It’s time to enjoy a little haiku.  And as they are so little, let us feast a while on this wonderful form.

I discovered “A Horse’s Haiku” quite by accident, from I don’t remember where.  It had gotten someone’s praise and it was on my radar of books to read.  I added it to my Goodreads list and voila!  I pulled it in one of my hundreds of library hold requests and I’m SO glad I did.

This book is full of haiku from someone who obviously loves horses.  That is the singular topic of the book!  If you know a horse lover in your life, this might be the perfect gift because not only do the poems delight, but the amazing watercolor illustrations left my jaw dropped on more than one occasion.

I did a bit of digging after reading this collection and discovered that Michael J. Rosen has several other similar collections full of haiku dedicated to one subject.  I will be checking out more of those in the future!

Haiku is a form of poetry that I have long admired, but I must admit that I don’t feel like I have personally mastered it.  There is something so simple and yet mystical about them that I can’t quite grasp when it comes to that last line.  Here, in this collection though, they are done very well.  In order to give you a bit of insight into the book today, I HAVE to share two pages from the book.  First, these poems set in winter made me really relish the words on the page.

“Two darks” and “fossil record” both just stun me in their word choice.  Beautiful.

This next poem, however, included one of my favorite paintings in the book (that use of light!).  Notice I said “one of!”  Even sharing two, I had to limit myself (because there were so many things in this book to love–and I’m not even a horse fanatic!).  I hope you enjoy them as much as I did.