Book of the Week – Haiku: A 1965 Collection of Haiku by Canadian Poet Claire Pratt

From Wikipedia – Mildred Claire Pratt (18 March 1921 – 5 April 1995) was a Canadian artist, poet and editor. She contracted polio at the age of 4 and later developed osteomyelitis, an inflammatory disease of the bone. She received degrees in English and Philosophy and then studied international relations at Columbia University, and art at the Boston Museum of Fine Art among other schools.

Her art consisted largely of woodcuts, and there were exhibitions of her graphic art across North America and in Europe. Claire’s interest in Japanese graphics stimulated her interest in haiku and the University of Toronto has an online collection of her art.

Night, flea-bitten thief,
cast your black self to the moon
and return my sleep.

Earth shakes; the temple
splits everlastingly; and
salt flows without end.

Leap, bright dolphins, break
with showers of joy into the
shrine. Holy art thou.

The dark wet forest,
little night bird twittering
in the gentle rain.

You can read the entire book in the THF Digital Library and please share your favorite poem from the book with us.

Do you have a chapbook published in 2018 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.