stinging nettles –
things that were said
I can’t forget
The Heron’s Nest
Volume XXIV, Number 4: December, 2022
Author Archives: Mary Kendall
The last plum blossom, etc. (a mix of tanka and haiku)
The lovely New Zealand journal, Kokaku, published two haiku and two tanka in their fall issue: Kokaku #37, 2022.
Kokaku #37, 2022
evening web –
the last plum blossom
caught fast
***
corner flower shop –
if only our lives were
arranged so well
***
quick twists and turns
of rutting deer ~
another season passes
adrift in colours
of passion and promise
***
This tanka appeared on my blog last month but was from this issue (37):
a tiny fawn dead
by the side of the road –
I close my eyes & imagine
all those children lost
in Ukraine strikes
***
A tiny fawn, dead… (Ukraine tanka)
Published in Kokaku, Summer/Fall 2022
~
a tiny fawn dead
by the side of the road –
I close my eyes & imagine
all those children lost
in Ukraine strikes
~
Image by meineresterampe from Pixabay
Which way? (tanka)
~
having made it
halfway across, halfway back
I stop and pause
wondering which way
I really want to go
~
Published in Eucalypt 32 Tanka, May 2022 Issue
~
Tight-Rope Walker by Jean Louis Forain, c. 1885, Art Institute of Chicago
This tanka was inspired by a painting of a tightrope walker:
Tight Rope Walker by Jean Louis Forain, The Art Institute of Chicago
~
The sweetness of honey
~
Gusts No. 36 Contemporary Tanka
fall/winter 2022
~
once I welcomed
the darkening of winter
now I crave
the sweetness of honey,
the buzzing of bees
~
Photo: Medical News Today, August 29, 2018
So many bodies in Bucha…
This is the first of two tanka published in:
Gusts No. 36 Contemporary Tanka
fall/winter 2022
so many bodies in Bucha,
even more mass graves
are dug and quickly filled
. . . no mourners, no prayers
at the gravesite today
A Poet in Time 