Wild Strawberries

First published in Woodnotes #17, Summer 1993, page 29.

Wild Strawberries by Winona Baker. Trabarni Productions, 1993, 16 pages, paperback, 4¼ by 5½ inches. $4.00 from Box 64026, 555 Clarke Road, Coquitlam, British Columbia, Canada, V3J 7V6 [address no longer correct]. Printing limited to 50 numbered copies. This book contains seven haiku, printed on pink paper. It can be read very quickly, yet it reverberates. The author has explained that the title poem, (“wild strawberries / his leukemia / in remission”) is about her grandson who has since died of his disease. The caring sensitivity of the universal woman shines clearly in this brief treasure. A favourite:

women’s solstice circle

how warm the stone

passed to my hand