Overview

In Wintermoon Robert MacLean distils twenty-five years of living in Kyoto, Japan, into a single seasonal cycle seen through the radically minimalist lens of haiku. Here are 119 precise instants of focus, divided into eleven sequences - 'stepping stones / leading to / a waterfall'. Each set of poems arrives at an awareness different from the one with which the set began, and the book as a whole maps a transformative journey filled with Zen practice, loneliness, university teaching, questionings, cultural acclimation, intimate encounters with nature, romance and marriage, and the death of parents and of an unborn child. Each sequence is a record of a series of acute and vital perceptions of the world.

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Reviews

Robert MacLean's haiku are to the haiku of Basho and Buson as Rilke's sonnets are to the sonnets of Petrarch and Leopardi. They step back and forth across the rules (which don't work in the English language anyway) but adhere with grace and vigor to the principles. Principles aren't rules; they're something better: insights, visions, even, at the best of times, enlightened realizations. - Robert Bringhurst Beautifully laid out, and at times tremendously moving, the haiku in Wintermoon are allowed to breathe in a way that matches the practice of meditation that is one of its themes. Ranging from classic, Zen-like simplicity to bold, surrealistic imagery, but with a light touch throughout, they consistently sound a 'harmonic / of a deeper tuning'. - Philip Rowland Just a breath of words. But when I look, they disappear into the ink, taking me with them. Note to readers keep fireflies in pocket. - Red Pine

Author Information

Robert MacLean was born in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, Canada. He lived in Kyoto for twenty-five years, where he taught at Ritsumeikan University, meanwhile continuing his lifelong zazen practice. He has studied and sat with Robert Aitken Rōshi and Jōshū Sasaki Rōshi, and latterly at Tōfukuji in Kyoto, where Keidō Fukushima Rōshi was abbot. He now lives in British Columbia with his wife and young daughter. His book Waking to Snow (Isobar Press, 2020) was chosen in 2021 by Lorna Crozier as one of her Poetry Picks for Canada's 23rd National Poetry Month.

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