Naomi Beth Wakan Ordre des livres

In this beautifully presented book, poet Naomi Beth Wakan joins photographer Christine Brooks Cote to offer glimpses into their "now and here." Wakan wrote tanka-a format of five-line poems originating in Japan-in response to photographs by Cote. Wakan chose this particular format because it starts with an objective description of the image- "Early morning / the dew still resting / where it settled"-and then pivots to the poet's subjective reaction-"would we could wake refreshed / to look at things in new ways". Cote's photographs are the perfect inspiration for a poet-"you're looking at my life and what I love; you're seeing bits and pieces of places I have been; and you're catching glimpses of the best moments of my life." The title, Now and Here, comes from Henry David Thoreau: " . . . all these times and places and occasions are now and here."

Though mainly a prolific personal essayist, Naomi Beth Wakan admits that poetry in the form of haiku, tanka, and free verse has occupied a large percentage of her waking hours and many of her sleeping ones too. This exceptional collection, Wind on the Heath, includes poems written when Wakan was in her twenties along with many written in recent years, thus spanning roughly sixty years of inquisitive thinking and creative writing. The foundation of Wakan's work is her dedication to living an examined life, which Wakan describes in this way: Seeking in the darkness/a crack through/which we may glimpse reality. Her poetry, superbly presented in this life-spanning collection, allows readers to see the flicker of light showing through the crack. This is poetry to live by.