BOOK REVIEW

A review of haiku for a moonless night by Marjorie Buettner

​

moonless night

men of the village

dance in silence

​

"As a haiku poet, an'ya is attuned to the cyclical nature of all life, and her haiku teaches us the importance of patience in order to observe, in order to preserve:

​

becoming daylight--

the fallow deer retraces

its hoof prints

​

The haiga in this collection by Kuniharyu Shimizu are colorful and vibrant with a clear simplicity and pure exuberance; they touch upon that same visual magic that an'ya knows so well. Thhese haiga are offered to us as if they were a glass of wine saluting the moon:

​

windswept day

a skater opens her coat

to cross the lake

​

The magic of an'ya's haiku resides, as I have said, in their visual qualities. At times however, they take you beyond the ordinary world into intuitive vision:

​

oregon trail

over the top of the moon

the rest of the world

​

an'ya's haiku remind us to keep in touch with our own intuitive, mystical nature so that the world's luninosity can be absorbed, and then reflected back:

​

celestial space

geese touching their wings

to the clouds

​

silent snowfall

the sound of dark-eyed junco

cracking seeds

​

The world offers to us immeasurable possibilities; it is a haiku poet who delves into a relationship of union with the world--insistent, jealous lover that is--until at every touch, at every sight and sound each poem becomes an act of love, a labor of love, writing it down the reader cannot help but be enriched by anya's labor of love:

​

no fame no fortune

but all these new year stars

in their right places

​

an'ya

​