Well, it is odd, but I’ve always really enjoyed Haiku and the other ‘shorter forms’ but, like concrete poetry, it is rare that I get sent any that really catches me.
So a while back (and I am skating over the fact that this has been a long time coming) I was extremely pleased to receive a collection of them from Phil Santus, ‘Five years of seasons,’ and I am even more so chuffed to say that it will be coming out in the next month.
The cover will be revealed tomorrow, and I’m going to leave it to poetry superstar and legend, Eileen Carney Hulme, to give a taste of Phil’s collection…
“Five years of seasons. Over many years I have admired and enjoyed haiku so it was with great pleasure that I began reading this collection to discover a series of haiku that spans each of the four seasons over a period of five years.
Spare and elegant the poems flow seamlessly conveying past and present experiences and also future hopes as we move through childhood to old age. There is knowledge and understanding of self and the poet’s relationship with the world observed through nature.
This is a distinctive and accomplished first collection and I admire the crafting and light touch of the poet as he deals with the big themes of love and loss, acknowledging the fragility of life and all that we observe around us both human and in nature.”
Eileen Carney Hulme, author of Stroking The Air, The Space Between Rain and The Stone Messenger
Speaking of Eileen, it is her constant dedication, love and promotion of the Hothouse Flowers (just about every time I speak to her) that always leads me back to them, and it was their debut album from the late 1980s that I was listening to whilst fettling Phil’s wee collection. And bloomin’ good it was and remains. A wicked band.
I must admit I loved them too, but perhaps not quite so avidly, although I do remember seeing them fresh from Eurovision interval glory in the teeny Irish Centre in Digbeth, Birmingham and thinking, ‘you know, if ever I am fettling a poetry collection comprising beautifully sparse haiku, this will be the band I will listen to while I am doing it.’
Some things are just meant to be, I guess.
Awesome 💜