Vanished Roads: The Haiku of Thomas L. Vaultonburg
Vanished Roads is a collection of 104 haiku and short poems by Thomas L. Vaultonburg, published in 2026 by Wolf Twin Books, with cover and interior illustrations by Tré.
Written across several years, the poems move through woods, prairies, abandoned roads, small towns, grief, solitude, humor, aging, memory, and renewal. Animals wander freely through the collection—coyotes, deer, bees, wasps, dragonflies, and snakes—but the landscape of Vanished Roads is as much interior as physical. The natural world continually intersects with human experience until the distinction between the two begins to disappear.
Loss is present throughout the book, but Vanished Roads is ultimately less interested in mourning what has disappeared than in discovering what remains. A bee trapped against a window, wind passing through bamboo, an empty chapel, snow covering a trail, or a bucket reflecting the night sky can become an occasion for revelation.
The poems range from traditional haiku to senryu and extremely compressed lyric poetry. Some contain seventeen syllables. Some contain only four words. Rather than treating haiku as a rigid syllabic exercise, Vanished Roads approaches it as a way of paying attention: reducing a moment until only the essential image, movement, humor, or emotional residue remains.
Each poem occupies its own page, giving even the smallest poem room to breathe. Tré's sparse black-and-white illustrations appear throughout the book, extending the quiet, strange, and sometimes playful world of the poems without overwhelming them.
Since its publication, Vanished Roads has received five reviews and responses remarkable not only for their enthusiasm, but for the different aspects of the collection each reader discovered.
What Reviewers Have Said About Vanished Roads
Conrad Sienkiewicz
“What Vaultonburg can do with merely four words is impressive and enviable!”
“Vaultonburg's best efforts can comfortably rest alongside those of other haiku masters, such as Basho and Issa.”
Magedah Shabo
“In Vanished Roads, loss and grief are less like endings and more like thresholds to discovery.”
“Reading Vanished Roads has left me with the sense that there is still more to discover and say ‘yes’ to, both in haiku and in the world around us.”
Mark Tate
“Vaultonburg has masterful touch as well, readers will admire his succinct whisperings.”
“He not only sees, he inhabits the object along his journey.”
Melanie Medved
“This is truly some of the most recent memorable poetry I’ve experienced in years.”
“40 years and thousands of poems later, it’s hard to recapture the joy that I felt in that classroom of my first favorite poem, and yet, Thomas Vaultonburg has handed me that joy again with Vanished Roads.”
Sean Wright
“Vanished Roads is an immensely satisfying collection that rewards both casual reading and close study.”
“In an era when so much short-form poetry can feel interchangeable, Vanished Roads possesses something rarer: a coherent artistic personality.”
“Highly recommended.”
Selected Haiku from Vanished Roads
say yes
to the sunlight
when it finds you
cracked birdbath—
the sparrows drinking
from several skies
fallen oak—
more places now
for mushrooms
abandoned glove—
a field mouse
renting the thumb
bucket of stars—
someone left it
under the moon
About the Book
Vanished Roads contains 104 haiku and short poems by Thomas L. Vaultonburg, with cover and interior illustrations by Tré. Published by Wolf Twin Books in 2026, the collection explores nature, solitude, grief, humor, memory, and the unexpected ways the world continues after loss.
Title: Vanished Roads
Author: Thomas L. Vaultonburg
Illustrations: Tré
Publisher: Wolf Twin Books
Publication year: 2026
Format: Paperback
Price: $15
Vanished Roads is available directly from Wolf Twin Books.
Buy Vanished Roads from Wolf Twin Books
More information about Thomas L. Vaultonburg, his books, poetry, publications, and other work is available at his author website.
