The Ferris Wheel

‘We’re all scientists/replicating the same test/indefinitely, ’ writes Jesse Rey Whipple in his collection of haiku. Each poem tests the nature of love, loss, sorrow and insight, and through the passage of seasons detailed in 3-line shards, Whipple reveals the complex mosaic of his life. The Ferris Wheel takes readers on a journey from experience to innocence and back again. -Joyce Peseroff, author of The Hardness Scale

Jesse Rey Whipple is an intelligent and perceptive writer, but more important is that he seems to have overcome a great deal of hardship and pain. Through the pages of this book, it becomes apparent that he is still here, transcending the darkness of the past and trying to find goodness and God. My hope for him, as for his readers and myself, is that we continue to recover from our illnesses and are led toward health and wholeness and light. Jesse’s unabashed struggle to move into the light is palpable here, and while his path may not always be straight, I believe he’s on his way.

-Aaron Weiss, songwriter of mewithoutYou

This is the sort of book that takes shape and develops by being quantum entangled with the author’s life. It mirrors every dent, each soft momentary curving detour, every dark crevice, and each gleaming victorious peak set against all the desolation and existential terror that our days and nights are plagued with and spent fleeing from by burying our heads in drink to avoid caving in and being swallowed by the gaping maw. The poems presented here are snapshots that allow for an understanding of the lens through which a vivid spirit has been driven to view the world, thereby allowing one unafraid of such vulnerability to actually experience a connection with an aspect of the Human Soul.

This collection contains 499 poems.