Book of the Week: Balcony: One-Line Haiku by Dimitar Anakiev
Dimitar Anakiev (b.1960 in Belgrade) began to write and publish poetry at the age of 13 and started writing haiku in 1985. He is a co-founder of the World Haiku Association and Balcony is his 12th collection of haiku. To learn more about Dimitar’s life and works, check out Wikipedia his YouTube channel.
In the Introduction to Balcony, Richard Gilbert writes “this collection reflects the maturity and confidence of a decades-long exploration of the form and its intentions. Stillness and poise at one stroke—each haiku locating a fresh moment of perception.” Other books by Dimitar in the Digital Library include: Kosovo Peony and At the Tombstone which was illustrated by Tsuneo Shibata, the Japanese paper artist. Below are sample haiku, in English and Serbian.
from the balcony unreachable mountains
sa balkona nedosegljive planine
a cow bell, the first sun arrives at the village
kravlje zvono, u selo dolazi prvo sunce
at dusk, how I can be real?
u sumrak, kako da budem stvaran?
on both sides of the fence dandelions grow the same
sa obe strane ograde maslacci jednako rastu
You can read the entire book in the THF Digital Library and share your favorite poem from the book in the Comments section.
Do you have a chapbook published in 2015 or earlier that 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 Dan Campbell and are used with permission.
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on both sides of the fence dandelions grow the same
sa obe strane ograde maslacci jednako rastu^the flies escape the rain at my legmuve pobegle od kise na moju nogu^
As I read this poem, the first thought that came is, ” Our situations may differ, and our environments may differ, but In essence, we are all the same. My second thoughts were: As countries, and as individuals within a family, we have built so many fences and all they do is divide us. Let us be like the beautiful, glowing dandelions. They have no sense of separateness. They grow wherever they please. And just by their beautiful nature, they bring joy to all; regardless of differences of opinion and varying beliefs.