Most of the books Modern Memoirs publishes are memoirs or family histories, but we’ve also helped clients publish essay collections, art books, fiction, and poetry collections. Anna Markus published her book entitled Delicious Air: Haiku with Modern Memoirs in 2020 to give to friends and family as she marked her 75th birthday. This collection of poetry took three and a half months from the day she first contacted us to the day books arrived on her doorstep. In honor of National Poetry Month this April, we asked Markus to reflect on what the publication process was like for her and what it’s meant to share her book with others. (Be sure to click on the video links at the end of this post to see the letterpress process in action for this beautiful, handmade book.)
Don’t touch my plumtree!
Said my friend…and saying so
Broke the branch for me.
Japanese papers on display at the printer’s shop
Choosing the letter “O” from a particular font case at the printer
Fresh lead plates of 3 lines of haiku
1. In the introduction to your book, you define haiku as a poem of three lines with seventeen or fewer syllables. You say that you fell in love with this poetic form as a teenager and have read and collected haiku books ever since. How did you learn about it, and why did it have such appeal to you?
Anna Markus: I first learned about haiku from my brother, who had them posted all over his room. They sparked something poetic and spiritual in me right away. At that point I had no background in it at all. I began to write my own verses over the years, jotting down words in notebooks and on scraps of paper to capture moments when the familiar becomes somehow new and wondrous.
2. What is one of your favorite haikus written by another poet?
Anna Markus: My favorite haiku was written by the Japanese poet Tan Taigi:
Don’t touch my plumtree!
Said my friend…and saying so
Broke the branch for me.
3. Some people might find it confining to follow a strict writing formula. Why is it the opposite for you?
Anna Markus: It’s not the opposite, but I love the challenge of saying so much in such little space. What sets this spare, poetic form apart as the one I most enjoy is its elegant, deceptive simplicity. At its best, haiku holds great spiritual depth as it helps writer and reader alike to see beauty where many would not see it.
4. You were very involved in the design process of your book, including the selection of materials. How do the aesthetics of your book complement the text?
Anna Markus: I wanted the book to have a Japanese feel in terms of paper, binding, and size, based on samples from my own collection. We were selecting materials at the beginning of the pandemic in 2020, which made it impossible for me to visit Modern Memoirs in person. Megan St. Marie went to the printer’s shop and we face-timed so she could show me paper and thread choices. The result was a beautiful, seven-inch-by-four-inch volume with a Japanese paper cover, letterpress text, and hand-stitched, stab binding.
5. In her poem “Sometimes,” Mary Oliver writes,
Instructions for living a life:
Pay attention.
Be astonished.
Tell about it.
What makes poetry, or haiku in particular, such a powerful way to “tell about it”?
Anna Markus: Haiku challenges the reader to do just what Mary Oliver suggests. A good haiku startles, makes you see and pay attention, puzzle about the levels of meaning. It should have a number of levels of meaning, and the reader should fill in the rest.
Cabinets with cases or drawers of fonts, letters (upper case, lower case!)