jeanne Lupton.

Frogments from the Frag Pool by Gary Barwin & Derek Beaulieu. The Mercury Press. $14.95.

Blonde red Mustang. . . by Art Stein. Slate Roof Publishing. $11.00.

Amber - dementia haiku by Geert Verebeke. Haiku in Dutch and English.

The Solitude of Cities by Ruth Holzer. Finishing Line Press. $12.00

Things Just Come Through by Ed Baker. Haiku written in one vertical line with kanji translations.

If Someone Asks. . . Masako Shiki's Life and Haiku. Translations by The Shiki-Kinen Museum English Volunteers with Hindi Translation by Dr. Angelee Deodhar.

Haiku - Anthologie du poéme court japonais. Translations of the poems of  Japanese Masters into French.

Haiku-heute: Worte fuer die Wolken. Haiku-Jahrbuch 2005. Herausgegaben von Volker Friebel. Wolkenpfad, Tuebingen, 2006, 128 Seiten, 11,00 Euro, ISBN" 3-936487-08-1

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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:1 February, 2006

Next Lynx is scheduled for October, 2006.

Deadline for submission of your work
 is September 1, 2006.