NEW HOPE INTERNATIONAL REVIEW

An independent small press poetry review

NHI independent review
TIME HAIKU ANTHOLOGY
edited by Erica Facey
Time Haiku Group
105 Kings Head Hill
London
E4 7JG
UK
ISBN 0 9530165 1 X
£8.99
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This page last updated: 10th December 2007. 		TIME HAIKU ANTHOLOGY

This is a substantial 200 page anthology of work selected from the magazine Time Haiku in the period 1994-2004. Much of the writing is quite excellent. It includes tanka as well as haiku and other short forms.

Purists may be disappointed by the inclusion of haiku with titles such as those by Linda Fisher whose

	Flanders pulled out his
	pen and cobbled together
	a signature
is only understood from its title SWANN SONG, but it is appropriate whereas Bonnie Yuill's titles are superfluous. Similarly Pamela Harvey's insistence on starting each line with a capital letter turn what could be enchanting free-flowing haiku into what look like greetings-card verses.

Enough of the downside — the anthology opens with three pages of haiku and tanka by the late Giovanni Malito:

	First haiku
	   of the day
	the toaster smoking

		Cherry tree
		weeping
			over his grave
There are more haiku and tanka by the veteran Dan Pugh and four generous pages by his son Dylan. Rod Treseder contributes a series of haiku from a Cycle Ride from Brentford Dock to Eel Pie Island, Twickenham, Sunday 13th June 1999:
	concentrating on haiku
	   —  overtaken by cyclist
	concentrating on cycling!
Perhaps he knows Steve Dolphy
	old bike mender
	hunched over
	tightening spokes
There are seven pages of CHILDREN'S HAIKU from primary schools in the London Borough of Waltham Forest, followed by two examples of renku. There are five short essays, half a dozen haibun and a saijiki on the subject of CREATURES.

I've really only skimmed the surface of this anthology. It is one of those books to hide in a not-too-obscure corner of the house where one can rediscover it from time to time, dip in and enjoy.

reviewer: Mandy Smith.