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The New Pond: an English-language haiku anthology, ed. Emiko Miyashita 125 pp., Hokumeisha Press, Tokyo, US $18 ppd. from the author at: 1-4-40, #105, Miyazaki, Miyamae-ku, Kawasaki 216-0033, Japan email enquiries to: [email protected]
 
Let me say at the outset that my extremely limited ability to read Japanese is not sufficient for me to be able to manage the prose sections which frame this anthology. I am not therefore in a position to estimate what I assume is the primary value of this book: its use as a guide to the English-language haiku scene for the Japanese reader.

     The anthology is divided into twelve sections, most of which are based on Emiko Miyashita’s encounters with various regional haiku groups in America, but including Canada and also our British Haiku Society (which Emiko visited at the 2001 conference). The compilation of the material must have been a great pleasure for the editor, involving the kind of Grand Tour of the haiku world that most of us can only daydream about. There is a concluding section of poems commemorating the fateful September 11, 2001, giving the anthology topical relevance, although these are likely to have impact more as an expression of shock and grief than as enduring poetry. For the non-Japanese reader there is the compensation of a sprinkling of photos, including a charming snapshot of David Cobb’s Norfolk cottage! And there are the poems, of course, which are given in both languages, ten or so in each section.

     The structure of the anthology allows us to consider whether there is such a thing as a ‘regional accent’ in English-language haiku. Disappointingly, the answer seems to be a provisional ‘no’. Style and treatment are largely uniform, even if subject matter varies slightly: snow and ice feature more prominently in Boston than in California, whereas the latter section, true to stereotype, includes a poem on sunburn. The British ‘team’ put on a good show, including examples with real depth of feeling from - among others - John Barlow, Annie Bachini, Colin Blundell and Caroline Gourlay. the material is interesting throughout and, for me, these two in particular are knockouts: