homeeditorsreviewsessaysmhbooks issues

 

Volume 33.2
Summer 2002

book review

A New Resonance 2: Emerging Voices in English-Language Haiku
edited by Jim Kacian and Dee Evetts

 

reviewed by Billie Wilson

A New Resonance 2: Emerging Voices in English-Language Haiku, edited by Jim Kacian and Dee Evetts (Winchester, Va.: Red Moon Press, 2001). 176 pages, paper, perfectbound, 51/4" x 81/4". $14.95 (plus $3.00 postage) from the publisher at PO Box 2461, Winchester, VA 22504-1661.

 


When the first A New Resonance was published in 1999, I wrote to Red Moon Press expressing my hope that more such volumes would be forthcoming. I was excited when I learned there would be a volume two, and pleased to read in the introduction to that book that more will likely follow. This is an important series that is certain to be highly valued by many in the decades ahead.

With a generous fifteen poems from each featured author, we are given an opportunity to really appreciate a poet's work. Each "chapter" includes a list of all seventeen contributors with the featured poet's name highlighted. This unique approach symbolizes for me that we are each part of the whole haiku community and that we are inspired, and inspire, within the context of that whole.

Each poet's photo is included (a welcome touch for those of us unable to attend haiku conferences), as is brief biographical information and an insightful editorial comment about the poet's work. The poems are treated with great respect. The first and the last verses of each poet appear singly on a page, and the rest are nicely balanced two or three to a page.

The selections include many personal favorites that I had seen in various journals and The Red Moon Anthology annual series (another topshelf series from Red Moon Press and one of the most significant and enjoyable of recent haiku publications). Some poems were included in Cor van den Heuvel's The Haiku Anthology, and a number have won major haiku competitions. There is also a nice mix of previously unpublished work to add even more interest.

Sadly, two of the poets, John Crook and Bruce Detrick, died during the preparation of the book. For me this enhances the value of this volume, however, and it is gratifying to see their work permanently honored in this way.

It is impossible to detail the quality and power of the haiku selected by the editors, so I have selected only two haiku to stand as a representation of the whole.

ebb tide
the shell I keep reaching for
carried further away

John Crook

 •

winter dawn
emptying the wastebaskets
after he leaves

Pamela Miller Ness

 

 

 

©2002 Modern Haiku • PO Box 68 • Lincoln, IL 62656