Book of the Week: A Scent of Lilacs

As Allen Terdiman, a retired psychiatrist, says in the introduction to this book of haiku and tanka, it is about passing over a threshold into the humour and pathos of aging. After a long, meaningful career, which included work for The Strategic Air Command, helping those responsible for the delivery of nuclear weapons stay calm, Allen faced his own challenge, finding meaningful ways to pass the time after retirement. Fortunately, one of his discoveries was short-form poetry based on the Japanese, and it resulted in the current Book of the Week, A Scent if Lilacs, published by the author in 2003, with illustrations and cover by Janet Patterson.

boy and grandpa
fly-fishing —
clear skies

 

college class —
the senior auditor’s “place”
is in the back of the room

 

grandpa
tells a ghost story —
the chatter of teeth

You can read the entire book in the THF Digital Library.

Do you have a chapbook published 2010 or earlier you would like featured as a Book of the Week? Contact us for details.

Haiku featured in the Book of the Week Archive are selected by THF Digital Librarian Garry Eaton, and are used with permission.