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It’s official now. My newest book has just been published, and I am absolutely thrilled with how beautiful it is. Holding it in my hands for the first time filled me with such emotion. Writing and even publishing individual poems is always exciting, but seeing and reading a collection of your own work is very powerful. The Last Camellia is a collection of tanka, haiku, senryu, haiga and tanka art.

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Cover image by Eva Bronzini

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The book has been published by Velvet Dusk Publishing and edited by Christine L. Villa (Chrissi) who is  a splendid tanka and haiku poet. Along with Chrissi, the book was initially shaped into manuscript form by another excellent poet friend, Susan Burch.  For a long time, I wanted to put together a book of both tanka and haiku but was unable to figure out how to juxtapose those two forms in a collection. Susan took up the challenge and skillfully and sensitively placed tanka and haiku, senryu, haiga and tanka art into what became the first draft of The Last Camellia. Chrissi and I then worked in editing and polishing the book. This process took a fairly long time despite the poems being so small. Placement of poems is actually a challenging process. We made a few changes of haiga and tanka art because they had to be reproduced in black and white rather than color (color would price the book too high–we both wanted to keep the book affordable).

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Back cover book blurbs:

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     At times we all “stand too close” to ourselves. Beginning with “a childhood spent / in secondhand clothes,” Mary Kendall’s The Last Camellia documents her navigation through grief and the quest to rediscover herself. In doing so, images from the natural world float in and out of her poems like “the soft rustle / of quivering aspen leaves.”

     The poet links and shifts three Japanese forms—tanka, haiku, haiga, and tanka art—in a garden of exquisite images. Shadows and silence remain after “a feeling of you / standing behind me.” A red-bellied woodpecker “flaunts his drumming skills.” A newborn faun wobbles “in old-growth grass.”

     One cannot fail to notice the sensitive way Mary explores emotions—doubt, loss, sorrow, and the joy of finding oneself. In one revelation, she shows us how “it took sixty years / to find the voice I lost.” Her signature tanka, “the last Camellia,” concludes: “it has taken a lifetime / for me to notice / the beauty in myself.” Each poem is a flower, budding slowly and opening to reveal its fragrance. This is not a book to be skimmed through. It is one to sit with, savour, and quietly celebrate its images of human love and frailty. From this subtle collection, we discover the universal beauty that blossoms in our own souls.

 —Hazel Hall, author of Moonlight over the Siding

     The Last Camellia is a beautiful compilation of Japanese short-form poetry. Mary Kendall deftly employs poetics and Japanese aesthetics in her work, creating an evocative and engaging collection. Her haiku juxtapose the natural seasons with seasons of her life, true to the heritage of this poetic form. Her tanka, these “short songs,” link and shift from vivid nature imagery to a thoughtful reflection of her inner landscape.

     The poet details memories of travels, of grief and loss, and the beauty of imperfection. The subtle sequencing of her work adds depth to the themes she presents, such as in this exemplar: “miscarriage . . . / the very word/betrays / the promise /of hope” to “this haiku abandoned nest / four blue eggs / but no answers.”

     The Last Camellia is worth several readings to relish the insights therein.

   —Carol Judkins, author of  at the water’s edge

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Mary Kendall

Copyright 2023