NEW HOPE INTERNATIONAL REVIEW

An independent small press poetry review

NHI independent review
DEBORAH P KOLODJI: SEASIDE MOON
Saki Press
1021 W Gregory St
Normal
IL 61761
USA
ISBN 1 893823 17 2
$5
DEBORAH P KOLODJI: UNFINISHED BOOK
Shadow Ink Publications
1209 Milwaukee St
Excelsior Springs MO 64024
USA
ISBN 1 932447 55 5
$6.95
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This page last updated: 13th October 2008. 		DEBORAH P KOLODJI: SEASIDE MOON

A delightful little collection of haiku set at the seaside, with pleasant illustrations that perfectly suit the material.

As with all haiku collections, reader reaction is personal and will vary over time, but this reader enjoyed the wry humour and intriguing picture conjured up by:

	morning tidepools
	a hermit crab tries on
	the bottle cap
And if it's possible to have a silent sound-picture, then one of the best must be:
	pulsing sea jellies
	a symphony orchestra
	on mute
Deborah P Kolodji has an excellent visual sense which she communicates through superb mental images such as:
	folded origami
	the octopus hides
	in his exhibit

reviewer: John Francis Haines.
DEBORAH P KOLODJI: UNFINISHED BOOK

This is a pamphlet written mostly in the syllable counts of 2/4/6/8/2:

	Thin moon,
	sliced in the sky —-
	we share cheese and white wine,
	and toast our good fortune before
	it wanes.
The above was called CLAIRE DE LUNE. Many different forms of syllable counting have been tried, but at the end of the day the poem must lift away from a statement. I must confess to being biased to the haiku and tanka forms that can achieve this so beautifully, and I feel Kolodji is at her best here:
	flower stalks
	of bottling coriander
	summer's end
Another favourite is:
	vacation home
	wild blackberry vines
	usurp the flowerbed
This pamphlet gives a range of interesting life events mingled with the natural world.

reviewer: Doreen King.