This part of my blog includes poems and places in which my work has been published. To make this readable, the newest poems are at the TOP of this page. In some cases there will be a link to a blog page if the poem is already on my blog. If not, then I will post the poem in this section. Your comments are always welcome. I love hearing responses from readers. It’s wonderful knowing people read my work and I enjoy learning about what a poem means to them.
(in reverse chronological order)
Presence, Issue #62, 2018
1.
dreams lost in dreams wild poppies
2.
deep in winter
abandoned nests
and forgotten songs
3.
waking from a dream
the night winds
unsettle the moon
Presence Issue #62, 2018
scraping ice ferns
off the windows
of our old jalopy –
such fragile beauty
soon pushed aside
Tanka Society of America 2018 Members’ Anthology:
Of Love and War and the Life In Between
almost toothless
the old dog sleeps
by the fire . . .
the peace of knowing
you are there
Skylark, Tanka Journal 12,
Winter 2018 (6:2)
black feathers
scattered
under a bush—
the unspoken truth
gone forever
~
in an old book
a letter, ‘address unknown’
a million miles away
a new star is born,
another dies
Moonbathing, A Journal of Women’s Tanka,
Issue 19, Fall/Winter 2018
indigo ink
on vellum paper—
all those dreams
of making a different life
for myself
Blithe Spirit, Journal of the British Haiku Society,
Volume 28 Number 4, 2018, November 2018
~
picking stars apart one by one long winter nights
summer mirage—
what childhood
might have been
winter woodland
bereft of birdsong
with your passing
even clear days
are shadowed
together so long
we seem to finish
one another’s sentences,
fluent in the pauses
of each other’s mind
loneliness
comes and goes,
dancing around
my mind
with two left feet
ephemerae,
an international of haikai, tanka & beyond
Volume 1, C: November 2018
how many times
can a stone skip
before sinking . . .
deep in my breast
a small lump appears
no second guessing a kingfisher’s straight dive
leaves turning –
an old friendship
ends
Eucalypt: A Tanka Journal,
Issue 25, 2018
he believed
himself omnipotent…
the innocence
of so many children
dissolved in a moment
Prune Juice, A Journal of Senryu, Kyoka, Haibun and Haiga,
Issue 26 – November 2018
Four Senryu:
reproach –
finding a way back
from heated words
~
overanalyzing–
the smell of wood smoke
on the wind
~
winter walk
learning to negotiate
what can’t be seen
~
the house
where I was born
weeds & more weeds
Prune Juice, A Journal of Senryu, Kyoka, Haibun and Haiga,
Issue 26 – November 2018
Photograph by Mary Kendall,
Blackwood Farm,
Hillsborough, North Carolina
photography by Mary Kendall
Highgate Cemetery, London
Ribbons, the Journal of the Tanka Society of America
Fall 2018: Volume 14, Number 3
the long scar
down your chest
almost healed –
so hard to forget
you almost disappeared
Eucalypt, Spring issue 2018:
how it begins
this love of beauty . . .
a little girl touches
each colored heart
on grandma’s quilt
Acorn: A Journal of Contemporary Haiku (issue 41), October 2018:
frayed feathers
beneath the dogwood tree
silence
Haiku Canada Review, October 2018
hospice window
cherry blossoms
fade and fall
cattails, October 2018 Issue ~ The Official Journal of the United Haiku and Tanka Society
one haiku and one tanka:
black swan
the beauty
in difference
told not to tell
or be a bother
a child soon finds
a world of her own
silence
GUSTS No. 28, Contemporary Tanka
(fall/winter 2018)
(three separate tanka)
1.
pounding rains
and the peonies are lost –
why didn’t I see
your pallor, your reticence
that last day
2.
a turning from pale gold
to dusky violet
our last embrace
so certain
so final
3.
