Chaconne is a collection of haiku by Diane Alleva Cáceres, tracing the emotional aftermath of her mother’s stroke and onset of vascular dementia. Included throughout the book are drawings by her mother, a lifelong artist.
While grief is a constant thread, Chaconne reveals a wider spectrum: the rawness of a changed life, the fragile beauty of connection, and the truths of a new reality. Through its spare, attentive language, the collection offers a powerful meditation on love, memory, and the ways we navigate change.
—
Praise for Chaconne
—
Praise from Abigail Friedman
Author, “The Haiku Apprentice: Memoirs of Writing Poetry in Japan”, and Haiku Poet
“Before opening Diane Alleva Cáceres’ Chaconne, one has to pause and admire the craftsmanship of the sewn softcover binding, the sturdy feel of the paper, the French fold, subtle color scheme and cover drawing by Margaret C. Alleva. Only then, when calm descends and the soul is quiet, does one open a book of poetry like Chaconne.
Chaconne is Diane Alleva Cáceres’ second collection of haiku. Revolving and evolving -- like the musical form of its title -- around Diane’s experience of her mother’s stroke and ensuing decline, Diane’s haiku masterfully connect the human experience to the larger natural universe
hickory tree
a shadow vanishes
into itself
A skilled haiku poet, she captures the familiar in unfamiliar ways
morning dew
a warbler empties itself
of its trills
for Diane, nature is not a series of pretty scenes but rather reveals a deeper truth or sentiment
uprooted --
a pine tree lies still
in its rot
This is a book to keep and to savor.”
—
Praise from Crystal Simone Smith
Haiku Society of America, President (2025, 2026)
“The haiku in this poignant collection underlines both the privilege of human movement and the loss of it by way of partial disablement. We "see" struggle, beauty, and grit in poems that are grounded in the movement of wind and branches balancing the weight of whatever they are tasked to bear.
Cáceres shapes a poetic response to her mother's stroke around Bach's Partita No. 2 in D minor, the most famous chaconne ever written. Like the piece, known as "a grief dance"her haiku croons and arcs in a most monumental way. Readers are guided through stages of grief yet offered solace in the "songs of goldfinches" and "moonlight." It is worth noting that the haiku on the facing pages are motionless, in the same position, while poems on the right move up and down the pages reflective of the left-side paralysis that permeates the narrative. This collection, this homage, is indeed a prayer book of sorts. I revel at these "notes on a life" that shed stark light on a mother's altered existence...and a daughter’s.
cradling us
between the blinds
brilliant moonlight”
Printed and bound in New England
5” x 7.5”
92 pages
Soft cover with lay-flat binding
Signed and editioned card insert
Design by Emily Sheffer
Published by Dust Collective
2026
ISBN 979-8-9893350-8-4
Diane Alleva Cáceres is a poet writing haiku, haibun, and tanka. She was born in Washington, D.C. and grew up in Maryland and Virginia.
Her first book of haiku, North Star quivering, was published in 2021 and reviewed by Frogpond. Chaconne is her second collection of haiku. She is co-founder of the annual Atlanta Haiku Festival in partnership with the Atlanta Botanical Garden and is a judge for its haiku competition. She is also a member of the Atlanta Haiku Group and the Haiku Society of America.
Diane teaches topics of international affairs and technological innovation at the Georgia Institute of Technology. She lives with her husband and daughter in Smyrna, Georgia.
Chaconne is a collection of haiku by Diane Alleva Cáceres, tracing the emotional aftermath of her mother’s stroke and onset of vascular dementia. Included throughout the book are drawings by her mother, a lifelong artist.
While grief is a constant thread, Chaconne reveals a wider spectrum: the rawness of a changed life, the fragile beauty of connection, and the truths of a new reality. Through its spare, attentive language, the collection offers a powerful meditation on love, memory, and the ways we navigate change.
—
Praise for Chaconne
—
Praise from Abigail Friedman
Author, “The Haiku Apprentice: Memoirs of Writing Poetry in Japan”, and Haiku Poet
“Before opening Diane Alleva Cáceres’ Chaconne, one has to pause and admire the craftsmanship of the sewn softcover binding, the sturdy feel of the paper, the French fold, subtle color scheme and cover drawing by Margaret C. Alleva. Only then, when calm descends and the soul is quiet, does one open a book of poetry like Chaconne.
Chaconne is Diane Alleva Cáceres’ second collection of haiku. Revolving and evolving -- like the musical form of its title -- around Diane’s experience of her mother’s stroke and ensuing decline, Diane’s haiku masterfully connect the human experience to the larger natural universe
hickory tree
a shadow vanishes
into itself
A skilled haiku poet, she captures the familiar in unfamiliar ways
morning dew
a warbler empties itself
of its trills
for Diane, nature is not a series of pretty scenes but rather reveals a deeper truth or sentiment
uprooted --
a pine tree lies still
in its rot
This is a book to keep and to savor.”
—
Praise from Crystal Simone Smith
Haiku Society of America, President (2025, 2026)
“The haiku in this poignant collection underlines both the privilege of human movement and the loss of it by way of partial disablement. We "see" struggle, beauty, and grit in poems that are grounded in the movement of wind and branches balancing the weight of whatever they are tasked to bear.
Cáceres shapes a poetic response to her mother's stroke around Bach's Partita No. 2 in D minor, the most famous chaconne ever written. Like the piece, known as "a grief dance"her haiku croons and arcs in a most monumental way. Readers are guided through stages of grief yet offered solace in the "songs of goldfinches" and "moonlight." It is worth noting that the haiku on the facing pages are motionless, in the same position, while poems on the right move up and down the pages reflective of the left-side paralysis that permeates the narrative. This collection, this homage, is indeed a prayer book of sorts. I revel at these "notes on a life" that shed stark light on a mother's altered existence...and a daughter’s.
cradling us
between the blinds
brilliant moonlight”
Printed and bound in New England
5” x 7.5”
92 pages
Soft cover with lay-flat binding
Signed and editioned card insert
Design by Emily Sheffer
Published by Dust Collective
2026
ISBN 979-8-9893350-8-4
Diane Alleva Cáceres is a poet writing haiku, haibun, and tanka. She was born in Washington, D.C. and grew up in Maryland and Virginia.
Her first book of haiku, North Star quivering, was published in 2021 and reviewed by Frogpond. Chaconne is her second collection of haiku. She is co-founder of the annual Atlanta Haiku Festival in partnership with the Atlanta Botanical Garden and is a judge for its haiku competition. She is also a member of the Atlanta Haiku Group and the Haiku Society of America.
Diane teaches topics of international affairs and technological innovation at the Georgia Institute of Technology. She lives with her husband and daughter in Smyrna, Georgia.
