Wing Strokes Haiku: Poetry Book Review

Wing Strokes Haiku by Amy Losak and Sydell Rosenberg is a unique dialogue between two

accomplished poets. Like symbiosis in the natural world, the mother-daughter duo add strength to each other’s work. Rosenberg writes insect haiku and Losak, bird haiku.

This 36-page volume of poems is studded with gems, that are explosions of thought on the page. Consider this one by Losak -

Forsythia bush

Chirping

Yellow

Too often poets explain, cheating the reader of the pleasure of deciphering their work. The opening haiku in this book caught my eye immediately with its beautiful, spare imagery. I savored the visual of the yellow bird fusing with the yellow forsythia, and enjoyed its aural allusion too.

I loved this one by AL –

bathroom cleaning

a dirt speck

sprouts legs

The mundanity described in the first line makes the motion in the last line all the more surprising and delightful, like a standup comic setting us up for a slice-of-life joke.

This one is by SR –

a flock of pigeons

swoops into one giant wing

in the sharp blue sky

It emphasizes how the group of pigeons functions as one being with a strong verb, ‘swoop.’ The sense of their wings cutting the air as they move is subtly evoked by an unusual adjective, ‘sharp.’

Here’s one that’s just sublime –

neighbor’s yard

three brown butterflies

braid the air

~AL

I could just see the butterflies intersecting each others’ paths, like a plait.

It has a fitting response by Rosenberg –

after the downpour

squawks of a blue jay

heavy on a branch

~SR

The poor jay weighed down by water, squawking in protest – a comic scene indeed.

hummingbird’s wings

defying

the camera

~SR

This one slyly alludes to our mania for capturing everything with a lens, but nature outwits us as usual.

These poems do justice to the haiku form, and will invoke a sense of peace within you, like the scenes of nature they paint.

Wing Strokes Haiku is available for purchase at Kelsay Books.

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