Notes on this Issue:

This Issue is a second installment of haiku, hokku, senryu and related forms from Jeremy and Michael—proceeding Issue 11, from last Summer. 

I’m going to assume that most of us have had some form of introduction to haiku in the past, so I’ll leave their format unexplained here. I also will refrain from explaining the other forms in hope you allow the work to speak for itself.

I’ve never been a fan of ‘artist’s statements’— statements that explain artistic work, usually accompanying the work. Any necessary statement is always found in the work itself—sometimes you just have to dig for it. 
 

Great work speaks for itself.
 

‘Introductions’ are a different story. Sometimes, even if the work speaks independently, an ‘introduction’ establishes context—enriching engagement. With that being said, here’s a brief introduction.

These poems are short. Their shortness forces them to be acutely intentional. It is in this constraint, like all forms of constraint, that allows them to possess their unique expressions of beauty. Read slowly, take breaks, live in each one as long as you can.

- W.B.