Although Modern Haiku Editor Paul Miller recommended Milkweed (published by Brooks Books, 2024), haiku and senryu from 1979-2024, it was a restrained review written from the rational mind, not the heart. The comments I receive from people who’ve read the book report they find the poetry deeply engaging. People tell me, “In every poem, I can feel you.”
Other reviews will follow and I can only hope after having dedicated my life to this form for over 40 years that the book will really be held and read, not just glanced over and not be just another chore, like writing a review that is filled with facts and boring details. I am disillusioned today about how haiku has gotten off track–I can barely recognize so many poems in journals these day that pass for haiku. So many literary fragments, untethered words, which can be lovely in themselves but haiku? I often scratch my head about where the form is going.
Alexis Rotella's Blog 
Thanks for sharing these thoughts. I’m glad I’m not the only one that has trouble with some published haiku. I recently had a haibun returned with the irascible comment that the poem at the end “wasn’t even a haiku”. Normally I take rejection in a detached manner, but after that I did spend several days muttering that it was as much a haiku as some of the poems he did publish. 🙂
Editors have their filters, opinions and life experiences. When I as an editor, I declined poems that I later regretted. We are all human.