Paris

First published in Woodnotes #31, Autumn 1997, page 47.

Paris by William Hart. Timberline Press, 1996, 40 pages, paperback, 5½ by 8½ inches. $9.00 postpaid from Timberline Press, 6281 Red Bud, Fulton, Missouri 65251. With William Hart’s Paris, Timberline Press has again produced an elegantly attractive letterpress volume of haiku. Hart’s poems, as in his previous book of travel haiku about India and Nepal in Monsoon, maintain their travel focus. This time the destination is Paris. You’ll see the usual tourist sites (the Eiffel Tower, the Mona Lisa), but also the native Paris (a tram shelter, a pay pissoir). Jayasri Majumdar adds four illustrations to the book’s 41 haiku, and the design is especially inviting. A favorite selection:

riffles on the Seine

my map of the city

wraps my arm