Brooks Books Haiku

Dappled in Shadows:
A Widower's Journal

ISBN 978-1929820-3909 • 2026
120 pages clothbound • $30.00 US

publication date: March 7, 2026

Brooks Books is pleased to publish Dappled in Shadows: A Widower's Journal. This is a clothbound edition of selected haiku by Jim Brubaker.

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JOIN US FOR A PUBLICATION RELEASE PARTY!

Florinda’s Restaurant
114 S. Main Street
Taylorville, Illinois 62568

2:00pm – 4:00pm
March 7, 2026

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We have always loved Jim’s playful but heartfelt haiku that emerged from his life experiences. His lifelong priorities are evident in his haiku and senryu. He is a family man, an educator, a spiritual man, a nature lover, an outdoorsman, a lover, a simple Midwesterner, and good neighbor. What a joy seeing his haiku and senryu venturing out into the world to share his journey of the grieving soul.

Jim Brubaker started writing haiku in 2019, sharing most of his efforts through texts to me for feedback and response. As a fellow educator and sensitive soul, Jim has written hundreds of haiku and senryu that express all aspects of his life — the joys, sorrows, challenges, and depths and highs of emotions.

This is a selection of his best creative work.
Over the last six years, he has become an avid reader of contemporary haiku collections. He attended the Cradle of American Haiku gather- ing of haiku poets at Mineral Point, Wisconsin in 2022. He enjoyed meeting several leading Midwest haiku poets and participated in the first public reading of his own haiku.

To select haiku for this collection, we revisited all of his writing from his ongoing journal. Selected haiku were then organized into key areas of significance from his life. This collection follows that same organizing principle. The sections include: Childhood, Young Romance, Parenting, Troubled Water, Travels, Her Garden, Outdoorsman, Life of the Spirit, Grand Parenting, A Widower’s Loss, and concludes with Good Neighbors.

We are also grateful that our daughter, Jessica, has created another beautiful cover design that artistically interprets the title poem.

~ Randy & Shirley Brooks, Editors

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Taylorville, IL 62568

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If you order a copy of DAPPLED IN SHADOWSdirectly from this Brooks Books web site, you receive a 20% discount.

Therefore your cost is $24.00 plus $5.00 for shipping and handling. Order your copy through this Paypal link:

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jim Brubaker

Jim Brubaker is a baby boomer. Born in 1946, he grew up in a part of southern Illinois known as Little Egypt and now lives in Taylorville, Illinois. He met the love of his life, Connie LaDon Jones, in the summer of 1969. In August of the following year, they were married. Their marriage was blessed with two beautiful children and their love grew stronger and richer with age as they built wonderful memories together.

Then, in the summer of 2012 came the news they didn’t want to hear. Connie was diagnosed with multiple myeloma. In May 2019, the battle so courageously fought was lost. The process of bereavement takes many forms. Jim had no idea what his emotional response would be, nor what it would take to get through his grief, but his faith was strong. He had his wonderful family and friends. He had a Stephen Minister who loved him like a brother. And he had neighbors who checked in on him. This is where haiku comes in.

Jim would tell you, simply stated, it was a Godwink. Residing behind Jim, on a beautiful lake near Taylorville, Illinois, are Dr. Randy Brooks and his wife Shirley, editors of Mayfly and publishers of Brooks Books. They were Jim’s encouragers to start writing haiku. Jim has found writing haiku to be extremely therapeutic. He had always been an avid outdoorsman and sportsman, enjoying hiking, hunting, and fishing. Haiku has taught him to slow the pace and use the senses to experience nature more fully. In doing this, the warmth of the sun, the breeze through the trees, the freshness of the air, the sounds of the birds; these things and more are experienced more prevalently in the pause.

Focusing on the beauty of God’s world has helped heal his soul. Additionally, haiku has helped him to extract hurt of the heart. Grief must be openly and outwardly expressed. Many times this can be an emotional process, but it has to happen. It comes many times from wonderful memories that you cherish forever, but as painful as it can be to put it out there, it’s essential. This writing style provided a means for expression.

PDF Edition (no postage costs!)

Due to the expense of shipping a clothbound book to international addresses, Brooks Books is pleased to offer a PDF edition of DAPPLED IN SHADOWS: A WIDOWER'S JOURNAL.

The price for the PDF edition is the same as the print edition, but this saves international customers the $25 postage cost. Anyone who wishes to save postage costs may order the PDF edition.

ORDER the PDF edition from Brooks Books
for a 20% WEBSITE DISCOUNT of $24.00.
No postage fee.

For those who want to purchase the PDF edition, please use the following PAYPAL button for this order:

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Samples from DAPPLED IN SHADOWS:

morning glory
dappled in shadows
closing her eyes

sleepless night
the distant train
I'm on

 

shells on the beach
we leave some
brokenness behind

wedge of geese
looking for friends
in low places

 

 

coffee chatter
among old codgers
eight in therapy

 

HAIKU AND SENRYU FOR A GRIEVING SOUL

Life after losing someone you love can be overwhelming. That empty place where they were becomes the pain of death and the source of grief. It’s in these gray days of loneliness that we so desperately need to embrace those that reach out to us with care.

On May 24, 2019, my wife, Connie, went to Heaven. I still remember the numbness and emotional pain that permeated my body that day. Thankfully, I had a caring network of family and friends that were willing to help and encourage me in the days ahead, for as long as it took to get through the grieving process.

What I didn’t know on that day was two of these friends would introduce me to something totally unexpected that would help me significantly with the emptiness of grief. My neighbors and good friends, Dr. Randy Brooks and his wife Shirley, shared with me the two unrhymed Japanese poetic writing styles – haiku and senryu. While traditionally following a precise syllable structure, modern haiku and senryu loosen the syllable count and allow for greater freedom of expression, ideas, and feelings. Typically, haiku evokes images of the natural world, while senryu tends to be more about human characteristics and habits. I found both writing styles to be truly therapeutic.

Today I am as healed as I think anyone ever gets after losing their soulmate. And I attribute a significant part of the healing process to haiku and senryu. I am sure there are those that would not be easily convinced when I say this, but I think writing haiku and senryu made me more aware of the good in life that surrounded me even in my state of sorrow. My senses were sharpened and working on these short three-line poems somehow put my mind in a good place and filled the time I spent alone doing something positive for myself. Gradually, almost silently, joy was being restored to life.

As a Christian, I see God in so many things around me. It’s the beauty of His creation that inspires me. The looking for beauty to write about prompts me to focus on the magnitude of wonders that are around me each and every day. I believe that many times these experiences actually can give us a foretaste of what Heaven might be like. On Earth we see in part, but one of these days we’ll see the fullness He wants all of us to experience. So from my personal perspective, I believe from my writing I get small snippets of His greatness and what just might be on the horizon for all that accept His plan for salvation.

So this journal includes haiku and senryu I have written since Connie went to Heaven. It’s not great writing. But it’s mine. And the time spent drafting each piece was important to me on the road through the dark valley I had to walk. I am a better person because of the journey. But it was hard. I thank Randy and Shirley for their support during my recovery. I feel like God placed them in the right place at the right time, just for me. Their mentoring and encouragement have been precious gifts and I am so blessed to have them as friends.

                                     ~ Jim Brubaker