Book of the Week: Jazztronaut

Geert Verbeke has been plying the haiku waters for several decades now, and has published many chapbooks of his work, several of them arranged in themes, as this one (Empty Sky, 2012) which also incorporates another of his loves, jazz. He subtitles this work “A tanka tribute to Miles Davis,” and it is redolent with a music of its own, not only jazz but salsa and big band, with a touch of blues.

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.

the photographer
struts with the band
thinking in black and white
the sousaphone hums sparingly
echoes between the houses

in the morning light
he practises a few chords
a lot of Coltrane
but also frequently
songs by Emmylou Harris

Grandpa winks
only good is not good enough
having a drink
he shuts the piano with a slap
Monk is on the radio

the usual finicking
or is it a sense
of vulnerability
with sensitive notes
as his playmates

drum majorettes
march in front of the brass band
with sexy legs
and pretty bottoms
but completely out of time

so peaceful
with a sense for meditation
in his sweat hut
the flavoured smoke
and his scat singing