Falling Ashes
Haibun, Haiku, Senryu, & Other Poems
James FowlerIn the seventh volume of the Hobblebush Granite State Poetry Series, James Fowler explores nature and war in Japanese poetic forms.James Fowler retired as an Electronics Technician Senior Chief after 25 years in the Navy, twenty of those years stationed in Japan or on ships home-ported out of Japan. Jim retired with an associate’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Regents College (currently Excelsior College). He used his G.I. Bill to attend Keene State College and received a bachelor’s degree in English. Having fought in both Vietnam and the first Iraq war he had an additional GI Bill and went on to get a master’s degree in Environmental Science, majoring in nature writing, from Antioch New England Graduate School. As his final practicum, he edited Heartbeat of New England: An Anthology of Nature Poetry.
Jim has been teaching poetry classes at Village Square Booksellers in Bellows Falls, Vermont since 2003. In March 2012, Finishing Line Press published Connections to This World, a chapbook of his Japanese poetry forms. Jim also writes flash fiction and short stories, and currently has a contract with Cyberwizard Productions for book one, The Healer, in a five-book fantasy series, The Silenian Wars.
Jim belongs to the Poetry Society of New Hampshire and has earned both Honorable Mention and Runner Up titles in Member and National contests. He also belongs to the Haiku Society of America and one of his senryu was awarded Honorable Mention in the 2005 Gerald Brady Memorial Contest.
- “Jim Fowler’s fine collection of haiku, haibun and a few poems is dominated by a stark sense engendered by experience in war, work abroad, his wife, and nature. One cannot but be moved by his evocation of war and love and the rest.”—Bruce Ross, Editor, Haiku Moment“A sculptor lives with a piece of wood and studies its color, imperfections and grain in order to bring forth the beauty of its final form. Fowler’s haiku and haibun remind one of tiny pieces of modern sculpture devoid of everything except what is necessary to reveal both life’s imperfections and grain. This he does with skill and artistry. A book you will want to read and reread!”—Wanda D. Cook, Co-editor of the HSA 2007 Anthology Flower of Another Country
- 64 pp, PaperbackISBN 978-1-939449-02-3Price $16Publication Date: October, 2013
