Category Archives: poetry

And then again, the past comes back

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This is a reblog from eleven years ago. It wandered all that way into my thoughts on a quiet Saturday afternoon in mid-August of 2026.

So much has happened in eleven years. We are a changed country, a transformed world. The seas have risen, glaciers melted and weather controls life in a new way. The world seems to be at war with everyone, and our beautiful American democracy is at a dangerous level of risk that increases each and every day. There is quite often a feeling of heaviness and despair when listening to or reading the news. So many of these changes are not for the good of mankind, but that is a topic for many discussions and more poems. And so we wait for that rush of wild wind of change to surprise us and clear the air and world of darkness, unkindness and injustice.

Photo: the solar eclipse, August 2026 (from the internet, no specific photographer given). Thank you, whoever you are.

I’ve chosen this particular blog post from 2015 because it deals with memory and its peculiar traits. I hope some of you will enjoy reading the whole posting and how it came to be.

(Feel free to leave a comment about your own thoughts about memory and time.)

Here you go:

The Mutability of Memory

Posted on  by Mary Kendall

All of us have memories. Good memories. Bad memories. Memories we love to revisit over and over. Memories we push far back, hoping they will disappear. Some memories are vivid, while others are dreamy and vague. A few are very, very real as if they just happened, but others feel as if they stories that happened to someone else rather than us.

Memories can be haunting. Memories can be triggered by all sorts of things—from a taste that evokes brilliant memories from early childhood to a scent of burning leaves that reminds us of an autumn long gone.

It began with a prompt in March 2014 in Poets Online {my thanks to Ken Ronkowitz for this idea) to use a first line from an Emily Dickinson poem as our own poem title and then to write a new poem. This was one of my favorite prompts because it asked me to do something I had never considered. I do read Emily Dickinson’s poetry from time to time. I puzzle over her words and meanings. I spend a fair amount of time thinking about what she meant and how she did it. She never ceases to amaze me or probably any of her readers. To borrow a first line from her seemed a bit like stealing something sacred. And then the fun began–going through all of her first lines (which, of course, have also become the titles of her otherwise untitled poems)–and selecting one to work with. The prompt suggested we not read (or reread if we had read the poem a while back) Emily Dickinson’s version until our own version was complete. Fair enough.

After going through the list of first lines of Dickinson, I had to eliminate all those I knew. That meant excluding some wonderful poems I knew and loved. It also meant I had to find a poem that was unknown to me. Oddly enough the one I ended up with is a well-known poem of hers, but I couldn’t remember reading it (failure of memory on my part perhaps?), so I chose it. I love this line. “The Past is Such a Curious Creature.” Don’t you love the very idea of it, calling the past a curious creature, personification with such crisp alliteration?

Following the instructions, I did some thinking of what the line meant to me, what it brought forward. That’s how poets work. It can be rather vague to those who don’t write, but all poets know that a simple line can bring to life so many things. A poem comes from someplace deep inside, a place we’d love to explore but we only get glimpses of it. It took me a while to write the poem and to rewrite it. I wasn’t sure I wanted to submit it for quite some time. I even tested out a few other lines as prompts, but I returned to this irresistible line that Dickinson wrote. Here is the poem I finished and submitted. When the final poems were published, it was fun to read all of them. The other writers did a wonderful job. Some wrote in a style resembling hers. A few wrote in rhyme. I did none of that. Mine was in free verse, dictated only by the ideas and images that spilled out.

My poem:

THE PAST IS SUCH A CURIOUS CREATURE  (Line taken from Dickinson’s Poem CXXVII)

The past is such a curious creature
capable of creating such marvelous lies
that we begin to believe as we hear them
said again and again, forgetting that
there are those who love to distort
the truth and let it spill out and break
into brittle bits & pieces that are left
on the street to be kicked and crushed
until the shards are too small to see.

The past writes a story of its own choosing.
Its pen might be inked in faulty memory;
its paper might be marked in things that
did happen as well as those that did not.

This story is examined with the lens
of exaggeration and embellishment
until the tale that remains
is now so embedded in our minds
that we can no longer know
what was real and what was not.

And now for the inspiration piece, the poem written by Miss Dickinson:

THE PAST IS SUCH A CURIOUS CREATURE  (Poem CXXVII)
by Emily Dickinson (Complete Poems, 1924).

Part One: Life CXXVIII

The Past is such a curious creature
To look her in the face,
A transport may receipt us
Or a Disgrace.

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Unarmed if any meet her,
I charge him fly!
Her faded ammunition
Might yet reply!

Although the prompt suggested reading the original poem after our own was nearly complete and then comparing where we were going, I opted to read Emily Dickinson’s only after my poem was more or less complete.

In Emily Dickinson’s poem, her personification of the past as a feminine being is a surprise. Then she tells us that as we remember the past, it might reveal a hidden delight or a remembrance of something disgraceful or shameful. That said, she moves to the second stanza and urges the reader to be aware that if the past memories are ignored, there might be consequences that would take us with surprising force. How true. Memories that are suppressed can and just might tumble out to reveal an unfathomable nightmare. Or more.

My own poem chose a different path. It opted for examining the past by questioning the mutability of memory. Is the past always the past? Is it constant? Or is its story one that changes in the retelling and perspective of the storyteller? My point of view came arose from the self-examination of a few haunting memories from my own early childhood. These particular memories were negative, but they were mine as I perceived them.

In asking one of my sisters about her perception of these same events, her memory was quite different from my own. So, which was true? Either one? Both? True for her, and true for me, even with different observations and conclusions? I spent a long time trying to figure it out but was unable to do so. My past. Her past. Our past. Memory can change and distort with time, age, experiences, contemplation, It does present some good leads for poems, but it does not answer the question as to what that unhappy childhood memory really was all about.

Poetry allows us to raise questions and to examine possibilities. It is not psychotherapy, nor is it scientific. What it does do is give the poet a way to explore personal stories and experiences and to turn them into something that goes far beyond the individual self. It offers each reader a chance to follow along and even to join in, adding their own experiences and memories into the mix.

What do YOU think about the mutability of memory? Can we ever answer all of the questions we have about the past?
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spring surprise

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spring surprise—
     flooding the porch 
with endless sweet songs
a spunky wren peeks 
out of a hanging fern

This tanka was published in Ribbons, Spring/Summer 2026: Volume 22, Number 1 in “Tanka Hangout”

Photo by Julie Zickefoose on Blogspot

Synesthesia in Poetry

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In honor of this beautiful season, here is an oldie of mine:

 

spring . . .

hearing green

and only green

 

 

                           [published Hedgerow #130, Winter 2020]

 

This haiku has only six words and eight syllables. It’s subject is simple: spring. What does spring mean to you as a reader, a person, perhaps a writer (as many of you are)? I’m sure we could spend hours coming up with wonderful definitions and explanations of what spring is (scientifically) and what it means to us. Spring evokes all sorts of images and memories, does it not?

 

Synesthesia–a beautiful word to say aloud–is both a neurological condition and a literary term/rhetorical device. A neurologist might encounter patients who might visualize a color when smelling a scent or hearing a certain note or sound when looking at a color. In the haiku (above), I have used synesthesia as a rhetorical device. You may be very familiar with this term and use since it goes back quite a way (Homer used it). Here is a definition from the Poetry Foundation:

 

Synesthesia in poetry is a literary device that blends different sensory modalities—such as sight, sound, smell, touch, and taste—to create vivid, unconventional imagery. It describes one sensation in terms of another (e.g., “loud colors” or “sweet sound”) to evoke intense emotional or atmospheric responses, often blurring the lines between perception and description.

