HCshohyôran

Four seasons in haiku series : summer castles , autumn! autumn! winter blooms, and the curious springtime written by André Duhaime and illustrated by Francine Couture. Translated from the French by Ben Vrignon. (Manitoba, Canada: Vidacom Press. 2024. Originally published in French in 1990.) Unnumbered pages. Reviewed by Doris Fiszer with input from her granddaughter, Madison Amiel These four haiku children’s books are certain to charm readers of all ages. The haiku are accompanied by multi-coloured, action-oriented and playful illustrations. In each book, we witness one or two children engaged in a typical seasonal activity: building a sandcastle, leaping into leaves, building a snowman, or flying a kite. The children’s short-lived adventures are familiar rituals that invite us to re-experience our own seasonal traditions. My twelve-year-old granddaughter happily offered her perspective on the books as well. In summer castles, two haiku that my granddaughter and I enjoyed and tha...

Mono   (phafours press, 2026)  ISBN: 978-1-7380645-3-3 (print),  ISBN: 978-1-7380645-4-0 (digital) $16 or free. Review by Sandra Stephenson After reading the monostich haiku of Mono edited by Pearl Pirie (phafours press, 2026), the bios, at two and three lines, seem like a gift, where severity stops.    My favourite is "Jim has been writing monoku for 4 decades, and can’t seem to stop." (The ebook viewable at digitally yours  or you can buy it in print .) Because the poems are so spare, some of them use visual effect as well, such as MD Welch’s pigeon on the roof.  Ellen’s Confederation Bridge is an example where a curve would add to the effect.   Her sister, Pam Cooper is always one of my favourite poets to read.   The gingko poem is no exception.   In one line, she’s got gingkos all over the place, inside and out.   And Roland Packer: on one unimportant word, ‘the’, he pivots the whole poem. Pearl’s choice of bold font in serif s...