NEW HOPE INTERNATIONAL REVIEW
An independent small press poetry review
 PEGGY WILLIS LYLES: THIRTY-SIX TONES Saki Press 1021 Gregory Normal IL 61761 USA ISBN 1 893823 08 3 $4.50 [postage, 55¢ USA 76¢ Canada $2.55 overseas] checks in US funds payable to "Lenore Hutton"        Web design by  This page last updated: 13th October 2008. |
PEGGY WILLIS LYLES: THIRTY-SIX TONES | |
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This is a tiny book, only 11x14cm, but contains 36 Tones or rather one kasen renku. According to the introduction a traditional kasen renku has 36 stanzas or tones. The tones in this book are haiku or senryu and have been carefully selected not only to stand alone but also to create a coherent whole. The structure has, the poet asserts, been guided by the need to allow for the seasonal requirements of the format and obligatory stanzas referring to the moon, blossom and love. The result is a selection that is loosely based on the conventions of kasen renku but which gives the reader a way into the haiku represented. The haiku themselves are delicate and sharp. The poet has taken the trouble to produce poetry that produces an arrow of recognition in the reader such as morning calm the song that hovers out of sightor oval frame a woman curves around her child"This is a selection of large ideas in a little package. | ||
| reviewer: Polly Bird. |