Little frog faces (tanka/kyoka)

Posted on September 5, 2020 by Mary Kendall

One of two tanka appearing Eucalypt: A Tanka Journal, Issue 28, 2020

in the attic I find
your small Wellies
with little frog faces—
oh, those happy puddles
when you were only three

Note: We lived near Hampstead Heath in NW London for a full academic year, 1989-90, with our (then) three year old son, Adam. Oh, how he loved rain puddles and stomping in them in his little green Wellies. Getting exercise each day was never a problem with a child who loved the outdoors no matter what the weather. This poem is for him.

These pandemic nights (a tanka)

Posted on August 28, 2020 by Mary Kendall

Moonbathing 22, Spring 2020

a faint train whistle
passing by at 3 a.m.
. . . the only normal thing
in these pandemic nights
that makes any sense

Half-light (a tanka sequence)

Posted on August 25, 2020 by Mary Kendall

Milkweed by James DeMers (pixabay.com)

These tanka were written during the quarantine of Covid-19. My thanks to editor/poet, Marilyn Hazelton, for persuading me to combine some tanka into a tanka sequence. A really good editor is priceless. It’s always an honor to have poems included in Redlights. Click on the link below if you care to hear me read it.

Half-light

August morning
just before the katydids
begin to sing . . .
the lake finally calm
with no ripples

milkweed seeds
scatter straight from
the cottony pod ~
such freedom to go
anywhere, everywhere

a spoon slowly stirs
cream into coffee
those quiet moments
when we lose
all sense of now

arm in arm
we walk together –
forty years & more miles
than either of us
can count

half-light—
walking in fog
where nothing is seen
but somehow we trust
it’s still all there

Red Lights, Summer Issue 2020

A nice surprise!

Posted on July 10, 2020 by Mary Kendall

What a very nice surprise! I am one of the top contributors to Prune Juice, a journal every haiku and senryu/kyoka poet knows and loves. What a thrill to be included with such excellent senryu poets.
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Many thanks to the great editors: Brent Goodman (current editor); past editors are: Steve Hodge (2016 – 2018); Terri L. French (2013 – 2015); Liam Wilkinson (2010 – 2012); Alexis Rotella ( 2009)
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Here’s a link to the whole anthology: pj-book-of-senryu

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The PRUNE JUICE BOOK of SENRYU celebrates 10 years of the finest English Senryu from around the world by 85 of our TOP Contributors, featuring 337 poems plucked from the journal’s first 29 issues by past and current Prune Juice editors.
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Here are mine that they published:
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Mary Kendall – USA
12 issues

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your tumor growing we worry about the snow
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#18 2016
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Reiki session . . .
feeling so
out of touch
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#20 2016
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beginner’s yoga class . . .
our first sun salutation
eclipsed by the teacher
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#22 2017
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promises not kept —
that umbrella you gave me
blows inside out
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#23 2017
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defined
by their parameters
love triangle
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#29 2019
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Prune Juice Book of Senryu: Celebrating 10 Years: 2009 – 2019 Copyright © 2020 Prune Juice
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