New Haiku Collection Inspired by Sisterhood
A deepening practice of reflecting and saying more with less was the inspiration behind Katherine Chantal’s new book A Year of Haiku.
“I have known of the Japanese poetry from of Haiku, 5-7-5 syllables, for decades, even writing a few occasionally. Often my poems are long, so I gave myself a challenge. Why not distill each of my poems into a haiku?” Chantal said.
“In the vein of philosophy, psychology, soul work and breathing in my beautiful surroundings, this book was born,” she writes in the book’s description.
Walking with the clouds / Gliding through brilliant blue skies / My palette deepens
Chantal’s first published writing was an article about the homebirth of her first two sons (twins), which appeared in Mothering magazine in 1977. More recently, the mother of five sons and five grandchildren has authored A Tea Poets Journey, The Seven Gateways to Kindness and A Poetic Memoir of a Nascent Senescent and her new book of haiku, all of which are available for sale on Amazon and at The Floyd Country Store.
Humans are adept / at living above the surface / Will you get below
In A Year of Haiku 83 pages of haiku poems with six on each page are separated by categories titled Word Speak, Mother, Birds and Other Beings, Loss, Sorrow and Joy, Miscellaneous Musings, Inside Out, Aging Living Soulfully and Death.
In our culture, it’s / difficult to see beauty / in aging folks, TRY!
The book concludes with pictures of her and her sister Judith, who the book is dedicated to, as children and adults.
Pointing to the moon / Is the moon pointing at me? / We both feel the pull.
Chantal writes in her dedication to Judith, who is living with a condition that affects language abilities: “Her gift to me of Haiku Mind by Patricia Donegan has inspired me to write this book of 365 haikus over the past year. While words are slipping away from her, we continue to grow, share and love ever more, as we say less to on another. We have been together since I was born, since before I even uttered a word and she had only a few.”
I do not have a / creed. If I did, simply put / “What does Soul ask me?
________Colleen Redman
