2017 Published Poems

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This part of my blog includes poems and places in which my work has been published in 2017. To make this readable, the newest poems are at the TOP of this page.

(in reverse chronological order)

Red Moon Press Anthology for 2017

Queen Anne’s Lace —
a childhood spent
in second-hand clothes

(First published in The Heron’s Nest, Volume XIX, Number 1: March 2017,
published as an “Editors’ Choice” poem)

hedgerow, a journal of small poems #122, winter 2017-8

new year moon—

looking backward

looking forward

Moonbathing, A Journal of Women’s Tanka,

Issue 17, November 2017

your dark self—

that side

hidden

away like

a new moon

Blithe Spirit, the Journal of the British Haiku Society, November 2017

Queen’s dollhouse—

we examine the tiny rooms

in barely a whisper

pooh sticks drift away

this child

gone too soon

crowning—

the full moon pushes

through fog

his fingerprint

left under a cup

he made

her only way

to hold on

the slow uncurling

of the fiddleheads

one by one

learning to let go

is never easy

Published in Ekphrasis: The British Haiku Society Member’s Anthology, 2017:

the statue of David

stands so tall in the gallery,

I am speechless

in the Italian

I never learned

Ribbons, the Journal of the Tanka Society of America,
Fall 2017: Volume 13, Number 3

still collecting dolls

into her old age

a special name for each –

and one story

she refused to tell

Tanka Café Fall 2017: theme is “paper”

a book propped

by the pillow on my knees,

page after page

I ease into someone

else’s life

Skylark, a Tanka Journal, Volume 5, Issue 2, Winter 2017

A piece of Tankart, A Child’s Grave:

Skylark, a Tanka Journal, Volume 5, Issue 2, Winter 2017

Moral Monday –

arm and arm linked

you choose to step

into the darkness

to find the light

This tanka is dedicated to the courageous people who participated in the “Moral Mondays” in my home state of North Carolina. They risked arrest for gathering at the State Legislature to protest unfair and discriminatory legislation being passed. These protests were non-violent and led by the Reverend William J. Barber.

Skylark, a Tanka Journal, Volume 5, Issue 2, Winter 2017:

A Rengay by Mary Kendall (USA) & Bill Waters (USA),

Day’s End

stillness –

violet fades

to black

the scratch of a match

as I strike it

a flicker

of memory starts

then stops

turn of the tide . . .

how hard it is

to let go

a limb of driftwood

pulled back to sea

fair nights or foul

the lighthouse beam

shining

Two haiku just published in the November 2017 issue of Brass Bell. The theme was “family.”

Published in Prune Juice, A Journal of Senryu, Kyoka,
Haibun and Haiga, Issue 23, November 2017

Four senryu:

walking meditation
worries follow
in shadow

cerulean sky –
the wild sea air
tousles my thoughts

barren –
even the word
is devoid of hope

promises not kept—
that umbrella you gave me
blows inside out

Published in Prune Juice, A Journal of Senryu, Kyoka,
Haibun and Haiga, Issue 23, November 2017, two haiga:

A one-line haiku published in
Acorn, A Journal of Contemporary Haiku,
#39, Fall 2017

winter static the crackle of your silence

Published: cattails: The Official Journal of the United Haiku and Tanka Society October 2017 Issue

This haiku was selected as an Editor’s Choice (EC):

cattails: The Official Journal of the United Haiku and Tanka Society

October 2017 Issue:

cattails: The Official Journal of the United Haiku and Tanka Society

October 2017 Issue:

Failed Haiku: A Journal of English Senryu, October 2017

a sad looking halloween pumpkin lantern decoration on black background

Waterlogue 1.3.1 (72)
Preset Style = Vibrant
Format = 6″ (Medium)
Format Margin = None
Format Border = Straight
Drawing = #2 Pencil
Drawing Weight = Medium
Drawing Detail = Medium
Paint = Natural
Paint Lightness = Darker
Paint Intensity = More
Water = Tap Water
Water Edges = Medium
Water Bleed = Average
Brush = Natural Detail
Brush Focus = Everything
Brush Spacing = Narrow
Paper = Watercolor
Paper Texture = Medium
Paper Shading = Light
Options Faces = Enhance Faces

GUSTS, NO. 24, Contemporary Tanka,
Fall/Winter 2017 (Tanka Canada)

past the edge
of darkness, an owl swoops
and grabs a vole
. . . reckoning comes
at lightning speed

the pale twilight
of a hospital room
fading, fading
as you said
your last goodbyes

a fear of dark water
has shadowed me
all these years . . .
ripples on the surface
come and go

Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival
2017 Haiku Invitational Winners

