A Pinwheeling Leaf gathers eighty-three haiku and tanka, the short-form poems that first brought David Baldwin into print in respected journals and anthologies. The title comes from one of his best-loved tanka:
a pinwheeling leaf
strikes the watercourse
and floats around the bend
gone forever
do you ever think of me?
Baldwin served as national secretary for the Haiku Society of America in 2009. His work in these forms (compressed, exact, quietly devastating) taught him the attention to the passing moment that runs through everything he has written since.
Readers who love these poems will find a whole section devoted to haiku and tanka within Wheel of Water, alongside his work in longer forms.
The haiku and tanka craft on display here has its own dedicated section in Wheel of Water, set beside sonnets, ballads, and free verse in one career-spanning collection.