One tanka published in:
cattails, October 2018 Issue
The Official Journal of the United Haiku and Tanka Society
told not to tell
or be a bother
a child soon finds
a world of her own
silence
In that silence, poems are born.
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
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
Three tanka published in one my very favorite journals.
GUSTS No. 28, Contemporary Tanka
(fall/winter 2018)
pounding rains
& the peonies are lost –
how did I miss
your pallor, your reticence
that last day?
turning from pale gold
to dusky violet
our last embrace
so certain
so final
rain patter
on windows –
just when it seems
the darkness is over
it all begins again
My thanks to my friend, poet and editor, Shrikaanth Krishnamurthy for writing this tanka sequence, “Changing Notes,” with me. It was published in Kokako 29, a journal of the Poetry Society of New Zealand.
Changing Notes
A Responsive Tanka Sequence
by
Shrikaanth Krishnamurthy (UK) and Mary Kendall (USA)
glass bangles
tinkling with laughter
rice grains
strewn on the newlyweds
seeding a new dream
(SK)
such longing
month after month
turning to years
suddenly the emptiness
disappears
(MK)
the curve of his hand
cups the moon
quickening
the one butterfly
aflutter in my belly
(SK)
watching
the fragile pulse
of his fontanelle
and those half smiles
in his milky dreams
(MK)
rocking horse
hither and thither
the long curls
of sun-kissed memories
braided into birdsong
(SK)
one day his son will chatter
in a different tongue
raven locks
eased into smoothness
. . . a new chosen land
(MK)
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
Ephemerae,
July Issue 2018
how softly
the light shifts
from day to dusk,
the familiar comfort
of my hand in yours
all morning long
the praying mantis
clings to a window screen—
my fingers less nimble
with each passing year
Praying Mantis and the Moon by Watanabe Seitei
Thank you, Chen-ou, for selecting this poem for your blog.
