NEW HOPE INTERNATIONAL REVIEW

An independent small press poetry review

NHI independent review
White Lotus
1209 Milwaukee St
Excelsior Springs
MO 64024
USA
ISSN 1556-3987
$10
Subscriptions: 2 issues $15 [$20 RoW]
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This page last updated: 14th December 2007. 		White Lotus #1

WHITE LOTUS, a journal of haiku, senryu and haibun, is published biannually by Shadow Poetry. This inaugural issue contains haiku, senryu, haibun, an interview with Stanford M. Forrester, a haiku contest and the Editors' Choice Award.

The journal is beautifully presented, the white lotus of the title adorning the front cover and a haiga of the white lotus by Robin M. Buehler on the back cover:

	white lotus
	behind a veil of green
	the blushing bride
Haiga and artwork by Emily Romano, Sandy Ellis and CarrieAnn Thunnell are liberally distributed throughout the book.

Jim Kacian is one of the finest of today's American haiku poets. His voice is fresh and he has no room in his writing for trite observation, as the following poem illustrates:

	flurries after our argument the need to tell you
Scott Metz is a name with which I'm becoming more familiar, having recently seen his work in several haiku journals. The efficacy and strength of his poems lies in their originality. He is innovative, willing to take risks, and bends over backwards to bring us those special moments:
	typhoon-eye:
	pigeons nesting
	in flattened rice

		undecorating —
		each paper star
		a bit brighter
Kirsty Karkow offers full and intoxicating moments; time is expansive and immeasurable, and her poems offer precision and timelessness:
	after the wake
	a white birch sways
	in bitter wind

		village graveyard
		the click of an oak leaf
		breaking free
The haibun section is illustrated with artwork by Sandy Ellis and offers three pieces by Emily Romano: LOTUS ENLIGHTENMENT, PARED DOWN WITH PAIRED WORDS and THE MIDDLE LINE.

LOTUS ENLIGHTENMENT is about the first lotus haiku Emily Romano composed for the Kaji Aso 2003 International Haiku Contest:

	lotus to lotus
	a dragonfly's shadow
	lighter than air
PARED DOWN WITH PAIRED WORDS is a piece about Romano's use of a haiku and senryu format of four words. She says:
It recently occurred to me that several haiku and senryu of mine, which have seen publication, have not used the short/long/short (5/7/5 count) format. Rather, they've been poems of four words (two words per line).
In this example:
	January wanes
	    Janitor waxes
In THE MIDDLE LINE Romano writes about the pivotal middle line of a haiku, which is called a zeugma.

CarrieAnn Thunell interviews Stanford M. Forrester in this first issue. The wealth of Stanford M. Forrester's experience when talking about haiku and Buddhism is buoyed up by the smoothness with which he incorporates himself into this ever-expanding world, which is so large it can only be explained briefly in his short interview:

When one understands even the basic concepts of Buddhism, one can see how these ideas are shared in the genetic make-up of haiku and are present wherever haiku travels. Buddhism addresses impermanence, living in the moment, awareness, the essence of suffering, oneness with the universe, the understanding of what things truly are, etc. etc.

There's a brief, succinct review by CarrieAnn Thunnell of Stanford M. Forrester's haiku book TOY SUBMARINES and a page devoted to the Zen Garden Haiku Contest.

In each issue of WHITE LOTUS, the editors choose their favourite haiku/senryu and display them on the last page. Marie Summers and Kathy Lippard Cobb make the Editors' Choice Award. In this issue Marie's choice goes to Robert Maestre for his poem

	missing you —
	I drop each bread crumb
	a little closer
and Kathy's goes to Stanford M. Forrester for
	sunlit path —
	the shadow lands
	before the leaf
Readers will find they have fallen for the gravity as well as the flight of these offerings. This seems inevitable because the strength of some pieces outweighs the weakness of others. In many pieces the ability to counterbalance the visionary with the down-to-earth of every-day gives a balance that draws the reader towards the enticement of discovering new names and ideas among the more familiar ones. This slim volume leaves one wanting more and the magazine will surely grow in power as it becomes better known.

reviewer: Patricia Prime.