THE DRY BONES
WINNER OF THE HAIKU FOUNDATION'S TOUCHSTONE DISTINGUISHED BOOK AWARD 2021.
“A masterwork of concision and cohesion. A book for wandering through the world with.”
— Manchester Review of Books
"Paul Chambers can be described as a modern-day Issa, when his vision so exquisitely portrays the suchness in seeing things just as they are, and releasing his readers on a journey of quiet magnificence."
— Your Impossible Voice
"The reader will linger with these images just as the poet did, feet on the ground, mind open. These haiku ferry us to another place, another time and, perhaps, another consciousness."
— Modern Haiku
"There is a spirituality to the poems and a connection with a far greater meaning - what it is to be alive in this world, in the present moment. We only need to notice it and this beautifully crafted book enables us to do this."
— Blithe Spirit, Journal of the British Haiku Society
"In The Dry Bones, Paul Chambers has given us a stunning collection of haiku that honour the truth of things as they exist and our greater connectedness."
— The Haiku Foundation
"A beautifully produced book...with its sharp, clear, sparse and sometimes breath-taking contents. The lines sing us into new places."
— Presence
"Each of Paul Chambers' haiku is a breath of cold wind cutting across high moorland, bringing us acutely to our senses. Read together, they create a landscape alive with non-human presences, a sense of deep time coded in their vivid moments."
— Philip Gross
"These haiku are not just haiku, they are poems that exhibit openings to higher consciousness. The haiku of Paul Chambers is both a haiku of self-awareness but it is also a poetry of cosmic awareness, exemplifying one's own mortality as well as one's own sense of eternity in the present moment."
— Wally Swist
"There is a slowness in these poems, a savouring of quiet moments. There is attention to shadow and light. While rich in concrete details, these poems also have a mystical quality."
— Frogpond, Journal of the Haiku Society of America
LATITUDES
Latitudes explores the themes of transience and transition, interweaving delicately personal scenes with the pure imagery of nature that open us into a wider consciousness. Rooted in the Welsh landscape, yet shifting across the latitudes of time and space, the collection carries us across the tension between the still and the fleeting.
"Chambers is a poet of the land, and he goes to it as close as you could get. The final result…lifts these poems…into an altogether more magical realm."
— Blithe Spirit, Journal of the British Haiku Society
"These are haiku to be read slowly, to let their images linger, to let ourselves sink into them. I am reminded of Martin Lucas’ call for “poetic spells.” These are them."
— Modern Haiku
"Paul Chambers’ sensitivity to latitudes means he pays attention to the distinctions of every living experience. We find exactly these sensitivities in this book, where a subtle seasonal progression underscores the sure hand behind each haiku. These poems deserve to be read repeatedly."
— Michael Dylan Welch
SOLD OUT
THIS SINGLE THREAD
This Single Thread is a sequence of impressions and landscapes rooted in the South Wales valleys, yet reflective of the author’s experiences travelling through Andalucía, North America and the Middle East. The poems explore the theme of interconnectedness through their fleeting, momentary observations of life and nature.
SHORTLISTED FOR THE HAIKU FOUNDATION DISTINGUISHED BOOK AWARD 2016.
“This collection is the work of a poet – and a thinker – who has found his form, who has crafted the perfect expression for these whispered, sublime moments; This Single Thread is an enriching experience.”
— Gary Raymond, Wales Arts Review
"This Single Thread delights with its simple, pure imagery and the light brushings with nature — as if we, too, were being gently swept along through the flow of his observations as he sets his sights on the small (spider threads), amorphous (clouds and breeze) and trace leavings (handprints) that quiver, drift and shimmer. While some poems hold darker moments, there is a poignant gentleness and ease to this collection that reminds us of the delicacy and evanescence of things in a way that uplifts. Chambers’s thread of observations carries the reader with such deft lightness that we feel the flow of the immediate movements and transformations of those things he observes, and thereby feel elevated, as “the wing and the wave / almost touching.”
— The Haiku Foundation
"Martin Lucas’ idea of haiku as a spell finds form in Chambers' debut collection. Each word is the right one and together they set a scene that resonates beyond the images themselves. A book we will return to."
— Modern Haiku
"A highly talented poet...whose debut collection demonstrates many of the sentiments that typified the work of tramp poet [W. H. Davies]."
— Presence