Early Freeze by Polly W. Swafford

Polly Swafford’s new chapbook, Early Freeze, offers a generous first collection of haiku. Swafford’s notice is careful, her eyesight keen, and she reads the world closely as in the title haiku: “early freeze/beside the tombstone/three guitar picks.” Her haiku keep particulars in tension and distill emotion with the simplicity and precision the form requires.

–Philip Miller, poet and editor of The Same

Polly Swafford‘s haiku collection, Early Freeze, is one to keep by your bedside or next to a place you come to rejuvenate your inner self. These brief insights into nature’s interactions with us are a joy to read and re-read. She truly has a gift for capturing the moment so we can experience and savor each poignant image.

–Barbara Youree, author of Courageous Journey

The haiku in English takes many forms. Some poets attempt to duplicate, in English syllables, the original Japanese form of 5-7-5 units of duration. Polly Swafford (wisely, I think) most often presents her exquisitely phrased images in a simple three-line structure of short-long-short–but she depends upon image rather than structure. Thus, “shadows on/steep canyon walls/eagle soars” abides comfortably in this collection with the two-line “spring cleaning/tree frogs serenade” and with “symphony on the prairie/fireflies light/the walkway.” Here, indeed, is a marvelous symphony of images and words.

–Robert C. Jones, Editor, The Mid-America Press, Inc.