Book of the Week: A Ragbag of Haiku
Brian Tasker was the leading British Zen-inspired haikuist through the 1990s, editing a beautiful if short-lived journal (bare bones) during that time, and self-producing books such as this one from 1996.
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All haiku in the Book of the Week Archive are selected by Tom Clausen, and are used with permission.
the temple bell sounds; a woodpigeon pauses to fill the silencesudden heart beating wings of the pheasant breaking coverafter the rain the starsall my expectations my lover letting down her hairsummer storm: on an old radio jazz cracklesafter she's gone unwinding a long hair from my pillowfirst cold morning— on the bathroom heater dust burnsin and out of our argument a butterflyat the rest-home slowly I wake my father dreaming of the pastanother day without work early morning mist driftingthe smiling doctor waves me into his room: the grey afternoon lighthigh tide over and over the shifting shinglea light rain into the evening mist— woodsmoke
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As my life comes back, like scrambled eggs going back in the shell… I’m so happy I stopped by THF to discover this book by such a sensitive artist. Many thanks.
Brian Tasker’s A Ragbag of Haiku includes a number of fine poems : ” summer storm:”,
” first cold morning— , and ” after she’s gone”, among others. These poems are vibrant!
Brian has a website, mostly, but not only, devoted to his involvement in Playback Theatre: http://www.makeshifttheatre.co.uk/. I know that John Stevenson also did a lot of playback. Brian tried to get those of us who were in the British Haiku Society 10 years ago to do some Playback, with very mixed results.
Brian is also a fine tanka writer, as well as haikuist, but I’m not sure if he’s still writing much.