Poetry. Poetry on the move, yet always present. Jonathan Hayes's T(HERE) is a polyphonic, polyvisual, mini-epic consciousness journey. This book is a great read for anyone with a wide-open mind, whether through years of Zen meditation, decades of scholarly philosophical investigation.

NIPPON is, on its attractive surface, the story of a man who goes to Japan from California to marry his beloved. While he is there, the two climb Fuji, wander about, watch a baseball game. And get married. Intricacies abound. The marriage will be between cultures, so the tone and word choice of the poem moves effortlessly between influences as supple and as primal as William Carlos Williams and Mei Sheng. There is another mix: a curious one of restiveness and calm providing a paradox: a yearning for what is there. Hayes draws the characters by what they do or what they choose to see, there is little descriptive prose. Parallelism returns to our poetry, Fuji seamlessly serves as a background and as a metaphor for the stages of courtship, and baseball, loved in both places, casts a benign shadow of Swallows and Giants, like a story children love to hear. The story is rounded with airplanes, those modern equivalents of flaming chariots, and the reader is left with images that are profoundly everyday while smoothly reflecting images that resonate like gongs in an unfamiliar temple. (Description written by Professor Daniel J. Langton.)

American Haiku joins an already impressive body of work by San Francisco poet Jonathan Hayes, following on his most recent Nippon (2012). In American Haiku, we're in San Francisco with the poet, walking the streets, living the city, right with him, always in that haiku moment transfiguring these poems, a deep sense of wabi-sabi. This one's worthy to be on that special shelf with Jack Kerouac's Book of Haikus. As hard as rock in the rain, as soft as long hair in the wind. - Don Skiles author of Miss America

"From Truman to the 21st Century" details personal observations of significant historical events and the impact of these events on our culture during the second half of the 20th century and the threshold of the 21st century. The content is based on actual events, the presidents in office during the events and how their leadership impacted America culturally and politically. A biography of the presidents in power since 1948 as well as a brief biography of the signers of The Constitution provide a historical context. Several topics including religion, education, the press and immigration are dealt with from both historical and observational perspectives. Quotes from the founding fathers and various presidents will also provide insight.

Poetry. Poetry on the move, yet always present. "Jonathan Hayes's T(HERE) is a polyphonic, polyvisual, mini-epic consciousness journey. This book is a great read for anyone with a wide-open mind, whether through years of Zen meditation, decades of scholarly philosophical investigation or a few really wild acid trips"--Mel C. Thompson.

In this fictional account of the the fifties and sixties music business, young Roger Denton becomes inspired to be a rock and roll performer as a youth in a small town. He eventually has a hit record and faces many career challenges as well as difficult choices in his personal life.