rain patter
on windows –
just when it seems
the darkness is over
it all begins again
2018 Haiku Society of America Members’ Anthology:
spent blossoms—
the remission, too,
was unexpected
(Vancouver Cherry Blossom Invitation 2017,
USA Sakura Awards, Honorable Mention)
Published in Kokako 29, 2018,
a journal of the Poetry Society of New Zealand:
where the house
once stood
only cherry blossoms
billowing fog
the burden of keeping
your secret
rosé bottle
the forgiving vagueness
of frosted glass
the morning
after
Published in Kokako 29, 2018, a journal of the Poetry Society of New Zealand:
Changing Notes
A Responsive Tanka Sequence
by
Shrikaanth Krishnamurthy (UK) and Mary Kendall (USA)
glass bangles
tinkling with laughter
rice grains
strewn on the newlyweds
seeding a new dream
(SK)
such longing
month after month
turning to years
suddenly the emptiness
disappears
(MK)
the curve of his hand
cups the moon
quickening
the one butterfly
aflutter in my belly
(SK)
watching
the fragile pulse
of his fontanelle
and those half smiles
in his milky dreams
(MK)
rocking horse
hither and thither
the long curls
of sun-kissed memories
braided into birdsong
(SK)
one day his son will chatter
in a different tongue
raven locks
eased into smoothness
. . . a new chosen land
(MK)
Blithe Spirit, the Journal of the British Haiku Society, August 2018
one frame at a time
A Tanka Sequence
by Mary Kendall (USA) and Iliyana Stoyanova (UK)
camera in hand
you tame the world
click by click …
living your life
one frame at a time
(MK)
the old album
asleep in dust
for all these years
the last two pages
stuck together
(IS)
so alike
everyone said
we could be twins
but then one day
a letter arrived
(MK)
through the open windows
spring wind…
by the ballerina box
my old ribbons tangled
like childhood memories
(IS)
in my hands now
a forty-year-old picture
of an unknown aunt
a tiny birthmark
same as my own
(MK)
Ephemerae
July Issue, 2018
all morning long
the praying mantis
clings to a window screen—
my fingers less nimble
with each passing year
how softly
the light shifts
from day to dusk,
the familiar comfort
of my hand in yours
Prune Juice, Journal of Senryu, Kyoka, Haibun & Haiga, Issue 25, July 2018
.
.
wild apple—
one bite is all
it took
.
inertia—
a thin coat of dust
on his burial urn
.
cloud cover—
darkness brewing
in daddy’s words
Presence Issue 61 (2018)
a shadow blocks the light unwanted touch
washed up –
this broken shell
once sang the sea
far above
old cotton fields –
migrating swans
thin curls of wood
fly away
from the lathe –
his memory slips
away bit by bit
failed haiku: A Journal of English Senryu Volume 3, Issue 32:
chopping carrots –
with each decisive cut
I think of you
Gene Murtha Senryu Contest 2018
Honorable Mention:
worry beads –
one by one I parse
your silence
Originally published in Under the Basho: December 2016
Redlights, June 2018
a newborn fawn
hidden in tall grasses,
with breath so soft
not even a dandelion
stirs
Redlights, June 2018
when you were six
I longed to keep you
that age forever
once upon a time
I knew you so well
Ribbons, Spring/Summer issue 2018
the squeak
of the old swing . . .
only four when carefully taught
to keep that secret
to myself
Tanka Café, Ribbons, Spring/Summer issue 2018:
the little girl’s doll
marred by lipstick
scrawled on her face
. . . maybe this time
mother will notice
Failed Haiku (July 2018) Haiga edition:
Modern Haiku, Volume 49.2, Summer 2018
a wooden cross
hangs askew
… winter light
Moonbathing, A Journal of Women’s Tanka, Issue 18, Spring/Summer 2018
blue-black mussels
torn from harbor rocks
fill the worn rusty pail –
there was no looking back
when I left you
Frogpond 2018 Volume 41 Number 2 (Haiku Society of America)
the vastness
of a Condor’s Wings
Grand Canyon
The Heron’s Nest, Volume XX, Number 2: June 2018
snow angel
the sound
of your whisper
This tanka appeared in a column edited by Kathabela Wilson:
https://coloradoboulevard.net/poetry-corner-our-precious-children/
Ephemerae, a new journal of hakai, Volume 1A, April 2018
returning again
to the faded notes
scribbled in margins
I search for traces
of who you really were
…
reflected
in a bookshop window
sun glinting behind
your image imposed
over mine
Skylark Tanka Journal 6:1, Summer 2018:
Two tanka
old walking stick—
once it was
a branch
that stretched
to the sky
. . .