 

For some wonderful examples go to their site and read this:

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/education/glossary/synesthesia

 

I hope that this brief excursion into literary devices makes you suddenly aware of just how often synesthesia is used in the books you read or  in songs and even in the commercials you see on television.

 

Remember when you were a child and you were taught about similes. You probably delighted in making up similes left and right. Literary devices expand our thinking and our perception by pushing us a little bit into making new (sometimes strange) connections.

 

 

A Repeat for Myth Lovers: The Second Lamentation of Demeter by Mary Kendall ~ (Poetry and Myth)

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As a follow up to my last blog, I’m reblogging this second lamentation that dates back to November 4, 2014.

Which classic myth would YOU choose to write a poem about? What grabs your mind and heart both?

 

The Second Lamentation of Demeter

 

 

Narcissus, 1912 by John William Waterhouse

Narcissus, 1912 by John William Waterhouse

 

Persephone’s abduction by Hades is swift, violent and over so quickly that no one hears her scream except for Hecate, a goddess who helps Demeter find out where she has gone. Could there be anything worse for a mother than to lose a child? Demeter’s grief is profound. This is the Second Lamentation of Demeter.

 

The Rape of Proserpine, Hans Von Aachen, 1587

The Abduction of Persephone, Hans Von Aachen, 1587

 

To hear me read this poem, please click on the link below and wait a few seconds for it to begin.

 

 

 

The Second Lamentation of Demeter

 

The earth groaned, then opened briefly.
That’s all it took.

He appeared out of nowhere
Like a wild flume of fire,

The flickering golden chariot with
Four black stallions at full gallop.

He sprang upon her so quickly
That when the earth closed back

Upon itself like a wound healed over,
All that was left was a circlet of flowers

That she and the daughters of Oceanus
Had been stringing together. Irises, roses,

Violets, hyacinths, and the faded blossoms
Of sweet narcissus plucked by her hand.

The scar in the earth and grasses torn apart
Were all that told the story.

I always knew he watched her…
I sensed when he was around.

Clouds gathered overhead,
Shadows clothing him in darkness,

Hades,
To whom sunlight is a stranger.

My sweet Persephone is gone now,
Gone with him.

O, horror…
My sweet child is his.

 

circlet of flowers 2

 

 

Persephone’s abduction is well represented in art. It is my personal opinion that one need look no further than the magnificent sculpture done by Bernini in 1622. The details of the hands and arms as well as the force and resistance between their two bodies is powerful. Persephone’s tear stained cheek tells us more than any words can.

 

Gian Lorenzo Bernini, The Rape of Proserpina, 1622, Galleria Borghese in Rome

Gian Lorenzo Bernini, The Abduction of Persephone, 1622, Galleria Borghese in Rome

 

 

(detail)

(detail)

 

(detail)

(detail)

Some Thoughts on Turning to Myth: Looking back at “The First Lamentation of Demeter ~ (Poetry and Myth)”

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A Note to My Readers:

Here it is January 2026. My blog has been quiet this year for a number of reasons too long to list.  But the most obvious reason is that of a block or mental ‘resistance’ to writing. Last year in 2024,  I turned to sharing a few older poems of mine that I love. It was a good reminder to me of why I loved writing.

Today, WordPress showed me my latest stats. I rarely look at these anymore, but one thing I notice each time I see an update is that some of the poems I wrote relating to classical myths seem to be accessed the most. I wonder if, in this sad and tumultuous world and country (mine being the USA), we turn to mythology to find answers to timeless questions that appear and reappear over a lifetime. Who are we and why are we here? What is it we are looking for? What really matters? I am now 79.  Those questions and many more have come up time and time again, and the answers have been quite varied over eight decades. What do you, dear reader, think? Why do we cling to myths and tales from long ago and from cultures we know only though history books, literature or art? I’d love to know what you think.

To honor some of these poems, I’m going to post my two Lamentations of Demeter, one at a time. To save some work, I’ll post the whole original poet from my blog. I hope you find some meaning in each of them or perhaps a way to think of something beyond our wild world of today.

 

British Museum GR 1885.3-16.1 (Terracotta C 529), AN34724001

British Museum GR 1885.3-16.1 (Terracotta C 529), AN34724001

 

Here is the original 2014 posting:

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I’ve been looking over my writing notebooks written a while back but unread by anyone other than myself or my husband. The myths of Demeter and her daughter, Persephone, fascinate many including me. For a number of reasons these myths seem to appeal especially to women. Many of the great living women poets have written brilliant poems about Persephone (e.g., Louise Glück and Eavan Boland). The story is timeless.

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In today’s poem I’ve written a Lamentation of Demeter. Demeter, the goddess of the harvest and grains, is often referred to as the mother-goddess since she represents fertility on earth. Her importance is indisputable. When she mourns for her missing daughter, Persephone (who has been abducted by Hades and taken down into the underworld by force) the seasons stop. Things stop growing and the earth begins to die before Persephone’s father, Zeus, intervenes.  You know the story, but it is worth re-reading if you haven’t read any mythology for a while.

Demeter statue in front of my gym in Hillsborough, North Carolina

Demeter statue in front of my gym in Hillsborough, North Carolina

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So what is a lamentation? The Oxford English Dictionary defines it simply: “The passionate expression of grief or sorrow; weeping.” Anyone who has grieved knows instinctively what it is to lament the loss of someone who is dearly loved. The feeling is painful and deep, and I think this resonates within us all. Demeter mourned her daughter’s abduction to a point where the earth nearly perished. This poem begins with her not yet knowing all that has happened. I picture her as a mother desperate to know what has happened to her child.

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This is one of two lamentations of Demeter I’ve written. The second will follow at some point.

Demeter

Demeter

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To listen to an audio recording of me reading this poem, click on the link below and wait a few seconds for it to begin:

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The First Lamentation of Demeter

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How is it that I don’t know where she has gone?

        I warned her.

I told her time and time again not to trust them,
that there were those who so longed for her
they would stop at nothing.

        And who was right?

Like all girls her age, she could be headstrong,
believing her own mother too old
to understand those yearnings.

         I warned her.

Last night I watched the dog star rise up.
Its magnificent beams were like beacons
that might lead me to my lost child.

        Why is it the stars are silent?

O, Sirius, your brilliant rays reach down
to us and yet your silence is puzzling.
Surely you saw where she went, my only child.

        Will no one tell me where my Persephone has gone?

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Grief-Statue

On Rewriting a Poem

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{Sometimes old poems ask to be reworked. This is a small example of just that.}

 

 

                                  

On Growing Old Together, A Love Poem

 

Will you scatter me over water
or throw me to the winds,
letting me float away?

 

Will your ashes mingle                                                                                       
with mine one day
when you too are gone . . .

              Ashes to ashes . . .

 

Will you take my hand again
and hold me close against the wind?
Will your eyes always smile with mine?

              Dust to dust . . .

 

Will our hearts travel as one
no matter where that might be?
Will our love be forever?

              Two stars together.

 

 

 

November 2025

 

This is a love poem written for my husband. We met in 1974, fifty-one years ago. This poem originally appeared on this blog in 2015, but I was never really happy with the ending. It never felt “right” to me. Those of you who are writers will know the feeling. You will know that some poems are meant to pop up again for you to rework it until it really is complete, and this is what I have done.

 

Growing older together has been a gift to both of us. We have shared so much and grown so much. Love is the one constant in the equation we call life. This poem is dedicated to my beloved husband and to all who have loved and been loved.

 

 

I’ve recorded myself reading the poem should you care to listen. Just click on the button below and give it a half a minute to begin. 

 

Ritchie and Mary, 1976

Voices in the Wind

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This is an old poem that was originally posted in the early days of this blog, back in 2015. My writing lately has come to a standstill, but rereading things written a while ago is often a way to trigger a creative response. (Let’s hope it works.)