USA
Honourable Mentions

spent blossoms—
the remission, too,
was unexpected

Mary Kendall
Chapel Hill, North Carolina

http://www.vcbf.ca/haiku-invitational/winning-haiku/2017-winning-haiku

Brass Bell
October 2017

Theme: body haiku

in hospice
skin so thin,
breath so slow

arm in arm
we dare the street traffic
snowy day

new knees—
I learn to walk again
no longer afraid

Blithe Spirit, Volume 27, Number 23 (2017)

plum blossoms—
watching you
struggle for so long
I remember how brief
a season is

stopping to study
fritillaries, tulips
and jonquils –
the sudden way
you take my hand

old shoes –
the challenge
of moving on

Brass Bell, September 2017,
Theme: Water

I had two one line haiku and one three line haiku:

her waters broken the beginning of the beginning

what was hidden now emerges water lilies

near the cattails
two white egrets
lost in reflection

Published in Wild Plum, a Haiku Journal
3:2 Fall & Winter 2017

evening drizzle—
unwanted thoughts
trickle in

fallen trees—
our inner lives
ungrounded

Preset Style = VibrantFormat = 6″ (Medium)Format Margin = NoneFormat Border = StraightDrawing = #2 PencilDrawing Weight = MediumDrawing Detail = MediumPaint = NaturalPaint Lightness = AutoPaint Intensity = MoreWater = Tap WaterWater Edges = MediumWater Bleed = AverageBrush = Natural DetailBrush Focus = EverythingBrush Spacing = NarrowPaper = WatercolorPaper Texture = MediumPaper Shading = LightOptions Faces = Enhance Faces

Published in Wild Plum, a Haiku Journal
3:2 Fall & Winter 2017

Presence Summer 2017

faded numbers
tattooed on your arm,
I slip back in silence

Luna moth
this brief life
soon eclipsed

staring skyward
at the meteor shower
I brush away two fireflies –
a sudden glint
of new found love

Published in Frameless Sky 6, Summer 2017

a pile of ripe plums
carefully balanced
in a burnished bowl—
how hard we tried
to make it work

we wander among
the soft blue stars
of Agapanthus –
our lifetime together
so fleeting

Ribbons Spring/Summer 2017: Volume 13, Number 2

a soft rain falls
as you work in the garden …
what I’d give to read
the chapters of your life
you never share

Ribbons Spring/Summer 2017: Volume 13, Number 2
Tanka Café:

Prune Juice : Journal of Senryu, Kyoka, Haibun & Haiga Issue 22: July, 2017

proprioception lost in his own world

beginner’s yoga class…
our first sun salutation
eclipsed by the teacher

OCD
taming laugh lines
on my selfie

Prune Juice : Journal of Senryu, Kyoka, Haibun & Haiga Issue 22: July, 2017

Red Lights, Volume 13, No. 2, June 2017

peeling an orange
in one long strand –
trying hard to hold on
to all I remember
of those now gone

a wooden pew
empty and waiting . . .
colored light
from stained glass
cupped in my hands

Modern Haiku
Volume 48:1
Winter-Spring 2017

Eucalypt, A Tanka Journal
Issue 22, 2017

a respite
from this daily worry
that drowns us—
the forgetting
that is sleep

Moonbathing, a Journal of Women’s Tanka
Issue 16, Spring/Summer 2017

all those words
I wish I could forget . . .
the smoothness
of dark pebbles
clutched in my hand

Blithe Spirit, Journal of the British Haiku Society,
Volume 27, No. 2, 2017

autumn morning—
sweeping away all
that drifts inside

washed up
in the sudden flood –
a baby’s shoe

just past sunrise
a single scull
glides down the river. . .
a flash of what it was
to be young

the tight cord slaps
against the flagpole
all night long
I dream of a father
who used few words

Skylark Summer 2017, Volume 5, Issue 1

A responsive tanka sequence with
Mary Kendall (USA) and David Terelinck (AUS)

Between the Lines

the conversation
turned so quickly
that morning in Paris . . .
your disapproval palpable
as you walked away

despite phrasebooks,
maps and interpreters
how often
we still lose our way
to understanding . . .

you sketch
a stranger’s likeness
with such ease –
how I hoped you could learn
to read between the lines

days spent
rehearsing a response –
why do those
who direct my life
now want to write the script

your practised words
sound right, but feel so wrong . . .
sifting through
shattered pots and ashes
left in an empty kiln

dementia steals
my name from her lips –
visiting hours,
relatives complete
the latest jigsaw

piecing together
from rumour and gossip
her final days –
I snake through minutiae
to make some sense

they contest
the unsigned will
. . . promises
we make to each other
but don’t intend to keep

Skylark Summer 2017, Volume 5, Issue 1

from slabs
of common clay
delicate cups
that hold the scent
of jasmine tea

whistling wings
of Tundra swans
over the marshes
. . . what is this power
you hold over me

Skylark Summer 2017, Volume 5, Issue 1

a haiga:

Failed Haiku, A Journal of English Senryu, Issue 16, April 2017

sleeplessness…
balancing dreams
and more dreams

traffic jam reversing my indecision

Prune Juice, A Journal of Senryu, Kyoka, Haibun and Haiga
Issue 21, March 2017

slave burial ground
. . . only whispers
and unmarked graves

evening news –
the tragedies of life
our common thread

winter thaw –
finding a way back
from heated words

morning doves
cooing their way
through the garden…
I, too, never saw
the neighbor’s cat

Prune Juice, A Journal of Senryu, Kyoka, Haibun and Haiga
Issue 21, March 2017

Skylark, Summer 2017, Volume 5, Issue 1

A responsive tanka sequence with Mary Kendall (USA) and David Terelinck (AUS)