Book of the Week: The Celesta Made of Water: A Book of Haiku by Mike Andrelczyk

A Celesta (from the French “cèleste” for “heavenly”) is an idiophone with a keyboard which looks somewhat like a piano. Although it is a keyboard instrument, the celesta belongs to the family of percussion instruments, and is usually played by a pianist.

A review of Mike’s haiku in Modern Haiku states that “Andrelczyk’s work has been described as poems from the edge of haiku and he uses a variety of disjunctive strategies” which can be seen in the haiku below. Another book by Mike, The Stolen Pineapple Earthquake, is also in the Digital Library.

sunlight
on icy blue pines
the celesta made of water

the yellow rain
slowly turning
into lizard bones

Nursing she-wolf
the rise and fall
of empires

starfish in the mathematical Bahamas

You can read the entire book in the THF Digital Library and share your favorite haiku from the book in the Comments section.

Do you have a chapbook published in 2015 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.