Pathways and Passages

About the Book

This short book is a distillation of a series of Haiku written by the author over a period of one year. It was an enforced exercise in meditation, spending a portion of each day in quiet contemplation, during a very difficult year in his life. This selection provides one poem for each week of the year. They are roughly broken into four classifications, Relationships, Spirits, Nature and Vision, and ending with Pathways and Passages, though some defy classification.

Some of the poems examine the time of life, such as The Gaining:

Time, signpost of life;
To gain life, leave time behind.
Treasure the losing.

Others are focused more on visions of spirits, such as 911 Anniversary:

Touch the fading dreams;
Wind whispers, gray smoke dissolves.
Nothing left to hold.

About the Author

Robert W. Barker has had a long career as a professional exploration geologist. He has traveled and worked throughout the world, in areas of wild extremes, poverty, prejudice and conflict. His first book, The Devil’s Chosen, explored the human connections of our all too easy and comfortable association with genocide. This book, Pathways and Passages, A Year of Haiku is a major departure from writing about the human relationships and decisions that led to the Holocaust. In many respects, however, Pathways and Passages is a continuation of his exploration of relationships and the human spirit. He currently lives in Williamsburg, Massachusetts.