DIVERS HAIKU  Forty odd haiku  Anarchios Press Limited Edition 100 signed copies £5

[Kevin Bailey, editor, HQ Poetry Magazine 43 & 44]

Alexis Lykiard is constantly at work and I recommend readers to go to his web-site at www.alexislykiard.com if they want to keep up with all his latest poetry, news, and ideas. I have three new books from the Anarchios Press containing Alexis's latest haiku; Haiku at Seventy (£8.00), a perfect bound book, and two booklets Divers Haiku and travelling light - thirty haiku. All three books contain excellent contemporary haiku that keep to the idea of always pushing the form forward - well beyond the pastiche of 'classic’ haiku that typify so many other haiku collections by 'poets' who have turned haiku into a demi-religion. Here are some examples;

Flood of shocking light,
with blood on my pillow,
shows me I should rise 

Urban trees cut down
timor mortis can disturb
an autumnal day           

Writ large on a wall
somewhere in Brixton: IRON
LADY? RUST IN PEACE

Even the more classical haiku have the characteristic of being in the ‘now';

The first dragonfly
of this dry summer gladdens
our city garden 

Clutching bus passes,
hobbling aboard, they discuss
the Garden Centre 

Nuthatch, finch, bluetit,
robin, blackbird — all alight,
watched by well-fed cat 

Varied and well written, the haiku and short poems in these three books are a provocative entertainment as enervating as any good jazz gig... Nice.

[Christopher Sinclair Stevenson]

Admirable haiku. And admirable cat!