Landmarks: A Haibun Collection

Landmarks is a collection of 64 of Ray Rasmussen's haibun that have appeared in a number of journals including Modern Haiku, Frogpond, Haibun Today, Contemporary Haibun Online, A Hundred Gourds, Bottle Rockets and Blithe Spirit.

Themes include later-in-life romance, memories of childhood, wilderness adventures, retirement and aging, and philosophical musings.

Ray is haibun editor of Haibun Today and technical editor of Contemporary Haibun Online. His haibun have been carried in numerous anthologies including Contemporary Haibun Online, The Red Moon Anthology, Journeys 2014 and the two anthologies produced by the British Haiku Society.

Ferris Gilli, Associate Editor of The Heron's Nest haiku journal, comments:

"LANDMARKS: A Haibun Collection by Ray Rasmussen is not only beautiful to look at and has a pleasing typeset, it is one of the best books in a haiku-related genre that I've ever read. Rasmussen evokes a wide range of emotions with these haibun. I've read a number of them so many times they have become old friends. They've also shown me how I can sharpen my own haibun."

Jeffrey Woodward, Editor, Haibun Today comments:

The haibun of Ray Rasmussen revel in close observation and personal experience. They take for their inspiration the everyday person, place or thing and these subjects commonly are ones with which their author shares an intimate relationship.

Like the inuksuk that graces the cover of Landmarks, Rasmussen's haibun seem constructed of whatever stones lie near at hand, whatever materials he can appropriate from his immediate environs and, in doing so, they fashion a chronicle of his life's journey, part wilderness travel, part interior odyssey.

Like the inuksuk, these haibun are markers in the otherwise normal landscapes of all of our lives. They are testimonials that "someone was here" before and offer assurances, to the reader, that he is on the right path.