Book of the Week: Eyes of the Blossoms

Kristen Deming learned haiku from the source–in Japan while her husband Rust was Chargé d’Affaires there in the late 1990s. This small, beautiful booklet was one result of that first contact with the genre, brought about in part through the ministrations of Yatsuko Ishihara, who has had much further influence, in his quiet way, on the development of haiku here.

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

Do you have a chapbook published 2009 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 Jim Kacian, following a concept first explored by Tom Clausen, and are used with permission.

first dream of the year—
pulling the bow back strongly
the arrow is released

for an instant
eyes of the blossoms open fully
close again in the wind


torches crackling
the cormorant boats set off
pushing darkness

fog
quenching
the red forest


autumn deepening—
the voices of insects
polish the moon

snowbound
on our anniversary—
stirring the embers