"Having delighted us with the award-winning Wishbones, Ben Gaa continues to deliver exquisitely crafted haiku and senryu in One Breath. Gaa is a modern Midwestern flâneur, who is as likely to find an epiphany while drinking coffee or beer as while observing a sunset or a snowflake. Like the Japanese masters, he values the suchness of each experience, and merges humour and karumi with deep reflections on love and life which are wise but never didactic. His alert engagement of all five senses, combined with his expert writing and editing skills, results in work which is evocative, moving and inspirational."

Maeve O'Sullivan, haijin and poet who's fifth collection is forthcoming from Alba Publishing.

Video Book Review by Mike Rehling, editor of the senryu journal Failed Haiku.

Haiku Conversations: Ben Gaa's One Breath by Michael Dylan Welch

"This is an outstanding collection, especially because the author engages in deep thinking, close wondering, and caring about feelings. Like most of our best writers, he takes the time to notice significance in his life and capture that significance in the literary art of haiku." 

Randy Brooks, Frogpond 42:1 (2019)

“Moeller-Gaa writes with enviable command of the poetic possibilities inherent in haiku, playing with unexpected juxtapositions, reversals of causality, perceptual surprise, and more.”

Michele Root-Bernstein, Modern Haiku 50.2 (2019)

Ben Gaa's 4th Chapbook is one of three winners in the Brooks Books HIGH/COO Chapbook Series for 2023. The book can be bought individually or as part of a 3 Pack subscription. In this manuscript, Gaa continues to showcase his wide range of writing skills within this literary genre with a selection of 43 highly engaging pieces of work you'll be certain to enjoy reading after reading.

“One core aspect of haiku/senryu is that they trade on a collaboration with the reader. In that aspect, the best of them have an improvisational theme that is core. In this collection, Ben Moeller-Gaa has penned his work in a way that reminds me of Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, or Muddy Waters. I was led immediately to humming my own tune to these fine poems, and subsequent readings took me in other unexpected directions. The fact that I felt like a participant in the pace and tone of the poems renders this collection FIVE STARS from me. A fun read and a great way to add smiles to your day.” 

– Michael Rehling, Editor of Failed Haiku

In this Pushcart nominated collection of 20 haiku, Ben Moeller-Gaa takes us on a cyclical journey through what initially appears to be a typical Midwestern year. He notes the changing of the seasons and the effect those seasons have on human activity: snow to be shoveled, seeds to be planted, blooms to be weeded, fallen leaves to be raked. Ben’s haiku capture these everyday things, but with twists that reveal how the seemingly-everyday can send life spiraling forward through the circle of time.

~ Out of Print ~

In this limited edition, hand made chapbook, bound as a Jacob's Ladder, we have a collection of 20 haiku by Ben Moeller-Gaa that move through the seasons with poignancy, precision, and depth perception. Each poem is carefully illustrated with symbols that speak both to the haiku as well as to each other, making the bound collection a rich tapestry of language ripe for enjoyment. The unique Jacob's Ladder binding technique serves the books title well, giving the book literal movement as it figuratively moves through time.

~ Sold Out ~