Luna moth
this brief life
soon eclipsed
~Mary Kendall~
Published in Presence Issue 58, July 2017
Luna Moth, photographer unknown
Category Archives: haiku
Faded numbers… (haiku)
faded numbers
tattooed on your arm
I slip back in silence
.
~Mary Kendall~
Published in Presence 58 July 2017
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Back story on this tanka. In 1972 I visited friends in Israel. As a tourist, I was eager to see the historical sites, one of which was Masada, site of a group suicide where a Jewish community was surrounded by Roman soldiers. The Jews chose suicide rather than be taken as captives. As I stood high up on the hilly site with other visitors, it was very, very quiet. It was after all a sacred place. An older man stood next to me, and I happened to glance at him also looking out at where the soldiers would have been waiting, hoping to starve out the isolated Jewish community. I noticed on his arm, faded numbers–numbers, of course, indicating he’d been captive in a Concentration Camp. The poignancy of him being there has stayed with me for over forty years. Never again, please Lord, shall we do such things to our fellow men.
Both pictures are from travel sites to and in Israel. Masada is located in the Judean desert, very close to the Dead Sea. Visiting these sites is like stepping back two thousand years. I am so grateful for having had this opportunity to visit.
In Memoriam: Maya Lyubenova
Last year I posted a request in a Face Book haiku/tanka writing group asking if anyone had a photo of Lily of the Valley that they were willing to share and allow me to use for a piece of tankart I was working on. A very quick response from the poet/photographer Maya Lyubenova gave me the perfect picture. I never really knew Maya. We’d never met, and we chatted only a few times on FaceBook in poetry groups and on Face Book Messenger. I was certainly a real fan of hers. Bulgarian by birth, Maya could compose gorgeous haiku in English. She could also pair her poems with her equally exquisite photographs to create haiga — visual poetry of the highest quality. I was touched by her generosity in allowing me to use the photo she had sent.
Only recently did I learn that Maya Lyubenova had passed away on December 30, 2016. Like so many, I mourn her loss as a person and as a poet and artist. I wish I had known her better, but I cannot change that. Her work still remains for us to look at, to study, to learn from and to be dazzled by … that will not end.
I’d like to dedicate my piece of tankart to Maya Lyubenova — our single connected piece of art. Thank you, Maya, for bringing so much beauty into this world. May you rest in peace.
Maya Lyubenova’s website:
http://mayalyubenova.wixsite.com/maya-lyubenova
The link to her amazing haiga:
http://mayalyubenova.wixsite.com/maya-lyubenova/haiga
Oil slick rainbow (a haiga)
Published in Prune Juice, A Journal of Senryu, Kyoka,
Haibun and Haiga, Issue 22, July 2017
Cloud watching (a haiga)
Published in Prune Juice, A Journal of Senryu, Kyoka,
Haibun and Haiga, Issue 22, July 2017
Ice-fishing (a haiga)
Published in Prune Juice, A Journal of Senryu, Kyoka,
Haibun and Haiga, Issue 22, July 2017
Proprioception…(three senryu)
Prune Juice : Journal of Senryu, Kyoka, Haibun & Haiga Issue 22: July, 2017
Three of my senryu were published in the newest issue of Prune Juice. It is always an honor to be included in this excellent publication and among such fine poets. My thanks to editor and poet, Steve Hodge for including my work.
beginner’s yoga class . . .
our first sun salutation
eclipsed by the teacher
OCD
taming laugh lines
on my selfie
proprioception lost in his own world
