Driveway from Childhood

Driveway from Childhood by Pamela Miller Ness. Small Poetry Press, 1997, 32 pages, 5½ by 4¼ inches. $5.00 postpaid from the author at33 Riverside Drive, Apt.4-G, New York, New York 10023 [address no longer correct]. This small book of haiku, which I believe to be the author’s first, presents 24 haiku, one to a page. These poems about childhood remind me of the work of Adele Kenny and Alexis Rotella. Pamela Miller Ness’s poems have their own distinct style, however, and generate a warm feeling with their unassuming demeanor. Here are two samples:

midsummer evening

mother’s two-syllable whistle

ends our play

first love

in the summer gazebo . . .

little brother won’t leave