all those years spent
twisted in shame –
cultivating old world roses
but still ignoring
the thorns
Skylark Tanka Journal 6:1, Summer 2018
Angel in Highgate Cemetery, London: photo by CathDupuyPhotos
Prune Juice, Journal of Senryu, Kyoka, Haibun & Haiga, Issue, 24, Spring 2018:
two senryu and one kyoka published
pulling a single
strand of silken thread …
her undoing
…
sipping skinny lattés
they march against
world hunger
…
a slight limp
on cold and rainy days
how easy it is
to fall out of step
with myself
Prune Juice, Journal of Senryu, Kyoka, Haibun & Haiga, Issue, 24, Spring 2018
Prune Juice, Journal of Senryu, Kyoka, Haibun & Haiga, Issue, 24, Spring 2018
Prune Juice, Journal of Senryu, Kyoka, Haibun & Haiga, Issue, 24, Spring 2018
Gusts, no. 27, Contemporary Tanka, spring/summer 2018
heart fluttering
and eyes closed tight –
it was as if you knew
the swallows had flown
away again
shipwreck spoils
wash back and forth
upon the tide –
notes from other lives
left in sea glass shards
Presence, Issue 90 Spring 2018:
winter nights—
dreaming of blackbirds
on snow
the scent
of a baby’s head
day break
coyote silent tonight wolf moon rising
startled by a woman
who stands too close,
I realize the wall’s a mirror
and I have become
a stranger to myself
Acorn, a Journal of Contemporary Haiku, #40, Spring 2018 issue:
blueness of dusk –
only the breath of wind
and prayers
Published in Ribbons, Winter 2018: Volume 14, Number 1
Tanka Café Winter 2018 ~ weather prompt:
I was born
in a winter storm,
a tiny soul
almost lost
in a sea of white
Published in Ribbons, Winter 2018: Volume 14, Number 1:
Wild Strawberries
Responsive tanka sequence between
Mary Kendall (USA) & Hazel Hall (AUS)
around the turn
we come across a patch
of wild strawberries
. . . a sudden longing
for something left behind MK
dividing
our harvest carefully
the taste
of over-ripened fruit
lingers in the mouth HH
searching everywhere
for that old blue sweater
one dropped stitch
and a secret hidden
in worn woolen strands MK
unraveling
our future fears
. . . two sparrows
perched on the scarecrow
pull father’s scarf apart HH
somewhere in silence
lies an answer . . .
each spring the task
of double digging soil
before planting MK
wheel turning
I throw a new pot . . .
moulding hope
for the future,
a fragile process HH
Cattails, April 2018 edition:
haiku:
first greening—
with each spring
thoughts of the last
senryu:
your scent
on the pillow—
all I have left
tanka:
seven kittens
licked clean by mother…
so much we take
for granted
in others
Blithe Spirit, Volume 28, Number 1, Journal of the British Haiku Society, February Issue 2018
Three tanka and one haiku:
curtains billowing
in the warm spring air
each strand of lace
intricate, undecipherable
… like you
an early daffodil
frozen in a bed of snow
you left us
long before
we were ready
spooning dumplings
into chicken soup
I imagine my mother –
how I wish we had
another chance
milkweed pods
fading to nothing
as we age
Third Place Winner, Golden Triangle Haiku Competition
Spring 2018
Wild Voices 2 Anthology
wisteria finds
a new path no matter
what is cut away—
if only you realized
there was a choice
stepping off a boat
and onto Ellis Island,
you changed your name –
writing the first page
of your new life
a single blossom
on the old gardenia…
looking in the mirror
and seeing
only myself
Red Moon Press Anthology for 2017
Queen Anne’s Lace —
a childhood spent
in second-hand clothes
Originally published: The Heron’s Nest, Volume XIX, Number 1: March 2017, published as an “Editors’ Choice” poem
A Poet in Time 