Haiku Canada Shohyoran Book Review Column 4:23, A New Resonance 12: Emerging Voices in English-Language Haiku, 2021

Honoured that Pearl Pirie mentioned my work in her September 6, 2021 review of A New Resonance 12 (Red Moon Press 2021) - Jim Kacian and Julie Warther, Editors:

Debbie Strange has a painterly picture (p. 164) that is fresh-seeing.

alpenglow

a pika gathers stems

of light

We know that moment where the highlights are blown into pure light even without eyes, in a backlit autumn field. I appreciate the specificity of pika, as if a rebuttal to the argument that only common nouns that are the theoretical construct of "universal" serve haiku.

 

Haiku Canada Shohyoran Book Review Column 4:4, Dance into the World, Tanka Society of America Members' Anthology, 2020

Honoured that Dave Read mentioned my work in his February 26, 2021 review of Dance into the World, the 2020 Tanka Society of America Members' Anthology - Michael Dylan Welch, Editor:

Similarly, many of the tanka about the pandemic in "Garden of Dwindling Petals" shine:

sprites flash

across purpling skies

for a moment

I forget the grim state

of this locked-down life

Strange's tanka, on the other hand, is about a moment of distraction. However, that moment is brief. Even in watching the "sprites flash / across purpling skies", the narrator is not far from her awareness of the pandemic. The poem's force hinges on the word "grim" which jettisons the reader back to the reality of "this locked-down life". 

Haiku Canada Shohyoran Book Review Column 3:1, Wales Haiku Journal, Winter 2019-2020

Honoured that Sandra Stephenson mentioned my work in her February 17, 2021 review of the Wales Haiku Journal, Winter 2019-2020 - Paul Chambers, Editor:

Of the poems, open and totally accessible with a good-sized serif typeface, many are note-worthy, Canadian Debbie Strange's egg that didn't open caught my eye...

the egg

that didn't open . . .

waning moon