Haiku Tapestry

Haiku Tapestry by Naomi Y. Brown. Yucca Press, 1996, 96 pages, paperback, 512 by 8/2 inches. $9.95 plus postage (inquire) from the author at Yucca Books, P.O. Box 640286, El Paso, Texas 79904-0286 [address no longer correct]. It’s been seven years since Naomi Brown’s previous haiku collection, Seasons’ Enigma, appeared in 1989. In the intervening years, Naomi has continued writing her pleasing haiku, as Haiku Tapestry testifies. This new book presents 144 haiku moments set mostly in the American southwest. The poems are a treat for their richly regional flavor, as in this Christmas poem: “on dark front door / fresh red chili wreath / the winter solstice.” Less regional poems also abound, and Nina Klinkenberg provides illustrations for a number of poems that appear at the rate of one or two per page, arranged seasonally. Two samples:

morning walk

     warbler’s song

          changes my route

pale winter sun

     cat’s stretched shadow

          crosses the patio