Kekekabic by Eric Chandler

Whether on haiku treks about town, or bushwhacking across the Boundary Waters wilderness with his loyal dog Leo, pilot and poet Eric “Shmo” Chandler shows us how to be easily present while moving through the world: Take notes. Reflect on small moments. Enjoy the ride. “You’re only lost if you don’t / know what to do next.”

–Randy Brown, author of Welcome to FOB Haiku: War Poems from Inside the Wire

Kekekabic is a curious exploration, a travelogue full of wit and humor, a chance to see the world with new eyes. Chandler has the rare gift of finding the extraordinary hidden within the everyday.

–Brian Castner, author of Stampede: Gold Fever and Disaster in the Klondike and The Long Walk

In Kekekabic, we experience the runner’s high, those moments during and after intense exertion when the things of this world—including our own thoughts—blaze up into new being. This focus is further intensified by Eric Chandler working in haibun, an ancient form developed by another great wanderer, Bashō. In these poems the speaker runs, cross-country skis, roller skis & walks (but mostly runs) as a kind of physical and mental exercise. Eric Chandler writes in his introduction: “These haibun help me find more.” May they, dear reader, do the same for you.

–Ryan Vine, author of  To Keep Him Hidden, WARD, and Distant Engines

Chandler is on the move. As he crisscrosses the continent, his observations on the interplay between humans and nature take vivid shape in his use of the haibun. He invites us on an examination as he works out, and works through the meaning found in the scenery only visible to the searcher or traveler. He knows that these two worlds “reach toward one another at the border” and he dances between both while skiing, running, and hiking. His meditative state penetrates the world around us, and his poetry reminds all that regardless of the question, “the answer is yes.”

–F. S. Blake, author of The Few Drops Known, Terminal Leave, and Above the Gold Fields. Blake was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2018 and is the co-founder of the Colonel Darron L. Wright Memorial Writing Award.