BUFFALO – “Haiku to the Chief,” released July 4 by Ghost City Press, contains a series of 43 haikus – one for each United States president from Washington to Obama (Grover Cleveland only gets one). Trenchant but nonpartisan, full of wit and surprising pathos, the slim but weighty volume brings some historical perspective, provoking humor, and exactly 43 moments of transcendent calm and to our troubled election season.

Gerry Crinnin, a native of Syracuse, is an ex-U.S. Navy journalist who used the G.I. Bill to get a master’s degree from Brown and a Ph.D. from Binghamton University. His teachers include Milton Kessler, C.D. Wright, Galway Kinnell, Michael Harper and Ruth Stone. For 23 years Crinnin has been teaching English and writing classes at Jamestown Community College in western New York. His work has appeared most notably in Modern American Poetry, an anthology published by the Great Books Foundation (2002). He received the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Research and Creative Activity in 2008. Most of Crinnin’s poems appear in small magazines and self-published mini-books. He and his family live in Fredonia.

The following comes from Crinnin’s introduction to the book:

“Some years ago I noticed my son had a ruler that featured tiny portraits of all the presidents. I immediately decided to write a poem on each chief executive, and because of the Lilliputian representations, the haiku form occurred to me, and the title, Haiku To The Chief, a moment later. I started doing my homework and poem work with serious joy, combing through all my history books and visiting the local libraries for more information and inspiration.

“Many poems wrote themselves – FDR, JFK, McKinley, and Coolidge, for example, seemed right in front of me speaking in lines of 5, 7, and 5 syllables. In the main, those presidents with the biggest beards and mustaches – the five after Grant – required the most work and thought. I had a few publishers who wanted to break up my collection and publish them in part, but that seemed wrong, and for many years these poems gathered dust in my garage. Again it was my son, Max, who urged me to finish the President Obama haiku and try again. I did so, and it was Max who sent these to Ghost City Press and arranged with their gracious staff to see the entire collection into print.

“I therefore dedicate this book to my son, my own chief executive.”

Crinnin and his friends and fans will celebrate the launch Sunday August 28th at 7 p.m. with a party at Founding Fathers Pub in Buffalo. Crinnin will read, along with friends Justin Karcher (Tailgating at the Gates of Hell), Ben Brindise (Pure Ink Poetry, Just Buffalo Literary Center teaching artist), his son Max Crinnin (Foundlings magazine) and others. The event will be free and open to the public.