spring surprise—
flooding the porch
with endless sweet songs
a spunky wren peeks
out of a hanging fern
This tanka was published in Ribbons, Spring/Summer 2026: Volume 22, Number 1 in “Tanka Hangout”
Photo by Julie Zickefoose on Blogspot
Presence #72, Spring 2022
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winter birds crack seeds
& feast on blocks of suet –
my long morning is spent
polishing old pieces
of silver we rarely use
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.
Photo by Stauffers of Kissel Hill
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Kokako #36, Spring 2022
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It’s always a joy to have the New Zealand poetry journal, Kokako, publish some of my poetry. For their spring issue, they chose a one-line haiku and two tanka. I hope you enjoy them.
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seabirds drift on thermals—night becomes day
.
.
~~~
cassia, lady slippers,
dutchman’s breeches, rue –
my garden becomes
the one circle of friends
I find it hard to leave
.
~~~
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dark morning
filled with wild winds
that blow the birds awake
& by the crows’ swift,
and sharp reply
Redlights, Volume 17, No. 1, January 2021
a red-bellied woodpecker
flaunts his drumming skills—
below his tree I pause
to feel his thunder,
to hear his words
Presence Issue 68, November 2020
winter nights—
dreaming of blackbirds
on snow
My thanks to the editors at Presence for publishing this haiku.
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the chiming clock
begins to wind down . . .
five months of quarantine
yet still the roses bloom
and red birds sing
.
This tanka was published in October, but obviously was written in early summer. We are now nine months into this pandemic. Writing is a wonderful relief as we isolate ourselves. Like so many poets, I find my writing has been changed by the pandemic.
cattails:
The Official Journal of the United Haiku and Tanka Society, October 2020 issue
Here is the third of my three tanka published in the latest issue of Gusts no. 32, Fall/Winter 2020:
even the crows
are quiet now . . .
the sudden silence
that morning snow
brings
This tanka was published in Hedgerow, a journal of small poems ~ #130, Winter 2020
we turn away
from all we just can’t face—
the glistening red
of a vulture’s head
emerges from a carcass
Poet’s note:
Out of decay comes art and beauty. Look what artist Georgia O’Keefe created from a skull found where she lived in New Mexico. All is part of nature and is nature.
Deer’s Skull with Pedernal by Georgia O’Keefe (c) 1936
Where I live in central North Carolina, we have plenty of black vultures and turkey vultures. They circle and gather in the sky when there is carrion to be had. I chose this topic for the tanka because it’s a scene I’ve seen more than once. Yes, it’s not a pretty sight. Vultures, especially when eating a dead animal or gathering in a group in a tree or abandoned house do give you shivers. Something in us seems to respond with at least a momentary revulsion. However, I’m a bird lover and I try to see how a specific species fits into the scheme of things. Vultures and crows do eat carrion, the flesh of dead animals, often of roadkill along our roads and streets. They perform a good service by eating their meal and cleaning the mess up. Imagine all those dead animals left to rot. So these birds help us as they go about their business (albeit unpleasant business to us). They are birds we should appreciate for their useful role in nature. They also offer us a wonderful metaphor.
My thanks to editor, Caroline Skanne for being the one editor who chose to publish this poem.
1.
how many times
can a stone skip
before sinking . . .
deep in my breast
a small lump appears
Unsplash by Linus Nylund
2.
no second guessing a kingfisher’s straight dive
Kingfisher and Irises by-Ohara Koson, The Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, Holland.
3.
leaves turning –
an old friendship
ends
Golden Tree by Mary Kendall
ephemerae,
an international of haikai, tanka & beyond
Volume 1, C: November 2018
My thanks to Shrikaanth Krishnamurthy for publishing two of my haiku and one tanka in the November issue of ephemerae.
Acorn: A Journal of Contemporary Haiku (issue 41), October 2018:
frayed feathers
beneath the dogwood tree
silence
cattails, October 2018 Issue
The Official Journal of the United Haiku and Tanka Society
black swan
the beauty
in difference
Credit:Bournemouth News / Rex Features
I urge all of you to read the full issue of cattails, which you can download as a pdf here: http://cattailsjournal.com/currentissue.html
Frogpond 2018 Volume 41 Number 2 (Haiku Society of America
the vastness
of a Condor’s Wings
Grand Canyon
Mary Kendall
Gusts, no. 27, Contemporary Tanka (Canada)
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
Both tanka (c) 2018, Mary Kendall
A new tanka just published in Skylark, Summer 2017, Volume 5, Issue 1
whistling wings
of Tundra swans
over the marshes
. . . what is this power
you hold over me
(c) 2017 Mary Kendall
Tundra Swans by Gerald Plowman
~
I had three photo haiga published in the March issue of faileD haikU, a Journal of English Senryu, Volume 1, Issue 3, edited by Michael Rehling. The journal is only the third issue, but it’s become enormously popular…with good reason.
For this first one, I’d like to thank my dear friend and photographer, Yolanda Litton, for the collaborative use of her wonderful picture with my senryu.
I will post the other two haiga separately.
This tanka art piece is the second in my Dream Time series of poems. To read the first poem in the series (on this blog), follow this link:
As you’ll notice the two poems are quite different in style and content, but I’ve grouped them together in Dream Time since both were written while poised on that slender edge of dreaming into another time and place.
A Special Word of Thanks:
A big thank you to my dear husband, Ritchie D. Kendall, who took this photograph on a hill in Greenwich in 2013 when we were living in London.