The poem was written when we were living in London for a spring term with university students who were studying abroad. Wonderful memories of that group who are now fully grown and probably leading interesting lives.

We live in Chapel Hill, North Carolina in a beautiful rural development that is filled with gardens and trees. Our single acre plot is divided into flowers, vegetables, invading weeds and cultivated trees. The back half of our acre is woodland and beyond that runs a small railroad track that is used for a daily single train that carries coal to the university nearby. Sounds are important. In winter we can hear a distant passenger train at night. In summer it’s blocked by all the greenery. Chapel Hill is truly verdant as is the nearby town of Hillsborough. Our trees are a mixture of hardwoods (oak, hickory, beech and evergreens (mostly loblolly pines but a few small cedars and hollies). Our beautiful Camellias bring winter color and our small (hand-dug) pond delights us with frogs serenading one another. Southern summers are never quiet. Katydids and Cicadas sing during the hottest part of the year, and all sorts of songbirds visit as we work in the garden or sit on the screened porch.

One of my favorite parts of living here is listening to the trees blow. Whether a storm is coming or not, the very tall trees have a life of their own as they blow and move. It is quite often a very sacred sound.

The trees today brought to mind this ten year old poem for me to reread (and now, to repost).

Questions was originally published on this blog on June 19, 2015.
Ten years ago and still the same questions arise.

I hope you enjoyed reading this “oldie” today.

Shape-shifting in my dream

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shape-shifting
in my dream, I leap
and run with graceful gazelles
able now to outpace
all that awaits

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A tanka published in
Gusts No. 40, Contemporary Tanka, Canada,
Fall/winter 2024  

Image by xi Serge from Pixabay

Poor brown moth … (three tanka)

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Three tanka published last February in the lovely journal, GUSTS:

Gusts No. 38  Contemporary Tanka, Canada,
Fall/Winter 2024  

 

 

 

Compliments of “Draw Botanical”

 

a day lily blooms
for a single day
this brevity
a wonder to some,
unsettling to others

 

 

 

 

 

 

poor brown moth
trapped in a web
      the more you flutter
the tighter those
fine strands pull

 

 

the art aisle holds
such soft sable brushes
wedge, round, pointed, flat
patiently waiting
to adorn my words

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ah, sweet memory . . . (tanka)

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 Ribbons 31 Fall 2023
(Journal of the Tanka Society of America)

 

 

 

 

Italian gelato names
slip off our tongues
so happily—
sweet memory
of that day in Florence

 

 

 

Hai fame?

 

 

 

 

The Last Camellia (my book!)

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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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FRONT COVER2 copy

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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Screenshot 2023-11-21 at 9.11.08 PM

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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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D4163506-7291-43D5-8BAF-AB964B359D5A

Mary Kendall

Copyright 2023

Soaring voices (three tanka)

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Photo by stein egil liland: https:::www.pexels.com:photo:mountain-under-aurora-borealis-9636388:

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Three tanka published in
Gusts No. 37 Contemporary Tanka, Canada,
Spring/Summer 2023  

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I grow old now
and dream of a journey
I will never take
. . . the aurora borealis
dances, but does it sing?

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the emptiness
of losing a friend—
never understanding
what I did or
what you felt I did

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such soaring voices
      pure soprano & alto notes
in a boys’ choir
each singer’s gift destined
to change course

~ ~ ~

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Notes:

(1) All tanka by Mary Kendall © 2023
(2) Photo by stein egil liland
      https///www.pexels.com/photo/mountain-under-aurora-borealis-9636388/.jpg

Catching Up with Ribbons (tanka)

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Ribbons, the journal of the Tanka Society of America is a favorite of all tanka poets. It’s always an honor to have poems accepted for publication. Here are some from the last two issues.

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Ribbons Winter 2023: Volume 19, Number 1

 

crisp golden leaves
ready themselves for flight
. . . I was just five
when you walked out
and left us all behind

 

Also, in Ribbons’ Tanka Hangout:

winter winds
wildly whip limbs
boughs & branches –
come closer and hear
my heart hum along

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Plus a collaboration with Christine L. Villa–her beautiful art and my tanka that was inspired by it:

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WINTER RIBBONS Mary Kendall thinner font

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Ribbons Fall 2022: Volume 18, Number 3

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the unmistakable scent
of ripe Anjou pears –
remembering
his low voice as he read
Verlaine aloud

lovely yellow pear

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‘Tanka Studio’ in Ribbons Fall 2022

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speaking in an even tone
that gives nothing away,
your inscrutable gaze
was always a challenge
for me to decipher

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All poems (c)by Mary Kendall

Springtime in Verse with Mary Kendall

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SPRINGTIME IN VERSE WITH MARY KENDALL

Springtime in Verse is a series of blog posts inviting you to learn and gather around poetry with the Ackland. Today’s featured poet is Mary Kendall.

Mary has shared a selection of her tanka poems in celebration of the Museum’s current exhibition, Lotus Moon and Nandina Staff: The Art of Ōtagaki Rengetsu and Nakahara Nantenbō. Follow our blog throughout the month of April to enjoy more original works by celebrated North Carolina poets. We are so pleased to present to you this exhibition and the original works written by poets from the local community.

plum blossoms—
watching you
struggle for so long
I remember how brief
a season is

all those words
I wish I could forget . . .
the smoothness
of dark pebbles
clutched in my hand

from slabs
of common clay
delicate cups
that hold the scent
of jasmine tea

whistling wings
of Tundra swans
over the marshes
. . . what is this power
you hold over me

past the edge
of darkness, an owl swoops
and grabs a vole
. . . reckoning comes
at lightning speed

the pale twilight
of a hospital room
fading, fading
as you said
your last goodbyes

a soft rain falls
as you work in the garden …
what I’d give to read
the chapters of your life
you never share

stopping to study
fritillaries, tulips
and jonquils –
the sudden way
you take my hand

Mary Kendall  lives in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. She is a retired reading teacher and the author of two books, A Giving Garden, a children’s poetry/photography book (co-authored with Debbie Suggs) and Erasing the Doubt, a chapbook of free verse (Finishing Line Press, 2015).

In 2023, her third book, The Last Camellia, will be published. It is a collection of both tanka and haiku as well as some haiga.

Mary has a poetry blog called  A Poet in Time.

Having written poetry for many years, Mary fell in love with Japanese short form poetry about twelve years ago. Tanka is her great love, a form that feels most natural to her as a lyric and meditative poet, but she loves the challenge and discipline of writing haiku and senryu as well. She creates haiga and tankaand has published a good number of each. Her poetry has been published in many print and online journals such as The Heron’s Nest, Acorn, Modern Haiku, Presence, Blithe Spirit, Eucalypt, Kokako, Wild Plum Journal, A Hundred Gourds, Ribbons, Gusts, Skylark, Failed Haiku, hedgerow, Prune Juice, Under the Basho,and Rattle. Some of her poems have received various honors in poetry contests and one was nominated for the Pushcart Prize.

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION
Lotus Moon and Nandina Staff presents and contrasts the work of two major Japanese artists of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, taking its title from translations of their names. Ōtagaki Rengetsu (1791-1875) was a Buddhist nun who became very well known as an important poet focusing on the traditional wakaverse form, rendering her poems in elegant but strong calligraphy on paper and on ceramics that she often formed herself; Nakahara Nantenbō (1839-1925) was an influential and strict Zen Master famous for his energetically and expressively brushed calligraphy and paintings.

ACKLAND ART MUSEUM

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

101 S. Columbia St
Chapel Hill, NC 27514
919-966-5736
ackland@email.unc.edu

Note: All of these tanka have been published in various poetry journals.

