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Richard Gilbert, Japan

Dimitar Anakiev, Balcony, 21 one-line haiku, 2006 (Red Moon Press, PO Box 2461, Winchester VA 22604-1661 USA), illustrations by Tsuneo Shibata

Dimitar Anakiev is among the best of the Balkan poets, and due to sensitive translation, among the best of haiku poets in English. This collection reflects the maturity and confidence of a decades-long exploration of the form and its intentions. Stillness and poise at one stroke—each haiku locating a fresh moment of perception. It is difficult to know the unreachable, and Dimitar sensitively places us on this precipice of knowing both self and world, as “a small cloud slowly embraces the moon,” or as “autumn rain from which you cannot escape,” or in the signature haiku, “from the balcony unreachable.” Through these poems, I remember myself, and gain a strong sense of the poet in his life and country, meeting him again in this new era. A beautiful, quiet tragedy of life unfolds—while we cannot rationally know the unknowable, Dimitar evokes it, sculpted from space. There is a sense of community and care expressed in these haiku. They heal, in that across this space we one day may embrace, from this very balcony.

Editor’s choice

from the balcony unreachable mountains

autumn rain from which you cannot escape: love

a small cloud slowly embraces the moon, the long trip to the Balkans