Crow on a Willow Branch, Japanese woodprint, Library of Congress woodprint
In my last posting here, I put up a new haiga that was just published in cattails, January 2016, the journal of the United Haiku and Tanka Society, but I was really very fortunate this time round in having three other poems published in the same issue: a haiku, a senryu, and a tanka.
cattails, January 2016, haiku, p. 8:
winter—
each day closing in
on itself
cattails, January 2016, tanka, p. 4:
chased away
by a gang of crows
the red-tailed hawk—
being different
is never easy
cattails, January 2016, senryu, p. 9:
black Friday—
the vultures circle
round and round
From the window
I watch the cardinal
shuck a sunflower seed,
and, beak to beak,
like a passionate kiss,
he passes it to her,
his paler partner.
I imagine then
that I see the gleam
in his lusty eye.
Note on Photograph: I can find no other attribution for this photograph other than it was taken in Woods Hole, Massachusetts in 2014. It has appeared in a number of online birding sites. My thanks to the anonymous (but talented) photographer for capturing this tender moment.
Today, on Ekphrastic: writing and art on art and writing, as part of their 20 poem challenge, I have three haiku to go with a gorgeous picture of swallows.
To read the poems and see the art in the original publication, please click on this link:
http://www.ekphrastic.net/ekphrastic/swallows-by-mary-kendall
The artwork is “Swallows” by Benjamin Chee Chee
(1)
frail beauty—
scissoring the sky
on indigo wings
(2)
hope . . . soaring on wingless winds
(3)
taking leave—
gathering courage
as you fly
My thanks to editor, Lorette C. Luzajic, for including these haiku.
To listen to an audio of me reading this poem, just click on the link below. Give it a few seconds, and it will start.
Salted Feathers
I was four when you told me the story
that if someone wanted to capture a bird
they must sprinkle its tail with salt.
We went outside, salt shaker in hand,
not sure what we really planned to do.
In the end, it was a tiny sparrow foraging
for fallen seeds or tiny insects on the other
side of the chain link fence at the back
of the yard. You told me to go ahead and
sprinkle it. My hand would not fit through
the opening link square with the shaker.
Blindly I tossed a spray of salt that landed
more on you and me than any place else.
The little bird was spared, and he continued
rummaging around in the grasses, indifferent
to the plans made by two small girls who
had no real idea what it was to take away
the gift of flight. No salted feathers for him.
All I remember now is that I felt something
happen inside when the little bird looked
at me and, in the way of all birds, off it flew.
In the past five months I have been studying my much beloved tanka, haiku and small poems in order to become a better writer. Writers–and poets–need to keep growing as they go. As part of my interest in these lovely small poem forms, I have joined a number of exception online groups of poets who post their own writing. On several of the sites, “prompts” are given and sometimes a picture is given. People respond as they wish or not. Often comments are given. I can’t tell you what a thrill it is to get a “like” or even a comment by one of these poets who are so gifted and accomplished tanka and/or haiku poets, but even without the ‘likes,’ it feels wonderful to be a little more confident about sharing poems publicly. This morning, I’m posting several tanka I wrote this week to specific prompts.
~
1 [prompt: celebration of color]
Photograph (c) Kristin Sanderson
scribbles
of scarlet red
in the shrubs—
two cardinals
take flight
~
Photography (c) by Cab Treadway
cloud masquerade
tonight—
the moon is hidden
from your
wanton gaze
~
3 [prompt: how you share your journey]
old cobblestones
so hard to cross—
without speaking
I take your arm
and we walk on
~
4 [prompt: flutes..music…]
sweet song
hidden in the plum tree–
a nightengale
gives itself
away
~
I’d like to share a tanka that is currently appearing in Ribbons, Tanka Cafe, Winter 2015
Junco, photo by Kathy Adams Clark
winter light
shadows linger low
behind us—
dark-eyed juncos
scurry past our feet
Juncos, photo by Brian Cunningham
This poem appeared in Ribbons, Tanka Cafe, Winter 2015
This is the publication of the American Tanka Society,
THE DECORAH EAGLES…JOIN THE FAN CLUB!
The eagles landed some time ago and have carefully rebuilt and replenished their nest. I am referring to the now famous Deborah Eagles out in Iowa. For several years now, I’ve been one of their fans watching the live camera feed. The first egg has been laid, and the camera is showing mom sitting on it as the wild winds blow past here high up in a cottonwood tree.
The first egg was laid a day ago. It will hatch in 35-39 days if all goes well.
Watch it, if you dare. You just might get hooked on this fascinating bit of eavesdropping.
Raptor Resource Project Decorah Eagle Cam, Decorah, IA
***LIVE CAMERA LINK: http://www.raptorresource.org/falcon_cams/decorah_eagle_xcel.html
And Then It Flew
Older by only days, the first-born eagle
Was the first to branch, the first to fly~
Young eyes studying the world beyond the tree,
It now stood on a limb, lifting its wings over
And over, learning how to battle erratic gusts,
Learning how to channel the waiting wind,
Understanding now what it would be like to fly.
Again and again, those powerful wings fluttered,
Starting and stopping, gaining strength and nerve,
Gathering courage for that first awkward jump
Until one morning it lifted off the branch and flew,
Joining its parents in capturing the wind, trusting
That once it had made that leap, it too would fly.
His first flight.
A Poet in Time 