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Haiku and Senryu You: a book of short shorts
by jacob erin-cilberto
Format: 5 ½'' x 8 ½''
21 traditional Haiku & Senryu ~ 15 short shorts ~ 34 Pages
Publisher: Praying Mantis Press
ISBN: 9798870929569
To Order: Email: fogerin1@aol.com for PayPal information
Reviewed by Guest Reviewer Kathy Lohrum Cotton
Jacob erin-cilberto’s 23rd book is a small collection of small poems–21 haiku and senryu and 15 “short shorts.” But cover-to-cover, the book is extra-large in scope and depth.
In the U.S. traditional 5/7/5 syllable-count, he writes, cold inspiration/ AI generated words/ a dead poem blossom [“senryu #642”]. This observation, as current as today’s news, contrasts with the seasonal view of “haiku #74,” which captures this timeless moment: the snow whispers white/ dawning in downy repose/ bare boned birds arise.
For erin-cilberto, always a master of metaphor, love becomes a “clipped wing”; “the bones of a poem” are an “archeological find”; and “my heart a feather.” Subjects range from a robin’s eye to riots and bombs, from children at play to an old man’s cane.
This is a collection you may read quickly, unable to lay it down, then re-read slowly and often, savoring its depth and poetic beauty.
Kathy Lohrum Cotton is the author of Aligned with the Sky
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