Cricket Never Does by Myra Cohn Livingston

Livingston, Myra Cohn. Cricket Never Does: A Collection of Haiku and Tanka. New York: McElderry, 1997.


Livingston divides her collection of 67 haiku and tanka into the four seasons. Her poetry makes the reader look at nature with new eyes as she presents images in innovative ways. Bougainvillea becomes a mask for graffiti. Trees become castles and havens (as Anne Shirley would want them to be). Fall floras watch over streets. Leaves huddle and the moon is a canoe.

What I thought: Haiku is meant to capture moments in time. These certainly do. I find haiku to be a challenging form from a writer's perspective. The brevity alone is difficult to achieve. From a reader's perspective, haiku is wonderful. Just a few words call up an image. That is power, a power that Livingston has.