This collection of Japanese haiku by an American expat is an important contribution to the world of poetry.Edith Shiffert, called by Poetry Nippon «one of Kyoto's living nation—and international— treasures,» here writes brief poems in the form of traditional Japanese haiku for each month of the year. Taken as a whole, the poems describe an American woman's twenty five-five year sojourn in KyotoThe poems, over 350 in all, are beautifully complemented by the traditional Japanese ink-paintings of Kyoto-born artist Kohka Saito.