When it rains, it pours, or so the saying goes. This month I feel so fortunate to have so many things included in two of my favorite senryu journals, Failed Haiku and Prune Juice.
This haiga was published in Failed Haiku: A Journal of English Senryu, Volume 1, Issue 11, November 2016. My thanks to Michael Rehling, editor of this fine journal.
I took this photo in Regent’s Park, London, England, in 2015.
It’s an honor to have this haiga published in Prune Juice: A Journal of Senryu, Kyoka, Haibun and Haiga, Issue 20, November 16. My thanks to editor, Steve Hodge.
This photo was taken by me in a small cafe in Edinborough, Scotland in March, 2013.
~ ~
A wonderful surprise email told me that a haiga of mine had been selected as an “Honorable Mention, Mixed Media** Category” in the Jane Reichhold Haiga Contest sponsored by two wonderful senryu journals:
Failed Haiku, A Journal of English Senryu Volume 1, Issue 11, edited by Michael Rehling
Prune Juice – A Journal of Senryu, Kyoka, Haibun and Haiga, Issue 20, November 2016, edited by Steve Hodge
The Judges of the contest were: Kris Kondo, Ron C. Moss, Michele Root-Bernstein
Michele wrote the commentary on my haiga:
“With the sparest of words and imagery, this haiga lays bare the essence of life in the face of death. If the poem skirts the uncertain boundary between haiku and senryu, just as certainly the picture skirts the shadowlands of mortality, its single image illuminating the darkness with a pulsating light. So well integrated are text and image that the associative leap between the two has the power of metaphor: the shaved skull is the incubating egg, never mind the incongruity. Avoiding the maudlin and the sentimental, this haiga speaks simply, honestly, of the beauty to be found in the ordinary, ordinarily hidden from view.”
This competition was in honor of the late Jane Reichhold who was such a brilliant poet, teacher, editor and mentor to so many who write haiku, senryu, tanka and other small form poems. I never had the honor of meeting her, but her main book on haiku has been a bible for me and so many others.
**Mixed Media, which can be any combination of traditional and photographic, or computer generated images and text.
This haiga was published in Wild Plum, a haiku journal, 2:2 Fall & Winter 2016.
My warmest thanks to the editors, Gabriel Sawicki and Maria Tomczak.
In Frameless Sky 4, editor Christine L. Villa paired my haiku/senryu with a another lovely photograph of Irena Iris Szewczyk. My thanks go to Irena Iris Szewczyk and to Christine L. Villa, editor of Frameless Sky.
Words by Mary Kendall
Photograph by Irena Iris Szewczyk
Frameless Sky 4, Summer 2016
June has brought with it the publication of some excellent journals. I love being able to read through them and enjoy the poems. Some are haiku, haiga, senryu or haibun, and others are tanka, tanka art or tanka prose. Hours and hours of fine reading that will stretch into the whole month of June.
I’ve been fortunate to have a number of small poems published this month. I’ll post these by type and by publication over the next week. Today I will begin with two haiga that were published in the newest issues of cattails, the publication of the United Haiku and Tanka Society.
Both haiga were published in the May 2016 edition of cattails, collected works of the United Haiku and Tanka Society.
A Poet in Time 