NEW HOPE INTERNATIONAL REVIEW
An independent small press poetry review
 MAX VERHART: SOME BREATH 't Hoge Woord Rijsterdijk 25 8574 VW Bakhuizen Netherlands ISBN 90 70951 12 4 email the author read an article by Max Verhart        Web design by  This page last updated: 11th December 2007. |
MAX VERHART: SOME BREATH | |
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This is the smallest (54x72mm) and perhaps, one of the most attractive books I've ever held in my hands. It is made from one sheet of 120 gramme Seagull A4 paper to give 32 pages with a heavier stock blue cover, and a slightly darker shade of blue dust cover with flaps. The entire book is held together by a length of red thread. According to Wim Lofvers, on the last page, this Radish (Radijs) edition is one in a series of limited copies (50) in which haiku poets may share their poetry with an intimate circle of friends.The name for the series comes from the famous haiku by Issa, which in the version I like best runs: the farmer radish in hand pointing the wayVerhart's haiku, all written in three lines but without any consistently strict syllable count per line, often verges on poesy. This may bother some of the more puritanical haiku writers/readers, but his poems work very well for me. There are a total of 29 haiku, presented in six sections: some breath (4), a sigh of wind (4), just looking (6), sparrow starling magpie (6), no other sound (4), and on the move to somewhere (5). In each case, the title of the section is also the first line of the first poem in that particular sequence. Overall, for my tastes, these poems range from good to excellent. Three of my favourites are: fog and my breath — both gray windless morning motionless the reed ready to rustle in the grass a softly buzzing cola tin | ||
| reviewer: Giovanni Malito. |