Haiku writing may be a verbal acrobat without safety net
as Toni Piccini’s haiku says us, but this acrobat brings us precious freedom
beyond many rainbows. “
from the preface of Ban’ya Natsuishi
Co-founder & Director of the World Haiku Association
President of Ginyu Press
Professor at Meiji University in Tokyo
“…Ah, this Toni Piccini…
We did talk for two hours as if he completely ignored
Haiku.
But it seemed to me as if he knew them so well to avoid
himself from talking about them and not even make me talk about them.
In fact it was an easy thing because my Haiku were the
ones composed by Ginsberg and even more by Kerouac, we used them to say hi
to each other with their unrepeatable images connected to them.
Even Toni Piccini’s Haiku are unrepeatable and they are
extremely touching...
...I write this to thank him for having written them and
to shake hands with his editors, hoping they’ll publish more and more of
them in the future.
So…peace & love…and see you soon. “
from the preface of Fernanda Pivano
“ ...I like it very much...
...My favourite poems are ... quite a lot of them are
memorable!...
...Some of the motifs I noticed are these: colours;
compassion; transitory moods; a slightly Whitmanesque quality...
...There is a careful preservation of childlike states, as
well as matured ones....
...I think it is one of the best books of its kind that
I've seen for a long time...”
John Ballam,
Chair of Examiners in Creative Writing at University of Oxford
Presentation of "COSTRUIR LEVANDO"
Toni Piccini presents handsome photographs and good
haiku poems. When photograph and haiku verse are put together, it is
commonly called photo haiku, which is one of the very popular form of
the haiga. Haiga, which means picture of haiku poem, developed in
Japan as a way to enjoy the delicate resonance between the picture
image and the content of haiku poem.
Each haiga is complete and independent only when the
proper image and the verse meet in the same picture plane. That is one
important aspect of haiga, especially of photo haiga. In Toni's haiga
works, this aspect prevail.
Each photograph has certain mood and it does not
directly illustrate the the content of the haiku verse, but yet the
mood somehow corresponds to the haiku.
To enjoy such correspondence is the key to
appreciating haiga.
KUNIHARU SHIMIZU
the judge of World Haiku
Association Haiga Contest