At Giverny (tanka sequence)

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Published in the Spring/Summer 2023 issue of Ribbons,
the Journal of the American Tanka Society

A Tanka Sequence by Mary Kendall


At Giverny    

Sunday drive
from Paris
to Giverny . . .
anticipation
half the delight

we stroll through
Monet’s small village
the brilliance of greens
tints of lilac, silver
& old rose

his beloved home
full of color
& memories of children
playing, voices
long forgotten

all these years
together, your steps
in time with mine –
the unexpected scent
of old damask roses

stopping to study
fritillaries, tulips
& jonquils,
you reach out
& take my hand

soon we are adrift
in a huddle of lilac blue
stars of Agapanthus –
our lifetime together,
a flicker in time

~ ~

Author’s note: The French Impressionist painter, Claude Monet, lived with his family in a charming house in Giverny for over forty years. While the house is quite interesting to visit, it is Monet’s beautiful gardens where most visitors want to wander. My husband and I visited Giverny in 2013, and our memories are deeply treasured by both of us.

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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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A few poems in Anthologies in 2022

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Three of my poems appeared in various poetry anthologies in 2022:

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a brief sigh
as your scan is finished –
far above us
sunlight edges its way
through swift moving clouds

Tanka Society of America 2022 Anthology

~

 

in a pile on the floor
sand, swimsuits, towels
and a single sea star . . .
how did such beauty slip
unseen into my life

Linda Jeanette Ward Anthology 2022
(An anthology in memory of the late tanka poet,
Linda Jeanette Ward.)

~

 

broken ice on the river –
fragmented memories
now rise up

British Haiku Society
Members’ Anthology 2022
Theme: “Water”

~

Sky151

Stinging nettles

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stinging nettles –
things that were said
I can’t forget

 

 

The Heron’s Nest
Volume XXIV, Number 4: December, 2022

 

 

 

The last plum blossom, etc. (a mix of tanka and haiku)

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The lovely New Zealand journal, Kokaku, published two haiku and two tanka in their fall issue: Kokaku #37, 2022.

Kokaku #37,  2022

evening web –
the last plum blossom
caught fast

       ***

corner flower shop –
if only our lives were
arranged so well

       ***

quick twists and turns
of rutting deer ~
another season passes
adrift in colours
of passion and promise

       ***

This tanka appeared on my blog last month but was from this issue (37):

a tiny fawn dead
by the side of the road –
I close my eyes & imagine
all those children lost
in Ukraine strikes

 

       ***

 

A tiny fawn, dead… (Ukraine tanka)

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Published in Kokaku, Summer/Fall 2022

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a tiny fawn dead
by the side of the road –
I close my eyes & imagine
all those children lost
in Ukraine strikes

~

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Image by meineresterampe from Pixabay

Which way? (tanka)

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having made it
halfway across, halfway back
I stop and pause
wondering which way
I really want to go

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Published in Eucalypt 32 Tanka,  May 2022 Issue

~

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Tight-Rope Walker by Jean Louis Forain, c. 1885, Art Institute of Chicago

This tanka was inspired by a painting of a tightrope walker:
Tight Rope Walker by Jean Louis Forain, The Art Institute of Chicago

~

The sweetness of honey

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~
 

Gusts No. 36 Contemporary Tanka
fall/winter 2022

 ~

 

 

once I welcomed
the darkening of winter
      now I crave
the sweetness of honey,
the buzzing of bees

 

 

~

 

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Photo: Medical News Today, August 29, 2018

So many bodies in Bucha…

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This is the first of two tanka published in:

 

Gusts No. 36 Contemporary Tanka  
fall/winter 2022

 

 

 

so many bodies in Bucha,
even more mass graves
are dug and quickly filled
. . . no mourners, no prayers
at the gravesite today

 

 

 

ukraine-gc49e105c4_640

Brass Bell Contributions

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Here are several of my contributions in Brass Bell:

Brass Bell October 2022 / Theme: kitchen haiku

teatime
just water and leaves
you and me 

Brass Bell September 2022 / Theme: homeplace

buffalo, new york
we all laugh & tumble off
the long toboggan again

 

Brass Bell August 2022 / Theme: water

icy rain—
somehow this ache
just won’t leave

washed up
without a song
moon shell

 

Brass Bell July 2022 / Theme: sound

lyrics long forgotten
the melody always
in my mind

 

Brass Bell is published on the first day of every month. This delightful haiku journal is beautifully curated by editor/writer, Zee Zehava and can be found here: http://brassbellhaiku.blogspot.com. Writers are from around the world and some of the finest haiku/senryu writers appear on these pages.

 

 

Winter birds

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Presence #72, Spring 2022

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winter birds crack seeds
& feast on blocks of suet –
my long morning is spent
polishing old pieces
of silver we rarely use

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Photo by Stauffers of Kissel Hill

Making Amends

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Moonbathing 26, Summer 2022

 

one by one trying
hard to make amends,
I separate fine strands
of webs I’ve made
to hide my mistakes

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         ‘silk’

Panama hat/Venice

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Published in Ribbons, TSA, Summer 2022

 

your Panama hat
blows off
into the Grand Canal –
if only our decisions
could be so free

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Forgiveness . . . (a tanka for meditation)

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Published in red lights, volume 18, no. 2, June 2022

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with healing hands 
placed over my heart, 
I hear its whispering
voice between beats—
forgive, forgive, forgive

              ~~~

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Some Poems for Ukraine

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 Two tanka recently published in Red Lights,
Volume 18, no. 2, June 2022

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with ruins, rubble
and death on the news,
we learn their names—
Mariupol & Lviv,
Bucha and Donbas

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image after image of
bombed out buildings and corpses –
far away in my corner, prayers
& more prayers that you will
always rise from the ashes

.

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Image by bookdragon from Pixabay

Lucid dreaming

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Brass Bell June 2022

Theme: One line haiku

 ~ ~

lucid dreaming wild-eyed pansies glancing back and forth

~ ~

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~ ~

Note: All pansy pictures are taken from Pinterest. No specific photographers were listed.

Dark morning & wild winds

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.sea-nature-bird-wing-white-seabird-1183211-pxhere.com_

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Kokako #36, Spring 2022

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 It’s always a joy to have the New Zealand poetry journal, Kokako, publish some of my poetry.  For their spring issue, they chose a one-line haiku and two tanka. I hope you enjoy them.

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seabirds drift on thermals—night becomes day

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~~~

cassia, lady slippers,
dutchman’s breeches, rue –
my garden becomes
the one circle of friends
I find it hard to leave

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 ~~~

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dark morning
filled with wild winds
that blow the birds awake
      & by the crows’ swift,
and sharp reply 

Inner Life . . . (tanka)

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The third (and last) tanka published in the latest issue of Gusts:

 

 

does inner life
start or end in the heart
     I heard it for the first time
in a deep red canyon,
that distant river of me

 

 

 

GUSTS no. 35, Contemporary Tanka,
Spring/Summer  2022 Tanka Canada

Imagination . . . (tanka)

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universe-gerd altmann

Universe by Gerd Altmann

 

A second tanka published in the spring/summer issue of Gusts:

 

imagination . . .                                
the only place it’s always
safe to go and wander,                    
just the songs of stars
and sweep of ice-drifts

 

~

GUSTS no. 35, Contemporary Tanka,
Spring/Summer  2022 (Tanka Canada)

 

 

The last camellia . . . (tanka)

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In the latest issue of GUSTS, I’m so pleased to have three tanka published. I will enter each of the three poems separately in my blog. Remember, tanka is best read aloud so you can hear the music in the poem.

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GUSTS no. 35, Contemporary Tanka,
Spring/Summer  2022 (Tanka Canada)

the last camellia
blooms in late winter—
it has taken a lifetime
for me to notice
beauty in myself

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My inner life . . .

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coffee-Engin Akyurt

 

Brass Bell March 2022, Theme: Things That Make Us Happy 

 

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a bit unkempt
this cottage garden,
my inner life

 

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cropped-photo-by-merlune-on-flicker

A Pile of Published Poems…

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Here are some of my recent poems published in various journals.

~

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Tanka Society of America 2021 Anthology

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whipping egg whites
into the lightest foam . . .
I whisper my gratitude
to four brown eggs
still warm from their nest

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Modern Haiku  53:1. 2022  (one haiku)

 

waiting for a word
the day moon
dots the sky

 

 

Red Lights 2021

 A Tanka Sequence by Mary Kendall

(written about our changing world and climate change)

Changes 

 

faced with a world
in harm’s invisible way,
the wild branches
of corkscrew hazel
suddenly ready to sprout

.

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there was a time
when an oil slick rainbow
made us smile,
but now we see only
a spill of oil, too much oil

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out of the blue
an ivory-billed woodpecker
tapped out its story –
a vanishing act
for us to discover

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British Haiku Society 2021 Members’ Anthology

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deep in meditation
I am no bigger than
a single grain of sand
so easily forgotten,
so easily overlooked

 .

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The Heron’s Nest (fall 2021)

(one haiku)

 

dust rag
our history
gone in a moment

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Brass Bell February 2022, Theme: One line haiku

.

 ~

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saving face a little black mask with or without pearls

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Brass Bell January 2022, Theme: Morning

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cars awash
with cherry blossoms . . .
first light

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Ribbons (Tanka Society of America)

(17.3) 2021

~

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the barred owls’
caterwauling
startles the night—
all I ever longed for
was a gentle word

 .

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Moonbathing: A Journal of Women’s Tanka

Issue 25, Fall 2021

~

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tangled arches
of untended rose stalks . . .
the mismatched grace
of old & new and what
it’s like to be forgotten

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Blithe Spirit 31.4

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sitting on your old bed,
I shake out a teddy bear –
dust light scatters
the many memories
of who you once were

.

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Presence #71 Fall 2022 (two haiku)

~

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lone crow
never the right place
for outliers

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all winter long
what do they dream about . . .
burrowing frogs

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Eucalypt: A Tanka Journal, Issue  31

Fall 2021

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words float
just beyond hearing
in the dark
foggy woodland
an owl’s call

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Haiku Society of America 2021 Anthology

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that look . . .
a skim coat of ice
in the bird bath

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(This haiku was first published in Modern Haiku, Volume 49.3, Fall 2018

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Kokako, Issue #35  2021 

(three haiku)

~

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first light –
a faint poem
spun in silk

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summer solstice –
balancing daylight
and starlight

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the broad span
of the copper beech –
my hand in yours

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Haiku Society of America

Frogpond  44:3 Autumn 2021

~

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plum blossoms—
the orchestra
begins to tune up

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Presence, Issue 70, Summer 2021

(two haiku and one tanka)

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 a tom cat at rest –
its tail becomes
a metronome

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scattered thoughts –
a charm of goldfinches
ravishes the sunflowers

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loons submerge
and surface far away –
they say names
are the first words
that disappear

 

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 Moonbathing: A Journal of Women’s Tanka

Issue 24, Summer 2021

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some nights
I wake from a deep sleep
knowing answers
to questions
I never asked

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 Eucalypt, A Tanka Journal, Issue 30,  2021

 (two tanka)

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sooty spirals
of chimney swifts
chittering as they soar—
so much of our lives
spent following others

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the cold touch
of ebony
and obsidian –
I am no stranger
to your darkness

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Some Changes to My Blog

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This photo haiga was published in 2016 in Frameless Sky.

Changes

Recently I decided to make a few substantial changes to my poetry blog. The first is I have eliminated the space for responses to the poems. From this point on, you can read the poems but can no longer leave a comment. A few of you will be disappointed in this, but most readers will be fine with it. I’ve noticed other poets doing the same thing, so this shouldn’t be too big a surprise.

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The second change is that sometimes I will cluster poems in a single posting. Up until now, each poem or group of poems published together in a single journal pretty much had its own entry. As I age, I have found myself attending less to this blog. I don’t want to eliminate it, so I think this should be a reasonable compromise.

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The Covid-19 world pandemic has changed so many habits, practices and expectations. I love to read other poetry blogs and enjoy the great diversity of work out there in the world, but at times it’s hard to keep up with everything. It’s probably the same for all of us in different ways.

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Poetry should be read at leisure. Read one at a time. Read it out loud. I offer each poem to you as a reader of this blog as a gift from me.

Three of three . . . (tanka)

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And now, here is the third tanka published in GUSTS, no. 34, Contemporary Tanka, Fall/Winter 2021.

so much silence
during the pandemic year
now punctuated by news
of your cancer—
the silence deepens

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Two of three . . . (tanka)

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Here is the second of three tanka published in GUSTS, no. 34, Contemporary Tanka, Fall/Winter 2021.
The pandemic has made all of us look at life and death differently and perhaps more clearly.

 

 

one day when I am
long gone from the world,
     you’ll find me here
& there among scarlet leaves
or blue damselflies

 

 

One of three . . .(tanka)

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In the latest issue, GUSTS no. 34, Contemporary Tanka, Fall/Winter 2021, I am lucky enough to have three tanka published. I’ve read through the whole journal twice so far to enjoy the excellent submissions from such a wide variety of poets. Paper journals are especially nice in that you have them at hand when you need something good to read. 

Here is one of the tanka I wrote:

 

 

growing old together
we make light of losing
thoughts or words –
even now I fall in love
with you again

 

 

 

 

Spring’s soft greening (tanka)

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Like so many other people, the year and a half pandemic has thrown my sense of time way off. I’m so far behind in posting newly published poems on this blog that I find myself now playing catch up.  I am both honored and happy to have had such fine journals select some of my work to publish in 2021. 

 

both of us relieved
we made it to this side
of the pandemic –
falling back in love
with spring’s soft greening

 

Published in Ribbons, Tanka Café, Spring 2021

 

 

The Silent Surprise

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Published in Blithe Spirit,  31.3  2021

~

 

A responsive tanka sequence between Mary Kendall (USA) & Hazel Hall (AUS)

 

 

The Silent Surprise

 


a life piled
in a shopping trolley – 
the cold
cathedral steps
kept clean and tidy                                                                  HH

 

broomcorn gathered
and plaited, tied and cut – 
if only the years
had passed so neatly 
without much fuss                                                                   MK

 

lawn raked free
of twigs and leaves
green bin full
a mob of cockatoos
prunes the trees once more                                                 HH                                            

 

shouts of confusion
and chaos in teargas clouds
    that burning need 
to make sense                                                                        
of why we looked away                                                           MK

 

from antique lands
an ancient epic
rewritten
this shattered visage
covered in graffiti                                                                   HH

 

the silent surprise
of a bundle of letters
bound in red string
hidden deep
in the endless rubble                                                               MK

 

 

My thanks go to Hazel Hall, one of my favorite tanka writers in the world. This is our second collaboration in writing a responsive tanka sequence. 

Note: Hazel’s verses are in regular type; Mary’s verses are in italics

 

 

Shadow…(haiku/senryu)

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Shadow…(haiku/senryu)

 

day moon ~

no shadow on

my mammogram

 

Published: Blithe Spirit  31.3  2021

 

A haiku or a senryu? I love this poem very much, and I’m so grateful to Caroline Skanne, the editor of Blithe Spirit, for choosing it for publication.

 

I have always been fascinated with seeing a “day moon.” I’ve always considered it a sign or good luck or something fortunate happening or about to happen. Do you have any thoughts about seeing the moon out during the daylight hours? Is it magical to you? It is for me.

