A new two-volume set of Haibun from the master, Steven Carter. Haibun, a lesser known Japanese form that juxtaposes haiku to brief prose segments, seems exactly right for Carter’s preoccupations here with memory and loss, rooted as always in his deep connection to the natural world.

Two volumes, not sold separately.

Just this morning, in the twilight zone between sleep and waking, a thought pops into my head: All forms of memory are masochistic. Because there she is yet again, the brown-haired girl in Victoria, B.C., walking ahead of me toward the Empress Hotel on a warm August afternoon. I never met her, never even saw her face, but what remains in my fevered memory is the turn of a shapely ankle as she climbs the hotel steps and disappears through the tall entrance.

glass doors—

reflected

clouds and sky

 

– Excerpt, “In the Crowd”