Brass Bell June 2022
Theme: One line haiku
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lucid dreaming wild-eyed pansies glancing back and forth
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Note: All pansy pictures are taken from Pinterest. No specific photographers were listed.
Brass Bell June 2022
Theme: One line haiku
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Note: All pansy pictures are taken from Pinterest. No specific photographers were listed.
And yet another dream poem ~
Blithe Spirit, 30.4
dream time –
chasing blossom
after blossom

Photo by laura adai on Unsplash
My thanks to Laura Adai for this beautiful photograph of drifting blossoms.
I am blessed with another haiku published in a favorite journal I love to read: hedgerow: a journal of small poems, issue # 132
September roses
the stone wall
hidden between us

(c) 2020 Mary Kendall
.
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’s the second tanka published in
Gusts no. 32, Fall/Winter 2020
pale pink petals
scattered on the desk
one by one the days
of isolation pass,
each fading to nothing

A Thousand Voices,
2019 Tanka Society of America Member’s Anthology
sweet peas,
crab apple blossoms
and old roses—
for part of each day
I become my mother
Two haiku and one tanka in Kokako 29, 2018, a journal of the New Zealand Poetry Society:
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

no attribution for this lovely picture I found online


My thanks to poet and editor, Chen-ou Liu, for selecting this haiku to appear on his Never Ending Story, First English-Chinese Bilingual Haiku Blog. The two Chinese translations were done by Chen-ou Liu as well. I am deeply honored to have this particular haiku chosen as a selection.


Published in Prune Juice, Journal of Senryu, Kyoka, Haibun & Haiga, Issue, 24, Spring 2018

Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival
2017 Haiku Invitational Winners
USA
Honourable Mentions
spent blossoms—
the remission, too,
was unexpected
.
Mary Kendall
Chapel Hill, North Carolina
To view all the winners and honorable mentions, please click on this link to go to the official website:
http://www.vcbf.ca/haiku-invitational/winning-haiku/2017-winning-haiku
Note: The beautiful picture of cherry blossoms (above) is taken from the website, Flower Meaning (http://www.flowermeaning.com). Also, from this website:
What is the Sakura Flower?
While the Japanese called this flower the sakura, you likely know it as the cherry blossom instead. The blossom of the Japanese Cherry, also known as the Prunus serrulata, is technically the sakura flower. However, other varieties of blooming cherries are also grown in Japan and referred to with the same name. The cherry blossom became so popular in the Heian era of Japan’s history that the word for flower became synonymous with sakura. People have been picnicking under the blooming trees since 700 A.D., a tradition that continues today.
The beautiful and very short lived cherry blossoms symbolize the brevity of life. The kanji (above) is for Sakura or cherry blossom. I think the kanji is just as beautiful by itself as is a single cherry blossom.
Blithe Spirit is the Journal of the British Haiku Society. Two of my tanka and one haiku were published in Volume 27, Number 23 (2017). I am most grateful to be part of this issue.
old shoes –
the challenge
of moving on

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

(c) 2017, Mary Kendall
Blithe Spirit, Volume 27, Number 23 (2017)

I am always thrilled to have a haiku chosen for The Heron’s Nest. This is the first time a haiku of mine has been selected as an editors’ choice.
Queen Anne’s lace –
a childhood spent
in second-hand clothes
Haiku by Mary Kendall, published in The Heron’s Nest, Volume XIX, Number 1: March 2017

Here is a link so you can read the whole issue of The Heron’s Nest: http://www.theheronsnest.com/index.html
In the March issue of the haiku journal, Brass Bell, the theme was haiku by/about women. The offerings in the journal make for excellent reading. Please do go and enjoy the issue, edited by poet/editor, Zee Zahava, who always produces something worth enjoying.
scent of mock orange—
all the years spent
doubting myself
haiku by Mary Kendall (c) 2017 in Brass Bell, March 2017 Poems by Women

To read the full issue of Brass Bell, please go to: http://brassbellhaiku.blogspot.com or
http://brassbellhaiku.blogspot.co.uk
It is very exciting to be part of a collection of poems and art by so many women I admire. Thanks to editor (and poet), Caroline Skanne, I have a haiku and three tanka included. The title and theme of “wild voices” was given to us to interpret in any way we chose. I urge those of you who love poetry to purchase a copy of this anthology for yourself and/or for a gift.

Wild Voices, An Anthology of Short Poetry & Art by Women
edited by Caroline Skanne, February 2017
***book available:https://wildflowerpoetrypress.wordpress.com/current-titles/
This title is also available on amazon.com or amazon.co.uk
Here are my poems that appear in this lovely anthology:
the softness
of a raspberry
on my tongue…
I remember our long
first kiss
wild honeysuckle
heady and sweet—
your hold
on me
just as strong
a softness of spring
flecked with apple blossoms ~
the morning you died
darkness swept in
lost and wild
foxglove—
danger hidden
in such beauty

Foxglove, also known as Digitalis purpurea
My thanks to Michael McClintock, editor of the Tanka Café in Ribbons, the Journal of the Tanka Society of America. The prompt was poems of spring and summer. Here is mine:
