Description

This is by no means an ordinary haiku anthology, nor is it a textbook, or a travelogue. It is an intriguing and personal notebook, recording what haiku has done to Rohini Gupta’s sensibility as a poet, to her life as a city dweller and to her whole universe where haiku has given her a new eye to see things differently.

— Susumu Takiguchi

Rohini Gupta presents us not only with a series of fine haibun and haiku but also with an account of how she came to write these. This is from both a prose description of how the particular poem was born and an in-depth discussion of the theory, practice and origin of that poetic form. She draws on a rich variety of experiences — travel, daily life, temples and mountains, birds and cats, nature and the city — Mumbai her domicile. … The grounding of the fruit — the poems — in the soil of experience and root of composition makes this a guide not just to her work but to Japanese verse forms.

— Sonam Chhoki

Rohini Gupta invites us into a world she shares with cats, dogs, birds, rain and mountain mist — one that we cannot resist. Her journeys across the world find their way into haibun and haiku that are gentle, unpretentious, and flow like the waters at a harmonious confluence.

— Geethanjali Rajan

Rohini Gupta has been in the haiku field for a long time and her haiku has been published in many international magazines. She is the editor of two online haiku magazines — World Haiku Review and Cafe Haiku. She has also published books of short stories, non-fiction, and is working on a novel. When she has time, she dabbles with art and feeds stray cats, dogs and crows. She lives in Mumbai, by the sea, surrounded by books, trees, coffee shops and the vibrance of a very big city.