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[The Roof Rat Review.]

Robert Aitken. The River of Heaven: The Haiku of Basho, Buson, Issa, and Shiki. Counterpoint, 2011. Scattershot and doesn't go as deep as Aitken's closer readings of Basho, but plenty of pages worth the price of admission.

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Texts and images copyright (C) 2022 Pauline Kerschen. Layout adapted from the Single A Tumblr theme by businessbullpen. The Greater Roadrunner (Geococcyx californianus) has zygodactylic feet, leaving X-shaped tracks with ambiguous direction. The Pueblo and Hopi used the X symbol to mislead evil spirits. Border folklore in the early twentieth century held that a roadrunner would lead a lost traveler back to his path. In Mexico the roadrunner is known as paisano, countryman.