Book Reviews:
New:
Vesna Oborina, Zvuci tišine (Sounds of Silence): Milenko D. Ćirović Ljutički
Constantin Stroe, Casa Bunicii/Grandma’s House: Vasile Moldovan
Ban'ya Natsuishi, The Flying Pope: Robert D. Wilson
Ion Marinescu, The Return of the Crane: Magdalena Dale
Robert D. Wilson, Jack Fruit Moon: Linda Papanicolaou
Robert D. Wilson, Jack Fruit Moon: Saša Važić
Carole MacRury, In the Company of Crows: Johnye Strickland
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Dimitar Anakiev, Balcony, Richard Gilbert
Mićun Šiljak, A Firefly in a Woodpile: Z. Raonić, N. Simin, B. Stojanovski, N. Simin, M. Despotović
Geert Verbeke: Adam Donaldson Powell
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David G Lanoue: Haiku Guy: Michael McClintock
Ikumi (Ikuyo) Yoshimura, elephant's eyes
David G Lanoue, Laughing Buddha: Michael McClintock
Dušan Vidaković, S prebolene obale/From the Forsaken Shore: Jadran Zalokar
Milenko D. Ćirović Ljutički, U zagrljaju sjenki/The Embrace of Shadows: Verica Živković
Stefanović Tatjana; Zoran D. Živković: Haiku cvet/ A Haiku Flower: Moma Dimić
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Classic Haiku, A Master's Selection: From the Preface by Yuzuru Miura
Slavica Blagojević, The Turtledove's Necklace: Vladimir Krasić and Zoran Raonić
Saša Važić, muddy shoes candy heart: Dimitar Anakiev
Gwiazda za Gwiazda, antologia haiku europejskiego: Foreword by Max Verhart
LYRICAL GLEAMS AND TREMBLES
When a professor, a writer and a painter emerge in one person only, then, we can really talk about an accomplished creator. And it is not unexpected that such a creator becomes a haiku poet as well. Not to be complemented in something they are not, but to be noted for their lucidity, universality and rationality. Well, that is the case with Lenka Jakšić Kaksie (artistic name). Except for those large paintings, in which she accomplished herself as a painter, she could not resist the temptation of haiku poem, those images of the moment (visually and spiritually) as I like to call haiku. For when perceptions of a painter and a poet permeate or (why not?) those of a poet and a painter, then we have a presumption of a quality more. Her sensation builds a frame in which few words say a lot, which is the very characteristics of a haiku poem.
While reading haiku poems of Lenka Jakšić, they seem very familiar to us, as if we have experienced them. It happens because they are suggestive, permeated with honesty. And, it appears to be so because she notes nature and the relation towards it (nature).
Her power of observation leads to the fact that she sees what others see but do not know how to see.
In greeting
A woman planting flowers
Waves a nursery plant.
A girl spinning wool
Shows the house to a stranger
With the spindle.
Everyone who reads these poems will certainly remember them, exactly because of their suggestiveness and spirituality. They (her haiku poems) associate connoisseurs of Japanese classic haiku poetry with Issa’s haiku: the man pulling radishes / points the way / with a radish.
Her perception with its own directness reaches to the pitch of intuitive insight and empathy into the world of nature, the world around it. Even when it is descriptive by its character, her haiku poetry is spiritual. Permeated with the rhythm of equalized amplitude and emphasized dynamism of scents, trembles and colors. Lyrical gleams and trembles of poetic expression.
A singing blackbird
Overpowers the silence
Of the summer noon.
Snowy field.
A man pushes through the roadless area
Of whiteness and hope.
Snowy twilight –
A man opens the door
And his heart.
Born and bred in Kosmet, Lenka lives there even nowadays – in full measure. Surviving all the accidents of her kind, she could not preserve her haiku poems from the influence of that reality. And why would she? But she never shows fury, bitterness or, God forbid, hatred. One pure Christian relation. What Zen-Buddhist attitude towards reality in Japanese is – that is Christian relation in Lenka Jakšić, no matter what kind the reality is.
A houseleek vigil
Watches over the ruins
Of my home.
Of course, Lenka, inasmuch as she is rational, in the environment she lives in, cannot be spared anxiety even if in the middle of the flowering field.
Black butterfliesEven though Lenka’s haiku poetry is developed by the best pattern of Japanese haiku poetries, (which is felt in her poems), it is still autonomous and original up to the measure determined by tradition, language and milieu in which she creates.
The aforementioned gives enough reasons for me to recommend this collection to the attention of lovers of poetry. Our haiku production will certainly be enriched with this good book.
Belgrade, January 2009
Milenko D. Ćirović Ljutički, Serbia
Lenka Jakšić, Akordi mirisa (Chords of Scents), published by the Haiku Association of Serbia and Montenegro; ISBN 978-86-84813-12-3; haiku translated by Saša Važić, /haiku/ proofreading: Norman Darlington; the review translated by Dragana Bubalo.