KAR-KU
KAR-KU is a travelogue: drives as seen from a KAR (car) and described by haiKU.
The text includes monoku, duostich, haiku, and senryu, as well as a few haibun, haiga, and sequence poems.
For more short verse by the Author, haiku are sprinkled throughout her first poetry book, Almanac: The Four Seasons. Her third volume of poetry, Voyage: Vista & Verse is exclusively haiku format poetry
PRAISE FOR KAR-KU
World traveler JL Huffman translates her wanderlust into poetry in her latest book, Kar-Ku. Whether as a disaster tourist or a camper, she has seen it all. Well-chosen photos punctuate this poetic travelogue. From haiku to haiga to haibun, Huffman navigates the urban and rural poetry terrain expertly. ~Roberta Beach Jacobson, Editor of Cold Moon Journal and Five Fleas Itchy Poetry
Kar-Ku, a collection, by a cosmopolitan traveler, reads like a literary road movie: like the European and art house pictures of the sixties and seventies (Easy Rider, Thelma and Louise), but also harkens to the early short form practice of the seventies beat pioneers like Jack Kerouac, and the original masters of Japan who traversed on foot the narrow roads to the interior.
Compared to the levity and karumi, evident in her earlier book, Voyage: Vista and Verse, Kar-Ku has a melancholy atmosphere with numerous examples of wabi-sabi, that strange unexpected beauty appraisers discern in sad, lonely scenes and subjects.
I felt wonderfully transported from beginning to end, regretted when the trip was over, but thankful to have had the pleasure of tagging along through Huffman’s storied adventuress. ~Jerome William Berglund, prolific award-winning poet, Editor Heterodox Haiku Journal and Nun Prophet Press Publisher
VOYAGE; VISTA AND VERSE
Over 75 poems and 50 full-color photos
Follow the Author on her voyage, near and far, via vista and verse. The inspiration for this poetry volume arises from travels, stateside and abroad.
Within this text are monoku, haiku, and senryu. Some haiku are in the classic 5-7-5 format; more follow the looser American tradition.
Full-color photographs are included to further illustrate the poetic thought.
For more short verse by the Author, you will find haiku sprinkled throughout her first poetry book, Almanac: The Four Seasons.
FAMILY TREASONS
50% of book royalties to be donated to Domestic Violence Organizations [2021-22 donations submitted]
FAMILY TREASONS is a treatise on the perils of abuse, whether physical, emotional, or sexual, at the hands of a parent, a spouse, or another relative, a one-time event, or an ongoing trial. These events are often publicly labeled as shameless, nameless, and blameless.
While those who perpetrated such evils are not guileless, they certainly dealt with their own demons: a narcissistic personality disorder enmeshed with a bipolar disorder, an obsessive-compulsive disorder, depression, alcoholism, and/or polysubstance abuse. This is not to exonerate them but as a recognition of the complex cycle of abuse.
Some of the culprits are pictured: living individuals are not identified; dead souls are acknowledged only by their forenames [parents excepted].
THE AUTHOR IS A SURVIVOR
Anyone can be a victim of child abuse or intimate partner violence
I was a victim of both as well as sexual abuse, but I have not only survived, I have thrived.
I'm honored to have served on the Board of Directors of the Domestic Abuse Project of Delaware County, Inc. (2003-2007) and Hubbard House (2007-2012)
ALMANAC: THE FOUR SEASONS
ALMANAC: THE FOUR SEASONS takes the reader on a journey via the vehicle of an almanac, traveling through the year, season by season. Nature predominates the scene; an occasional human pops in to enjoy the view. Join the author on a jaunt through seasonal wonderlands filled with flora and fauna: winter, spring, summer and fall.
Praise for Almanac: The Four Seasons
"In language that bubbles with energy and keen observation, Joan Huffman records the passage of seasons. Almanac: The Four Seasons is not a calendar book dotted with human celebrations. Instead, the year comes alive through “a pie’s plenty of blackbirds,” “a drift of swallowtails,” and a sycamore “moisturized by morning rain.” With a realism that is refreshing, humans are non-dominant, their appearance as harbingers of season tucked in among the abundant life of the natural world. Look closer, these poems urge, and each season will open its secrets and delights.”
~ J. C. Todd, Rita Dove Prize in Poetry winner, author of The Damages of Morning
“Joan Huffman brings her observational skills that are usually in service to the art of medicine to poetry of the natural world. Her almanac of affectionate poems arranged by season are balm to those weary with the human world and show the inherent power of healing contained in nature.”
~ Beth Phillips Brown, author of Book of Enchantments
“Joan shows her true flexibility by including many forms of poetry, while also breaking free with open verse. Coined terms (Starcicles), alliteration, varied viewpoints, let’s not forget the clever cover, and general verbal chicanery make her the uppity author I enjoy.”
~ Mar Startari, President of High Country Writers. Wordsmith award-winning poet.
