Book of the Week – Snow Bones by Masaya Saito
SNOW BONES [north of England dialect]: remnants of snow after a thaw; patches of snow seen stretching along ridges, in ruts, or in furrows, etc., after a partial thaw.
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From the Back Cover: “Snow Bones consists of four narrative haiku sequences spoken by seven different voices. The first sequence begins in winter in Akita, the cold northern part of Japan which is the author’s birthplace, and is concerned with the death and funeral of the speaker’s mother; in the fourth sequence, this narrator returns to Akita in winter and attends his father’s funeral. The two central sequences, one set in the Tokyo metropolis and one in the countryside, move through spring and summer to autumn; each sequence is narrated by three different speakers as they move through environments which they share without ever encountering each other except at a distance.
Masaya Saito says: ‘Each of the narrators in Snow Bones lives through his or her daily life experiencing the transience of its moments. Their inner worlds leak through their monologues – and yet we never really know who they are. Each one of us seems – mysteriously – to be an individual entity, and we, like the seven narrators, move around not knowing the answer to this mystery – or perhaps not even perceiving it as one – a mystery whose beauty and ambiguity I wanted to present through the accumulation of numerous tiny concrete images.’”
Snow Bones was first published in 2016 by Isobar Press.
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Below are a few selected poems from the book:
a cold sunset
on the cliff, me
without wings
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The old house
tick
of a pendulum
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A swallow enters
the barn’s darkness
noon
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Awakening
from a spring dream
my throat, parched
—
Barefoot
across the tatami floor
across the wooden floor
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In a heavy kimono
this old poet
no longer flaps his wings
You can read the entire book in the THF Digital Library. Please share your favorite poem from the book with us.
Do you have a full or chapbook length book published in 2019 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 the THF Digital Librarian Kenneth Pearson and are used with permission.
Comments (3)
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I have this book and it’s one of my favorites. Such an authentic voice. I didn’t recognize that there were 3 speakers, but it made no difference to my appreciation of the haiku, every one which touched me deeply.
Excellent book.
One of many favourites:
Lust
made flesh
would be a toad
(One for the pundits to chew on).
This book is very dear to me. It’s a haiku work I wish I’d written. Each poem is deeply felt and lingers in one’s mind. I treasure my own copy.