NEW HOPE INTERNATIONAL REVIEW

An independent small press poetry review

L'ÉROTIQUE edited by Micheline Beaudry and Janick Belleau Editions Biliki ISBN 2 930438 16 9 €14 visit the website of Editions Biliki Web design by This page last updated: 10th December 2007.		L'ÉROTIQUE
		For this reviewer, the most appealing aspect of haiku is their strength in capturing a moment of great meaning in very few words. For many people sex and sensual relationships are full of moments of great meaning and therefore offer an ideal subject for haiku. This collection gathers together haiku in French from across the world (primarily France and Quebec). It offers haiku moments from the whole range of erotic experience, from first attraction to breaking up. The collection is entirely in French, all translations here are the reviewer's own and attempt to stay true to the original whilst also attempting to be successful haiku in English. There are a number of haiku about seemingly unacknowledged attraction, my favourite of these being the following by Olivier Walter: nuit de juillet elle pèle un pêche coleur de sa peau. July night — she peels a peach the colour of her skin. There are also haiku about the first stages in the relationship, including this observation of an explosive first kiss by Angela Leuck: dans son labo â côté du réacteur haute pression premier baiser. in his lab next to the high pressure reactor — first kiss Some of the haiku present everyday sensual experiences, in such a way as to magnify their significance — Anne Marie Labelle: voile brumeaux de la douche nos corps confondus the misty shower curtain — our confused bodies. Several of the haiku offer pictures of human sexual relationships set in the context of the natural world, with sometimes humourous effect — Jessica Tremblay: dans la forêt un bruyant orgasme chevreuil effrayé in the forest a noisy orgasm — frightened stag and sometimes painting a picture of sex as abstract art — Gilles Ruel: sur le mur mon pènis géant pleine lune on the wall my giant penis — full moon. For me, the haiku that most truly live up to the title of Erotic are those that really capture the sensuality of the sexual experience — Louise Vachon: kama-sutra nos essences mêlée un goût de fruit Kama Sutra our essences blend — taste of fruit There is a certain admirable honesty about this collection of erotic haiku in its inclusion of haiku about breaking up —Angela Leuck: tu en as trouvé un autre les fleurs de l'arbre tombent si vite. you have found another — the flowers of the tree fall so quickly. This is a refreshingly varied collection of haiku about sex and sensuality, covering a broad range of human experience in this area. Just as with relationships themselves, there are some haiku that won't work for some readers, and some I suspect don't translate well. So pick and choose the ones that appeal the most and read them — alone or with your lover.
		reviewer: Juliet Wilson.