 

 

 

 

 

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. 

Life as we knew it . . . (Tanka)

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GUSTS: Contemporary Tanka 33 (Tanka Canada)

 

 

life as we knew it
vanished in quarantine,
yet tiny helicopters
of maple seeds will twirl
& spin again one day

 

 

 

 

Maple tree ‘helicopter’ seeds photo by Casey Tree.org

Tongue tripping . . . (a Kyoka)

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GUSTS: Contemporary Tanka 33 (Tanka Canada)

 

 

 

 

 

tongue tripping
in the Provençal patisserie
I shyly order my first
macarons au marrons
in French

 

 

 

Delicious macarons au marrons for real!
Photo by the food blogger,  MISS HANGRYPANTS  .

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

Bleakness . . . (haiku)

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bleakness  –

the lingering taste

of a bad dream

Blithe Spirit, 31.1 2021

Rough edges … (tanka)

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rough edges worn down
on well-trodden paths,
each cobblestone
a reminder of how far
we’ve travelled

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Published in Eucalypt 29, Winter 2020

burning anger

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Moonbathing, Issue 23, Fall/Winter 2020

 

 

hot roasted nuts

heaped into a paper cone –

all that burning anger

you hold onto

so tightly

 

 

 

 

Photograph by Monika Topolko

As an aside, I am realizing my age is showing. Do young people today even know about folks roasting chestnuts (or other nuts) and buying a brown paper cone full of piping hot nuts to eat on the street? I first came across this in Istanbul when I was young. The scent, heat, taste on a chilly autumn afternoon was one of those moments that has stayed with me all my life. Europeans had this custom, but does anyone still do this? The fragrance was so tempting.

 

 

Still the roses bloom…(a tanka)

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the chiming clock
begins to wind down . . .
five months of quarantine
yet still the roses bloom
and red birds sing

 

 

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This tanka was published in October, but obviously was written in early summer. We are now nine months into this pandemic. Writing is a wonderful relief as we isolate ourselves. Like so many poets, I find my writing has been changed by the pandemic.

cattails:
The Official Journal of the United Haiku and Tanka Society, October 2020 issue

 

 

 

Tanka No. 1: Lapis lazuli . . .

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Three tanka published in the winter edition of Gusts, Contemporary Tanka, the journal of Tanka Canada. It’s always a huge thrill to be included in this special journal of tanka. I’ll offer them one at a time.

Gusts no. 32, Fall/Winter 2020

lapis lazuli, delft blue
and French ultramarine . . .
the blueness of blue
in these tired veins
just won’t let go

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

 

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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.

 

 

A nice surprise!

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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
.
#18 2016
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Reiki session . . .
feeling so
out of touch
.
#20 2016
.
beginner’s yoga class . . .
our first sun salutation
eclipsed by the teacher
.
#22 2017
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promises not kept —
that umbrella you gave me
blows inside out
.
#23 2017
.
defined
by their parameters
love triangle
.
#29 2019
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Prune Juice Book of Senryu: Celebrating 10 Years: 2009 – 2019 Copyright © 2020 Prune Juice
p. 94

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We turn away…(tanka)

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This tanka was published in Hedgerow, a journal of small poems ~ #130, Winter 2020

 

 

we turn away

from all we just can’t face—

the glistening red

of a vulture’s head

emerges from a carcass

 

 

 

Poet’s note:

Out of decay comes art and beauty. Look what artist Georgia O’Keefe created from a skull found where she lived in New Mexico. All is part of nature and is nature.

 

Deer’s Skull with Pedernal by Georgia O’Keefe (c) 1936

 

Where I live in central North Carolina, we have plenty of black vultures and turkey vultures. They circle and gather in the sky when there is carrion to be had. I chose this topic for the tanka because it’s a scene I’ve seen more than once. Yes, it’s not a pretty sight. Vultures, especially when eating a dead animal or gathering in a group in a tree or abandoned house do give you shivers. Something in us seems to respond with at least a momentary revulsion. However, I’m a bird lover and I try to see how a specific species fits into the scheme of things. Vultures and crows do eat carrion, the flesh of dead animals, often of roadkill along our roads and streets. They perform a good service by eating their meal and cleaning the mess up. Imagine all those dead animals left to rot. So these birds help us as they go about their business (albeit unpleasant business to us). They are birds we should appreciate for their useful role in nature. They also offer us a wonderful metaphor.

My thanks to editor, Caroline Skanne for being the one editor who chose to publish this poem. 

Green . . . (Synesthesia in haiku)

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Synesthesia in haiku ~

 

This haiku was recently published in Hedgerow, a journal of small poems ~ #130, Winter 2020

 

 

spring…
hearing green
and only green

 

 

 

 

 

 Haru = Spring

Imagine my surprise … (tanka/kyoka)

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Prune Juice, Journal of Senryu, Kyoka, Haibun & Haiga
Issue #30, March 2020

 

 

both parents

dead at sixty one –

imagine my surprise

the day I turned

sixty-two

 

 

The bite of winter wind . . . (haiku)

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Published in Modern Haiku, Winter-Spring, Issue 50:4, 2019

 

the bite of winter wind
      all this murmuring
but no words

 

 

 

Snow melt (haiku)

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The Heron’s Nest
Volume XXII, Number 1: March 2020

 

snow melt

a trickle of caribou

comes to an end

 

 

You turn a deaf ear . . . (3 Tanka)

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Published in Gusts 31 (Spring/Summer 2020), Tanka Canada

 

Three tanka written and read by Mary Kendall (click on link):

 

 

how do I tell you

about the darkness                             

that embraces me,

    uninvited

    unwanted  

 

          ~

 

a loose shutter

flaps in the storm ~

times when it’s so easy

to lose names, numbers

and where to go

 

           ~

 

the morning spent

ripping out

wild honeysuckle vines . . .

no matter how hard I try

you turn a deaf ear

 

 

Becoming my mother . . .

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A Thousand Voices,
2019 Tanka Society of America Member’s Anthology

 

sweet peas,

crab apple blossoms

and old roses—

for part of each day

I become my mother

 

 

Bereft of birdsong . . . (a tanka)

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What a nice surprise to find one of my tanka included in this beautiful exhibition at the Bristol Museum & Art Gallery in the UK.

“In autumn 2019, poets from around the world responded to a call for haiku, a form of short Japanese poetry, based on Japanese prints in the collection at Bristol Museum & Art Gallery. People sent in more than 800 beautiful, thought-provoking poems from thirty countries worldwide. See the selection below.

Many poems were inspired by woodblock prints in our popular 2018-2019 exhibition series, Masters of Japanese Prints.

The project was arranged by haiku poets Alan Summers and Karen Hoy of creative writing consultancy Call of the Page.” (Quoted from the Bristol Museum & Art Gallery website)

 

Bristol Museum & Art Gallery, Bristol, UK

 

winter woodland
bereft of birdsong
with your passing
even clear days
are shadowed

 

My thanks to Alan Summers and Karen Hoy who oversaw this project. Over 800 poems were submitted. Congratulations to all who were chosen to be part of this exhibition.

 

Link to the exhibition: https://exhibitions.bristolmuseums.org.uk/japanese-prints/haikus/

Note: You have to click on all the small pictures in order to open many of the prints and poems. Read them all and enjoy!

 

 

 

Widowhood

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Published in FROGPOND, Volume 43:1, Winter 2020:

 

 

 

 

widowhood

day blurs into evening

into night . . .

 

 

 

 

This poem is dedicated to my dear sister-in-law, Paulett Brylinski, who lost her beloved husband, Jimmy, in December 2017. Watching her learn to cope and live with grief has taught me so much about courage and love.

