Pathways and Passages: A Year of Haiku

By Robert W. Barker

This short book is a distillation of a series of Haiku written by the author over a period of one year. It was an enforced exercise in meditation, spending a portion of each day in quiet contemplation, during a very difficult year in his life. This selection provides one poem for each week of the year. They are roughly broken into four classifications, Relationships, Spirits, Nature and Vision, and ending with Pathways and Passages, though some defy classification.

Some of the poems examine the time of life, such as The Gaining:

Time, signpost of life;
To gain life, leave time behind.
Treasure the losing.

Others are focused more on visions of spirits, such as 911 Anniversary:

Touch the fading dreams;
Wind whispers, gray smoke dissolves.
Nothing left to hold.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Dec 13, 2011
• ISBN: 9781462072453

Robert W. Barker

Robert W. Barker worked as an international explorer for gold in some of the most remote corners of five continents. He has worked with people of many different cultures and ethnic backgrounds, in locations that tourists rarely attempt to visit. His exposure to many different countries and different world environments brings solid authenticity to his descriptions of the locations and characters in his writing. He is the author of The Devil’s Chosen, an examination of the decision processes of the Holocaust and the winner of the Eric Hoffer Award. He has also authored Nuclear Rogue, the first in the series of Peter Binder and Maria Davidoff thrillers. He currently lives in western Massachusetts.

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