Book-of-the-Week

Book of the Week: The Wafer Cage

alma_thewafercagecoverNasira Alma’s strong mystical bent permeated all her work. Though haiku was only one of many forms she wrote (as is evident in this book), she wove it seamlessly into the formal thread that resulted. This eclectic, self-produced chapbook from 1995 shows her in full flight.

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.


wind at dusk
each branch
its own dance


last light
on the gold cross
a cormorant flies under the moon


pearl glow east
another dawn
he didn’t see


breaking up kindling—
the woods’ stillness
mends itself


night ebbing
from the match flame
and flowing back


Friday at mosque
forehead to carpet
in a sun-warmed place

This Post Has 2 Comments

  1. Thank you Nasira. I have enjoyed hearing the strong, idiosyncratic voice having its say in these poems. They are remarkable for their stark, crisp imagery soaked in anger and in pathos.

    Garry

    1. Garry, you write like you know this special woman. Nasira Alma entered this world as Nancy Sodeman, born in Clinton, Iowa, educated by the Sisters of St. Fransican order especially at Mount St. Clare Academy for girls in Clinton. A follow classmate of 1961, Nancy/Nasira was a natural leader, her eyes shone with the light of knowledge and she walked like a panther through this life seeking its life blood down each path she ventured. She was not a tiny soul, tall, large boned, she cast a long shadow into which she retreated in November of 1997. I seek her in meditation, I embrace her writings which she always shared. I miss her greatly and cling to those words on the index cards she always sent my way. She loved nature and inhaled it until it became her being. RW

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