15 HAIKU FROM „RUSTIC“, the Gendai Haiku collection by Dimitar Anakiev

The start of the war—

Through bare branches I spy on

my neighbors’ houses

Neanderthal man

is bombing Afghanistan back

to the Stone Age

Young grasses…

A mountain bleeds from a helmet

full of dreams

The capital

of my heart: just one

sharpened pencil

Cerberus, at the door

of the Slovenian gulag

is a democrat

With souls full of goat’s milk

rustic heroes

fill the jails

In the Balkans

at the calling out of “rustic”

swastikas sprout

A big field of

cultural struggle: hens

are laying eggs again

Under the fallen sky

the freaks of chaos become

a hospitable sea

New Year's Eve—

The window still gathers

dead flies

Mitteleuropa:

in the grey cloud

a shadow of death

A tomahawk made

to forget its native tongue

keeps the democracy

Spring evening.

The wheel of a troop carrier

crushes a lizard

Animal Day—

lop-ears of a rabbit

full of jumping light

Using the body

to destroy imperialism: at dawn

the button fell off

About the Rustic & Author:

"In his poems, as is readily evident, there is a strong voice, a strong human presence, a man who takes a stand without following the “rules” and “taboos” laid down by Anglo-American and Western European haiku poets...It may be tempting to describe the poetry of Dr. Anakiev as polemical, but it would be more apropos to describe it as paralyzing, as psychologically distressing, as a way of finding catharsis by gracing memory with a voice...What we see in Dr. Anakiev’s pencil is radical in the world of haiku. Dr. Anakiev challenges readers/writers of the form to engage in politics (since they are, wittingly or no, already situated so). Politics in haiku has long remained something of a taboo, at least if it is too direct, which has virtually eliminated conscious politics from entering its content. However, even when poets are seemingly “apolitical,” writing is a social practice and hence a political process...People stand out in his works, poetic and filmic. This is his heritage and his inheritance, what he will leave to the world." –Jack Galmitz

"To experience the haiku of Dimitar Anakiev is to know the power of haiku, and get a glimpse of what this international genre can become, as a relevant, deeply honest and philosophically deep poetics capable of healing and revivifying the world. Dimitar is a truly gifted poet and filmmaker whose works are among the bravest I know." —Professor Richard Gilbert

"This collection is a literary historian's dream, providing the author's statement of intent and detailed notes. Reading the individual poems in context shows them to be simple and profound, inviting the reader to join the poet in contemplating culture, history, and our collective roots in the natural world, including chaos and war." —Johnye Strickland

(Published by Red Moon Press, 2010)