Category Archives: Poems of Childhood

Scent of beeswax

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I am still catching up with published poetry. Blithe Spirit is the publication of the British Haiku Society. They selected two haiku and two tanka of mine to publish in the winter issue.

Blithe Spirit Fall/Winter Issue 2022

 

1.

brevity
the ripeness
of a pear

 2.

children
fragile as blossoms
learning to let go

3.

fragrant spices, each
with a story to tell,
a bit of this, dash of that
     my pen moves as if
propelled by a stranger
 

4.

scent of beeswax
melting as we draw
invisible designs
on our pysanky eggs—
forgotten childhood

 

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Passing cloud … (tanka)

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Passing cloud … (tanka)

Tanka Café @ Ribbons
Winter 2021: Volume 17, Number 1

it isn’t a matter
of distance for me –
I learned by age five
how to slip deep inside
that passing cloud

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Tanka poets are always proud to have something published in Ribbons, the journal of the Tanka Society America. It is one of the finest journals out there and it’s devoted to tanka and tanka-related work. Besides the main part of Ribbons, each issue has the Tanka Café, edited by Michael McLintock. Michael is an outstanding poet and was the editor of Ribbons for a long time. For many years he has focused on the Tanka Café, a favorite place for many of us. He puts out a prompt for each issue and poets write to that prompt. He gives us great leeway in how we interpret the prompt. This issue had the theme: Escapes. A great prompt indeed! The poems selected were wonderfully varied and always great to read.  I interpreted the theme in my own way of course. It has to do with imagination and how early we can learn to escape to it when we need to get away from things in our real life. My thanks to Michael McLintock for selecting this tanka. 

Starry-eyed

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starry-eyed

     the vast galaxy

of a child’s imagination

 

 

Published (c) Frogpond, Volume 44.1 Winter 2021

 

(c) The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope

snow day

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The Heron’s Nest, XXII.4, December 2020 published one of my haiku:

 

 

snow day–
a crackle of fire
in our stories

 

 

 

 

 

Bitter wind

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I am delighted to have one tanka and two haiku in the latest issue of Presence:

 

Presence, Issue 67, July 2020

 

 

bitter wind
the maple’s heart
still frozen

 

~

 

once so innocent
we had to make up sins
. . . first confession

 

 

~

 

I tried to bury
those memories
for so long…
the raw scent
of freshly plowed earth

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Little frog faces (tanka/kyoka)

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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.

 

 

finding a way back . . . (four Senryu)

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Part 2:
Prune Juice, A Journal of Senryu, Kyoka,
Haibun and Haiga,
Issue 26 – November 2018

 

 

Four Senryu:

 

 

reproach –
finding a way back
from heated words

 

~

 

 

 

overanalyzing–
the smell of wood smoke
on the wind

 

~

 

 

 

winter walk
learning to negotiate
what can’t be seen

 

~

 

 

the house
where I was born
weeds & more weeds

 

 

 

          Photograph by Marina Shemesh

Silence . . . (a tanka)

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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

 

 

 

Mary age 4A

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

Wild apple (some senryu)

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Three senryu and one haiga appeared in Prune Juice, Journal of Senryu, Kyoka, Haibun & Haiga, Issue 25, July 2018.

 

wild apple–
one bite is all
it took

 

inertia–
a thin coat of dust
on his burial urn

 

cloud cover–
darkness brewing
in daddy’s words

 

 

the sudden diagnosis haiga

 

My thanks to editor, Steve Hodge.

 

Screen Shot 2018-09-28 at 12.32.04 PM

Cover Art: Happy Monk by Jerry Dreesen

 

First time in “NeverEnding Story”

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Screen Shot 2018-09-02 at 12.23.12 PM

 

 

My thanks to poet and editor, Chen-ou Liu, for selecting this haiku to appear on his Never Ending Story, First English-Chinese Bilingual Haiku Blog. The two Chinese translations were done by Chen-ou Liu as well. I am deeply honored to have this particular haiku chosen as a selection.

 

queen_annes_lace_side_01-07-14

 

When you were six (tanka)

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Redlights, June 2018:

 

when you were six
I longed to keep you
that age forever
      once upon a time
      I knew you so well

 

 

 

birthday candles 6

 

 

Dedicated to my son, Adam.

 

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Only four . . . (two tanka)

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Published in Ribbons, Spring/Summer 2018: Volume 14, Number 2

 

 

the squeak

of the old swing . . .

only four when carefully taught

to keep that secret

to myself

 

 

This tanka was published in the Tanka Café of Ribbons

 

 

the little girl’s doll

marred by lipstick

scrawled on her face

. . . maybe this time 

mother will notice

 


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