My dear followers,

It is with great pleasure that we bring to you the full cover design of Petals of Haiku: An Anthology, a superb book that Literary Revelations plans to release mid to late May 2024. We are humbled by your submissions. Over 150 poets are included in this anthology and we are profoundly grateful to the award winning Japanese painter Hikari whose art work is phenomenal, as well as to the award winning Japanese photographer Naoki Kimura who provided the background photo.

We are also proud of the wonderful and innovative cover design, done by Iuliana Irimia, a young and talented artist, based in Montreal, Canada. Iuliana worked with Hikari’s beautiful cover art and the end result is a gorgeous marriage between Hikari’s Japanese art and Iuliana’s Western take on the conceptualizing of haiku. This marriage is highly reflected in the haiku included in this book.

A Few Words about the Anthology

Petals of Haiku is not just an anthology that Literary Revelations is proud to publish. It’s a masterpiece that encapsulates the essence of haiku poetry like never before. The spectacular haiku writers featured in this collection bring to life the delicacy of seasons and the profound range of human emotions, from joy to grief, in a way that is both delightful and deeply moving.

The art on the cover by award-winning painter Hikari sets the tone for what awaits inside – a world where words dance off the page and into your heart. The background photo by award-winning Japanese photographer Naoki Kimura adds another layer of beauty to this already exquisite collection.

A few words about Japanese haiku

Before Literary Revelations publishes the anthology I want to share with you several thoughts advanced by Westerns and Asian scholars on haiku. The traditional haiku form is one thing 5-7-5 syllables and it is generally known by all writers of haiku. However, most importantly for Literary Revelations is what we discovered in the haiku included in our collection. That is to say how the poets included in the anthology expressed their feelings and how haiku evolved since its inception to the present.

As Bruce Ross argues in the The Essence of Haiku (Modern Haiku, 2007), “affective feeling generated through the absolute metaphor of haiku became associated with different kinds of aesthetic values in traditional Japanese haiku. Mono no aware, “the pathos of things,” is an overall term for how one is affected by things. Other aesthetic values in haiku include wabi, “simplicity,” sabi, “metaphysical loneliness,” and yûgen, “mystery.” Contrary to Western poetics (aside from Romanticism), for example, Oriental (sic!) poetry and poetics was centered upon such states of affective feeling…. So rather than being a senseless thing, a flower in a given context could radiate affective feeling for the Japanese haiku poet not as symbol, but as an existentially valid presence.”

The last sentence here is of great importance. Symbolists will disagree that a flower is a senseless thing. However, they will argue that the symbol behind the flower is magic and meaningful; the real flower is just “charming.” Yet, this does not mean that symbolists cannot understand or feel what haiku transmits. Poetry is art and as Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson claims art “helps us identify with one another and expands our notion of we—from the local to the global.” One can go ahead and look at the work of scholars who study the neuroplasticity of the brain and decide for himself/herself.

Bruce Ross continues, “It should be noted, additionally, that the “feeling” in haiku is usually not the demonstrative emotion of Western poetry. Haiku is not used to express strong emotions, which are usually reserved for tanka. Rather it is a mode of receptive feeling between a poet and his natural subject, even though the poet’s emotional climate often affects and even directs his/her relation to the subject.”

While the first part of the paragraph is clear the second claim appears questionable. If the emotional climate affects and directs the relationship to the subject is then the flower only “an existentially valid presence”?

One way or another Bruce Ross’ essay is extremely valuable. You can find it here

Again, we are thrilled to release the gorgeous cover and we hope you enjoy it.

Gabriela Marie Milton
2022 Pushcart Prize Nominee
Publisher, Editor, Award Winning & #1 Amazon Bestselling Author
Books:

Hidden in Childhood: A Poetry Anthology (ed.), Literary Revelations, 2023
Wounds I Healed: The Poetry of Strong Women (ed.), Experiments in Fiction, 2022.
Woman: Splendor and Sorrow :I Love Poems and Poetic Prose, Vita Brevis Press, 2021.
Passions: Love Poems and Other Writings, Vita Brevis Press, 2020