Book of the Week: When (Almost) Nothing Happens
Jerry Ball has had an important influence on English-language haiku not only through his own poems, but through his consideration of how our poems work best in our language. This early work (self-published, 1997) discusses how verbs can distract us from the crisp limning of our observations, and offers many examples of haiku shorn of verbs that accomplish that goal, including a few in Italian!
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.
wild strawberries at the place where two paths meet near a waterfallchildren with flowers the end of Easter service in the morning raina cover of soot on the war memorial in the August suncrepusculo estivo una vecchia donna su en sedia al balconethe oldest woman an armload of newspapers in the autumn duskwinter evening sounds of a silver bracelet on a marble floor
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Would it be okay to send my illustrated book of haiku and couplets to you? ” Moments in Time ” was self published in 2014. I am anxious to hear a review.
Pat Kopanda
Thank you – I enjoyed reading this book by Jerry Ball; his thoughts and poems alike. Have always loved still life paintings and photos. I’ve spent a lot of time in nursing homes, with my mother’s care and as a volunteer. Someone might seem to be looking out the window doing nothing, yet so much to see and remember. One quiet image, and yet many recollections with plenty of activities. The gift of stillness sometimes, to let things settle. The beauty of puddles in fields now and the roses can wait awhile.