 

Woods Hole, MA – 3/30/14

 

 

 

Two (winning) haiga

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I don’t enter many poetry contests, but I do love to see what entries win or place in contests/competitions I enjoy and admire. There is always so much to learn from other writers, of course, and it is always an inspiration to see what others produce.

One competition I really wanted to enter was the Fourth Annual Jane Reichhold Memorial Haiga  Competition, which is co-hosted by Failed Haiku and Prune Juice, two of the very finest Senryu journals around. It is divided into two groups: the Traditional (i.e., with original drawn art) Category (judged by Ron C. Moss) and the Photographic/Mixed Media Category (judged by Steve Hodge). My two entries were in the second category using photographs I had taken. One was left untouched and the other was embellished by some art programs I enjoy using on my iPad.

Imagine my surprise when I found out one of my entries won First Place in the Photographic/Mixed Media Category and the other one got an Honorable Mention! Yes, I was over the moon. It’s a double honor indeed. All the other entries selected in both categories were wonderful. I really can’t imagine how an editor selects one over another, but they do. My thanks to editor, Steve Hodge for selecting both of my haiga in this competition. I am deeply honored. Thanks also to Mike Rehling and Brent Goodman who edit Failed Haiku and Prune Juice.

I’ve included the comments of the editor because it’s always great to hear someone else’s interpretation and response to a poem.

 

 

 

 

The voice I’d lost . . . (tanka)

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it took sixty years
to find the voice I’d lost–
that day
blue dragonflies
alighted at water’s edge

 

 

 

Moonbathing, a Journal of Women’s Tanka, Fall/Winter 2019.      
Edited by Pamela A. Babusci

Life

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Two tanka were published in

 

Eucalypt Issue 27, 2019

 

 

miscarriage—
the very word
betrays
the promise
of hope

 

 

 

 

persimmon sun
dips low and sets –
moonlight on the bed
where I was born
& where my father died

 

 

 

Dove photo by Merlune

 

 

 

Unable to forget . . .

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Modern Haiku, Issue 50:3, 2019

 

 

pruning roses

unable to forget her

scarred wrists

 

 

 

Dementia . . .

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The Heron’s Nest, Volume XXI, Number 3: September 2019

 

dementia

     the soft clay begins

to harden

 

 

 

Three Tanka in Gusts

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Three tanka were published in the last issue of
Gusts, Contemporary Tanka  No. 30, Fall/Winter 2019

 

 

as Geminids flit by
in the inky darkness
I pull your jacket tight
around myself
. . . all I have left

 

∼ ∼ ∼

 

ripeness
bears its own burden . . .
fragrant peaches
   dangle low
       bruises   a breath   away

 

∼ ∼ ∼

 

 

in old growth grass     
a newborn fawn
wobbles on spindly legs –
a sure reminder
how brief a season is

 

 

 

Three in Kokako 31

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KOKAKO 31 , 2019, a journal of the New Zealand Poetry Society

 

 

 

first apricots
the baby’s soft breath
in my ear

~

 

moonflower
night after night
that same dream

~

 

barely a whisper
between daylight
and nightfall
       when shadows
hide in darkness

 

Chasing the night

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2019 Haiku Society of America Members’ Anthology (A Moment’s Longing):

 

 

chasing the night—

a falling blossom

graces my tea

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All we left unsaid . . .

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Two senryu and one haiga are in the July issue of Failed Haiku.

 

 

Failed ​Haiku, A Journal of English Senryu

Volume 4, Issue 43

July 2019

 

 

 

 

abandoned nest

four blue eggs

but no answers

 

~

 

vagrant fog

     a distant train

            slows the night   

 

 

 

 

~

 

Catching up!

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Over the past few months, a lot of my work has been published, but I’ve been negligent in getting them posted. Breaking from my usual tradition of a separate post for each journal, I’m going to post all of them here in a single posting. Separate poems and journals are both divided by  ***.

 

 

Redlights, Volume 15, No. 2, June 2019

.

a day will come

when we are the faces

in old picture albums

and no one left

to give us names

***

 

babcia’s borscht recipe

in faded black ink—

can you smell the beets

bubble and hear her

hum along

 

 

Ribbons Spring/Summer 2019: Volume 15, No. 2

.

 

PET scan . . .

all the dogs & cats

I ever knew & loved

romp in the tunnel

where I lie in stillness

***

 

Ribbons Spring/Summer 2019: Volume 15, No. 2

Tanka Café:  Theme: What Matters [to You]

 

they say time

moves faster as we age

yet here I am

stealing an hour

to listen to the birds

 ***

 

cattails: The Official Journal of the United Haiku and Tanka Society, April 2019 Issue

.

 

late winter

the garden’s breath

shifts once more

 

*** 

 

one crow

and a clutch of chickadees

at the birdfeeder —

that simple need

to fit in someplace

       

 

***

 

 

Frogpond 42.2 * 2019

.

graveside—

white blossoms

lighten the darkness

 

 

*** 

 

 

Blithe Spirit 29.2, 2019

.

 

evening meditation

fireflies flit here

& there

                           & there

 

***

.

sacred sites

finding myself praying

in another language

.

***

.

the soft rustle

of quivering aspen leaves

over and over

I replay the words

I might have said

.

***

.

a feeling of you

standing behind me …

when I turn around,

only shadow

only silence

.

 

*** 

 

 

.

Moonbathing 20 Spring/Summer 2019

.

 

sea glass

    a distant story

        told in waves

            I long

                to read

 

.

*** 

.

The Heron’s Nest, Volume XXI, Number 2: June 2019

.

 

a single brass button—

I try to remember

his voice

*** 

.

Eucalypt  Issue 26,  2019

.

 

without warning

a leaf rises in the wind

then tumbles—

our need for forgiveness

so unexpected, too

.

(Eucalypt, The Distinctive Scribblings Awards)

http://eucalypt.info/E-awards.html?fbclid=IwAR2TIZkoI7env3GUJGjZftPzY1FSJbEBKzn5UTsZ7nmXxncO_NpCwyEzE_A

 

 

*** 

.

Gusts, Contemporary Tanka  No. 29, Spring/Summer 2019

 

.

 

faint notes

of a harpsichord

playing Bach –

why is it you always wait

for one wrong note

 

 ***

 

you pour a second cup

of pale moon tea

in a teashop in Prague

. . . I wonder what story

the leaves might tell

 

 

***

 

walking alone

past the tide’s own

push and pull –

I turn to see my footprints

wash away

 

 

*** 

 

 

Kokako 30, 2019

 

.

 

abbey ruins

voices of evensong

     nowhere                 everywhere

 

***

 

 

old burying ground

so many grave markers

buried too

 

***

 

 

in the coffee shop

a glimpse of someone

who looks just like you—

I quickly check my face

in a mirror

 

***

 

 

dark storm clouds

dissolve in sunlight

and shift again—

your changing moods

just as quick

***

 

 

Five years . . . and counting

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.

Dear Readers:

.

I have been blogging on A Poet in Time for five years this month. I began in 2014, and five years have flown by. While my original concept was to complete and post a poem weekly, I veered off into the magical word of Japanese short form poetry in English. For the past few years, this blog has really become a way to share haiku, senryu and tanka that I have published. At the top of the menu, I’ve separated published poems by years. For those who only know my tanka or haiku, I invite you to go back to 2014-5 and explore my longer poetry.

.

I haven’t decided how much longer I will keep this blog. I have a lot of subscribers, but not many comments are left, so there is no way to know if anyone is reading things that are posted. Time will tell. I always welcome comments and observations from poets and non-poets alike. 

.

For those who are subscribed and who read this blog, my deepest thanks go to each of you. It means a great deal to have readers who return again and again.

