Customer Reviews:

• "Striations of deep purple tones on gray with bobbing rings create Emily’s own cover design for her newest chapbook, Immersion. Turn your chapbook 90 degrees sideways to view the horizontal format, which is the first of its kind from Shadow Poetry Press. The orientation beautifully displays 37 full-color laser prints of computer imaged haiga by the author that will take your breath away. Displaying two horizontal haiga at a time of different coordinated vibrant color schemes with each page turn, the layout superbly supports the total presentation.

To quote from the haiga without displaying the images would be like going to a play or movie with audio but no visual and doesn’t do the work justice. However, the haiku on the haiga images are so strong in themselves, that I will quote a few of my favorites here, with a short visual description of each haiga, and a note of my personal interpretation:

(Page 3) Visual image: a soft cobalt green background with an abstract pink flower, offset green stem with bud and leaf.

            shifting light
            focusing
            on the flower

My interpretation: This haiga reminds me that our thought focus can totally throw light on how we live each day.

(Page 23) Visual image: pale cerulean blue skyline with a solo bird in flight / shaded alizarine crimson red lower ground.

            sunset
            a single bird
            soaring

My interpretation: At the end of the day, we are all flying solo, reconnecting with our maker in our final thoughts before slumber.

(Page 35) Visual image: chocolate brown ground; an abstract swirling of what appears to be a 3-tone wide paintbrush stroke incorporating shades of lime green, golden and orange tones.

            Do you remember
            that voile skirt?
            It loved the wind

My interpretation: In this playful haiga, it is just exactly what it is: childlike and pure. How much we love the effects of nature interacting with our own creations!

The tone of this enchanting book of colorful haiga immerses us in moments of high emotion – seriousness, contemplative thought, playfulness and compassion, running the gamut of the total human experience. If you appreciate haiga and/or visual arts, this is an absolute must-have for your own personal library. This chapbook would also make an extraordinarily beautiful gift, but once you have Immersion in your hands, you will want to keep your very own copy!" – Review by Jan Turner, author of Reflections of The Inner Eye, A Shift In Time, Time With You, and co-author with Emily Romano of Faery Folk & Fireflies, all available only at Shadow Poetry.

• "Emily Romano’s latest chapbook, Immersion, is a collection of 37 full page haiga. Her amazing compositions combine thought-provoking haiku with the author’s original computer art in colors so intense they seem to vibrate.

My personal favorite is located to one side of the centerfold of this beautiful chapbook. The artwork is lean of line and captures the essence of a grasshopper against a slab of marbled stone. The haiku, quoted below, seems to say that life is fleeting even in the fullness of summer. It contains the sadness associated with the transience of life, and yet the grasshopper (bounding with life) is here in this moment as is the passing breeze. The cemetery becomes a place where the boundaries between life and death blur and a sense of oneness prevails.

            summer wind
            the grasshopper
            next to nana’s stone

I think my 2nd favorite is “bamboo clatters” where I imagine the shady coolness of a thick grove and hear the clatter of the canes. I pause to consider how the canes hold the sound before they release it. How a bamboo wind chime has a hollow round tone that is peaceful, even soothing. The art is graphic and strong. The ku is effective in its direct simplicity. As a result of the author’s careful word placement, I can almost see the canes clack against each other:

            bamboo
                  clatters
            against
                  bamboo

As the title suggests, Immersion is an absorbing book which explores light, sound, and emotion through color and the juxtaposition of images and words. I highly recommend this book to anyone with an appreciation of art and poetry." - Margaret R. Smith