Midwest Haiku Anthology

Midwest Haiku Anthology edited by Randy M. Brooks and Lee Gurga. 1992, 128 pages, hardback, 5½ by 8½ inches. $17.00 postpaid from Brooks Books, 4634 Hale Drive, Decatur, Illinois, 62526 [address no longer correct]. Unveiled at the Midwest Haiku Festival in October, 1992, the Midwest Haiku Anthology is a significant collection of haiku suffused with midwestern spirit. Unlike the San Francisco Haiku Anthology [also published the same year], which is primarily a collection of poems by people who live in a particular geographical region, the Midwest Haiku Anthology is written by 54 midwestern poets mostly about its region. What makes this book particularly distinctive is essays and commentary by the poets about the effect of the prairie landscape on their poetry. It is also surprising to see who has midwestern connections, such as L. A. Davidson. Two selections from HPNC [Haiku Poets of Northern California] members (former midwesterners) now living in California:

gone from the woods

the bird I knew

by song alone

             Paul O. Williams

empty silo—

spring wind pops the metal

in and out

             Michael Dylan Welch