NEW HOPE INTERNATIONAL REVIEW

An independent small press poetry review

HAIKU CANADA HOLOGRAPH ANTHOLOGY 2004 Haiku Canada LeRoy Gorman 51 Graham West Napanee ON K7R 2J6 Canada ISBN 0 920752 25 X $10 email Haiku Canada visit the website of Haiku Canada Web design by This page last updated: 10th December 2007.		HAIKU CANADA HOLOGRAPH ANTHOLOGY 2004
		The Haiku Canada Member's Anthology 2004 is a holographic edition of 78 signed poems by 78 poets, limited to 200 copies, assembled in a plastic envelope tied with a cord. It was a lovely surprise to receive the plastic sachet with its string fastening containing haiku and their accompanying hand-written or printed haiku and handmade images. Each piece is individualistic and thoughtful. I emptied the contents of the envelope onto my coffee table and spread out the poems to look at each illustration and read every haiku. Here are poems by such luminaries as Marco Fraticelli, Alice Frampton, Gary Hotham, Martin Lucas, LeRoy Gorman, and many others. Some of the haiku are computer generated, others are cut with scissors, burned around the edges, decorated with a hole punch, simply calligraphies on card, on phone message paper — the variety of presentation is simply amazing. Among my favourites are Michael McClintoch's poem, printed simply on a sheet of pale brown paper: sketching in pencil an old face a thousand rivers Tina Stanton's poem on a rose-covered bookmark: autumn chill — a small stone sits in a hopscotch square On a blue card sprinkled with raindrops is Jeffrey Winke's spring rain a small memory washes away and Nancy Prasad sent a simple cut-out circle that illuminates her text clouds cover and uncover the moon Expression of oneself and one's imagination is at the heart of this anthology. It is what the writers/artists/photographers have striven to achieve and what we as readers/viewers of their fine work respond to. In haiga, what appeals to us is the eloquence of the essentials of poem, painting and calligraphy deftly woven together that opens our eyes to the natural world and to our own day-to-day activities. Thus, Naomi Beth Wakan's nature verse the heron striking its own reflection shallow water with its uncomplicated words captures the essence of the water bird. Trevor Camp's everyday poem Moon lit face smiles in sleep — bird song starts gives us a fleeting glimpse of early morning familiar to most of us and Bruce Roxburgh's fine poem this morning tidiness finding his handwriting still alive catches the moment of discovery that many people may have experienced. Haiga is enjoying a growing reputation with appearances on many web sites. The art of these seventy-eight poet-artists from Canada, the United States, Australia and elsewhere, display their various talents in styles that range from traditional ink and brush to computer graphics, with subjects as diverse as Buddha, butterflies, cars, honey, screen doors and city roof-tops to paper cranes. The media used include ink, watercolour, collage, photography and computer-generated graphics. The reader will be both amazed and enchanted with these images and poems.
		reviewer: Patricia Prime.