P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal">SPAN lang=EN-US style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: black">FONT face=Calibri>70 Words?xml:namespace prefix = "o" ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /> P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal">SPAN lang=EN-US>FONT face=Calibri>Award-winning haiku poet James Deahl teams up with photographer Richard M. Grove (Tai) to create this striking full colour collection of haiku and photography. This noteworthy volume brings you ten haiku sequences and photographs, both celebrating the beauty of Ontario, especially Hastings and Wellington Counties – North of Belleville. Deahl’s haiku sequences are world class, some of his finest work. They bring to life the very core of what Ontario is.

James Deahl was born in Pittsburgh in 1945, and grew up in that city as well as in and around the Laurel Highlands of the Appalachian Mountains. He moved to Canada in 1970 and holds Canadian citizenship. He’s the author (or, in the case of Tu Fu’s poetry, translator) of twenty literary titles. His most recent books are North of Belleville and Opening The Stone Heart. A cycle of his poems is the focus of a one-hour TV special, Under the Watchful Eye. Both the video and an audiotape have been reissued on CD and DVD by Silver Falls Video. In addition to his writing, he has taught creative writing and Canadian literature at the high school, college, and university levels. He no longer teaches, and for over a dozen years has mostly been a full-time writer/editor/translator. James Deahl lives in Sarnia. He is the father of Sarah, Simone, and Shona.

James Deahl's profile page

Richard (Tai) Grove, known as Ricardo by his Cuban friends has never been satisfied to be a mere tourist in that island nation.  In establishing the Canada Cuba Literary Alliance, (more often referred to as the CCLA), he committed himself to beginning and sustaining a conversation between writers and poets in Cuba and those fortunate Canadians who have come to share in this conversation.  

Richard M. Grove's profile page

P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal">FONT face=Calibri>Review:?xml:namespace prefix = "o" ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /> P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal">FONT face=Calibri>  P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal">SPAN lang=EN-US>FONT face=Calibri>The photographs in North of Belleville, make it easy to look at. As a result, a first-time reader is likely to flip through the pages without reading the wonderful poems that accompany the images; a little like leafing through The New Yorker in order to enjoy cartoons when one is in no mood to read anything, regardless of its value. P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal">SPAN lang=EN-US>FONT face=Calibri>  P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal">SPAN lang=EN-US>FONT face=Calibri>However, there is unusual chemistry between the haiku written by James Deahl and the photographs taken by Richard Grove that ingeniously and richly display portraits of ?xml:namespace prefix = "st1" ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Ontario’s foliage, lakes and wildlife. Mr. Grove may or may not have wandered side-by-side with poet Deahl in areas near Belleville but it doesn’t matter. One medium enhances the other. P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal">SPAN lang=EN-US>FONT face=Calibri>  P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal">SPAN lang=EN-US>FONT face=Calibri>The white space on every page is ample. It appears that great care was taken assembling and arranging the book’s messages. Without seeing it, one cannot appreciate the intimate flow of text and texture. One good example is found on page 35: P class=MsoNormal style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal" align=center>SPAN lang=EN-US>FONT face=Calibri>“Near the creek P class=MsoNormal style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal" align=center>SPAN lang=EN-US>FONT face=Calibri>bur oak stand knee-deep P class=MsoNormal style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal" align=center>SPAN lang=EN-US>FONT face=Calibri>in their reflections.” P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal">SPAN lang=EN-US>FONT face=Calibri>Look nearby and you will find a photograph of healthy white-barked trees standing in springtime floods. Slender trunks that reach skyward are subtly reflected in the water. The match is wonderful. P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal">SPAN lang=EN-US>FONT face=Calibri>  P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal">SPAN lang=EN-US>FONT face=Calibri>The words of another poem I like are printed on page 25: P class=MsoNormal style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal" align=center>SPAN lang=EN-US>FONT face=Calibri>“The distant train – P class=MsoNormal style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal" align=center>SPAN lang=EN-US>FONT face=Calibri>red cars vanish one by one P class=MsoNormal style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal" align=center>SPAN lang=EN-US>FONT face=Calibri>amid spring trees.” P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal">SPAN lang=EN-US>FONT face=Calibri>Deahl’s poem had me peering down the long railroad tracks in Grove’s photograph to see if the red train had vanished yet. I resisted a strong temptation to use a magnifying glass in case it was hidden by distance rather than memory. P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal">SPAN lang=EN-US>FONT face=Calibri>  P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal">SPAN lang=EN-US>FONT face=Calibri>I proudly call myself an observer, yet this book is the first I know of that captures nature in ways that otherwise would have escaped me. P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal">SPAN lang=EN-US>FONT face=Calibri>  P class=MsoNormal style="TEXT-ALIGN: right; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal" align=right>SPAN lang=EN-US>FONT face=Calibri>Richard L. Reinert