COVID19 HAIKU: Short Poems in a Long Year (North Meridian Press)

How does one measure time spent in the pandemic? Days? Weeks? Years? Or is it something else? Number of deaths? Number of survivals? Timeless lapses spent thinking about loved ones, lost opportunities, a frighteningly changing world?COVID19 HAIKU explores the concept of time in a disaster by breaking the pandemic down over its first year and several months using the short poetic form. By using epistolary pieces, many traditional haiku, the collection takes the momentum of large history and distills it into short poetic dispatches. The collection opens in January 2020, at the beginning of the pandemic, and goes through May 2021 with the beginning of mass vaccinations for the United States. The book looks at COVID, the turmoil of Trump’s final year in office, and the George Floyd protests. The poems move from inner thoughts, and reflections on nature, to commentary on American society during a year of uncertainty, violence, and survival.Wesley R. Bishop is a historian, editor, and poet. He is the founding and managing editor of North Meridian Press. Read more