“Ed Rielly has been writing haiku for about forty years, and this collection gathers many of his best. Answers Instead shares a lifetime of writing haiku with clarity, self-understanding, humility and most of all, integrity.”

—Randy Brooks, Editor, Mayfly magazine

“Imagine telling your life story through haiku. Ed Rielly has done just that with Answers Instead. He lets us into his childhood life in a small Midwestern farming community, through fatherhood, through grandfatherhood—through a meaningful life.”

—Gayle Bull, Proprietor, The Foundry Books, Mineral Point, WI

“Each poem in this book evokes the past, but puts us in the present. Once we’ve read these poems, they will unavoidably stay with us for a very long time. This collection of poems is that good. Ed Rielly is a master poet and this book is destined to become part of the American haiku canon.”

—Stanford M. Forrester, Editor of bottle rockets; past president of the Haiku Society of America

“The range of emotions in this richly imaged retrospective reveals the mature talent of a writer who has been perfecting his craft for decades, whose perceptions and perspectives resonate with seeming contrasts that are actually unities. Do yourself the favor of reading this book, letting its humanity and ring of truth wash over you, and savoring the joy therein that may invigorate you.”

—Bill Pauly, long-time haiku writer and teacher of haiku writing at Loras College