Category Archives: lyrical poetry

The faded notes … (two tanka)

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Ephemerae, a new journal of hakai, Volume 1A, April 2018 has just been published in the U.K. I am honored to have two tanka included in this first edition. Edited by Shrikaanth K. Murthy, there are over 160 fine poets included from around the world.

 

 

 

returning again

to the faded notes

scribbled in margins

I search for traces

of who you really were

 

          …

 

reflected

in a bookshop window

sun glinting behind

your image imposed

over mine

 

 

Both tanka (c) 2018 Mary Kendall

 

ephemerae 1A Spring 2018

Twisted in shame … (two tanka)

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Skylark Tanka Journal 6:1, Summer 2018:

Two tanka

 

 

 

 

old walking stick—

once it was

a branch

that stretched

to the sky

 

              . . .

 

 

all those years spent

twisted in shame –

cultivating old world roses

but still ignoring          

the thorns

 

 

 

A beautiful walking stick made in the traditional manner.

Notes from other lives… (two tanka)

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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

Wild Strawberries (a responsive tanka sequence)

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wild strawberries

 

Wild Strawberries

A Responsive tanka sequence

Mary Kendall (USA) & Hazel Hall (Australia)

 

around the turn
we come across a patch
of wild strawberries
. . . a sudden longing
for something left behind                                                       ​​MK

 

dividing
our harvest carefully   
the taste​
of over-ripened fruit
lingers in the mouth                                                                     HH

 

searching everywhere
for that old blue sweater
one dropped stitch
and a secret hidden
in worn woolen strands​​​​​                                                            MK

 

unraveling
our future fears
. . . two sparrows
perched on the scarecrow
pull father’s scarf apart ​​​​​                                                          HH

 

somewhere in silence
lies an answer . . .
each spring the task
of double digging soil
before planting   ​​​​​​​                                                                     MK

 

wheel turning
I throw a new pot . . .
moulding hope
for the future,
a fragile process​​​​​​​                                                                      HH

 

 

Published in Ribbons, Winter 2018: Volume 14, Number 1