Book of the Week: Beyond Where the Snow Falls
Jeff Witkin left only two books of haiku before leaving haiku, but they made their mark. This is the earlier, from Tiny Poems Press in 1997.
You can read the entire book in the THF Digital Library.
All haiku in the Book of the Week Archive are selected by Tom Clausen, and are used with permission.
perennials for my wife of thirty years . . . not knowing it’s overautumn chill— without its hanging plant the chain clinksin my new room a paddle for the kayak i don’t yet ownone for dinner— breaking the chopsticks in twosnowmelt a space opens around the rockmagnolia blossoms about to appear— soft spring rain
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Unbearable pain in Witkin-san’s haiku. Very brave writing. Haiku can heal…restore the balance of things.
-Patrick
Thank you for sharing this book by Jeff Witkin. There is sadness in his poems and also hope. His name is familiar, though I don’t remember clearly. Although my story is different, there was loss in my early years of haiku as well.
On a perhaps related note, in my career in special education, definitions were discussed, as there were enormous implications for services. So I didn’t connect with the academic discussions of haiku when I began in 1993. Needed a different way to begin.
Now though I am interested in all the aspects of haiku that are included here. One post gets me thinking about form, and another reminds me of how I could read haiku – and of how very much I loved these chapbooks – during some years of health problems and grief. Still do.
It is wonderful that this form includes so much. It seems possible during difficult times, yet is endless.
Best wishes to Jeff and everyone, Ellen
Wow, these are really good. I’d never heard of this author before, thanks for bringing him to light!