River

River by Phyllis Walsh. Hummingbird Press, 1993,32 pages, paperback, 4 by 5 inches. $8.00 postpaid from the author at Hummingbird Press, P.O. Box 96, Richland Center, Wisconsin, 53581 [address no longer correct]. A collection of 21 haiku, one to a page, written about a flood of Wisconsin’s Pine River in August of 1992, and about the events in Phyllis’s life at that time. A beautiful handsewn letterpress edition of Phyllis’s fine haiku. A favorite from this recommended treasure, made more profound by the devastating Midwest floods of 1993:

hip-deep in the flood

mayor who opposed the dike

directs traffic