.

Wishing you all a beautiful day. May peace and kindness rule over this world.

.

Mary

July 2019

.

 

Loneliness . . . (three tanka)

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Blithe Spirit, Journal of the British Haiku Society,
Volume 28 Number 4, November 2018

 

Three tanka were published in Blithe Spirit this past November:

 

 

 Snow Landscape by Hans Braxmeier

 

 

winter woodland

bereft of birdsong 

           with your passing 

even clear days

are shadowed

 

 

Photo by Frantisek Krejci

 

 

together so long

we seem to finish

one another’s  sentences,

fluent in the pauses

of each other’s mind

 

 

 

Universe by Gerd Altmann

 

loneliness

comes and goes,

dancing around

my mind

with two left feet

 

 

 

 

 

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

pale lichens on stone . . . (two haiga)

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

 

~

 

photography by Mary Kendall
Highgate Cemetery, London

 

 

Photograph by Mary Kendall,
Blackwood Farm, Hillsborough, North Carolina

 

~

 

My deepest thanks to Steve Hodge, editor. This was his last issue as editor of Prune Juice. It has been a joy and a wonderful learning experience working with Steve as an editor. 

 

Cover art by Chase Gagnon (c) 2018

 

Here is the link to the full issue of this amazing journal. It includes the amazing prize winners of the Jane Reichhold Memorial Haiga Competition for 2018 (edited by Steve Hodge and Michael Rehling), pdf:   pj-26-rev

 website:  https://prunejuice.wordpress.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Almost . . . (tanka)

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Ribbons, the Journal of the Tanka Society of America Fall 2018: Volume 14, Number 3

 

 

the long scar

down your chest

almost healed —

so hard to forget

you almost disappeared

 

 

   

Ribbons, the Journal of the Tanka Society of America
Fall 2018: Volume 14, Number 3

 

 

 

Hospice window (a haiku)

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My first time in this journal.

 

Haiku Canada Review, October 2018

 

 

hospice window

cherry blossoms

fade and fall

 

heart in pink

Frayed feathers . . . (a haiku)

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Acorn: A Journal of Contemporary Haiku (issue 41), October 2018:

 

 

 

frayed feathers
beneath the dogwood tree


silence

bird-feather-13486506267nW

 

 

 

 

Each coloured heart (a tanka)

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Well, somehow I missed this, a tanka published in Eucalypt, one of the finest tanka journals out there.  Eucalypt is published in Australia, the home of a great number of brilliant tanka poets. It’s always a great feeling having a poem published in this journal.
My thanks to Julie Thorndike, the editor.

 

Eucalypt, Spring issue 2018:

 

how it begins
this love of beauty . . .
a little girl touches
each coloured heart
on grandma’s quilt

 

 

Screen Shot 2018-10-23 at 5.34.26 PM

“Stacked Hearts” by Planted Seed Designs

 

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

Black swan . . . (haiku)

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cattails, October 2018 Issue

The Official Journal of the United Haiku and Tanka Society

 

 

 

black swan    

the beauty

in difference

 

 

 

 

 

Screen Shot 2018-10-15 at 4.48.54 PM

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

 

Rain patter . . .(3 tanka)

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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

 

 

YIRtnskUQyitIZ2kaY+Q2Q_mini_1464

Changing Notes (a Tanka Sequence)

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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)

 

Billowing fog (a few haiku & tanka)

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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

 

 

 

 

Screen Shot 2018-09-28 at 4.01.00 PM

no attribution for this lovely picture I found online

 

 

 

One frame at a time (tanka sequence)

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aperture-art-blur-414781 pixabay

Photo: aperture art blur/Pixabay

 

My thanks to my friend and fellow poet, Iliyana Stoyanova
for writing this tanka sequence with me. 

 

 

Blithe Spirit, the Journal of the British Haiku Society, August 2018

 

 

ONE FRAME AT A TIME

A Tanka Sequence

by Mary Kendall (USA) and Iliyana Stoyanova (UK)

 

camera in hand
you tame the world
click by click …
living your life
one frame at a time

(MK)

the old album
asleep in dust
for all these years
the last two pages
stuck together

(IS)

so alike
everyone said
we could be twins
but then one day
a letter arrived

(MK)

through the open windows
spring wind…
by the ballerina box
my old ribbons tangled
like childhood memories 

(IS)

in my hands now
a forty-year-old picture
of an unknown aunt
a tiny birthmark
same as my own

(MK)

 

 

Screen Shot 2018-09-28 at 1.39.28 PM

Photo from Freeimages.com

 

My hand in yours . . . (two tanka)

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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

 

 

Screen Shot 2018-09-28 at 1.11.59 PM

Praying Mantis and the Moon by Watanabe Seitei

 

 

 

 

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

 

Time to . . . catch up

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cropped-old-clocks-mechanism-852x480.jpg

 

My blog is now four years and two months old. A long time actually, but a short time in my lifespan of seventy-one years. The past four years of writing poetry have been some of the most happy and satisfying times of my life. I’ve become an active part in a small community of writers–people like me who, for all kinds of reasons–simply find expression in verse to be an important part of who they are.

.

I named this blog, “A Poet in Time” because I realized I was just another small cog in the wheel that is written expression and that is humanity. We exist for a brief time on this world, and each of our lives is unique. Every one of us is completely different from all others that have lived or will live. There is such magic in that idea. 

.

After blogging here for fifty months, I wonder how this blog will evolve. It began as a way for me to push myself into writing something each week. It then became a venue to share poems that were published. I continued to write free verse poetry, but the past two years have seen a switch to the writing of Japanese short-form poems such as haiku, senryu and tanka. I’ve also fallen in love with creating haiga and tankart, both of which have pushed me into working with visual images and linking them with poems, letting picture and words complete one another in a unique way. 

.

The poetry community in the Japanese short-form poems world is a welcoming one. I’ve made friends with and received incredible guidance and mentoring from other writers. Some of those friends I have never met since they live on the other side of the world. Others I have met here in the states and in the UK. I consider all of these friendships to be a blessing and a gift. People make such connections and on occasion these become collaborators in writing. I love writing with other poets. Collaborative or responsive writing is an exercise in trust and openness. Two minds create one piece. Two poets enter into it, not knowing what the end product will be, but the process is the best part (for me, at least). Giving and sharing ideas–taking someone’s verse and linking to it and writing a response that works with the whole thing–well, it’s an experience that is unlike other writing experiences, even regular poetry workshops.

.

I was invited to give a talk on Collaborative Writing in April, 2018 at “Haiku Holiday,” a full day devoted to haiku related writing. This is an annual event of the North Carolina Haiku Society (of which I am an active member). It was an honor to do this, and I shared my experiences, most of which were in responsive tanka writing. The two forms are related. Tanka has been written for over 1300 years. Later, Renga with its Hokku came into being in the 14th century, and in the 16th century, Haiku evolved from the Hokku verse of renga. It was a long and fascinating evolution. If you are interested in the history of these forms, I recommend an article written by Tanka Poet and editor,Amelia Fielden:  

.

http://www.tankaonline.com/About%20Tanka%20and%20Its%20History.htm

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In the Japanese courts, people wrote tanka responsively, and it was also a simple communication between lovers. Collaborative writing has a long, long history that continues today.

.

My sister recently asked me if I ever write “long” poems any more, and I had to pause and think. I’ve been working so hard at trying to write passable short form poems that my practice in longer (aka free verse) poetry has dwindled down to very little.

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Perhaps a goal for my fifth year of blogging will be to find a balance between short and longer poems. Who knows? Maybe something else will happen. That’s the fun of writing–it evolves as we evolve and grow.

.

I’ll be posting a bunch of poems that have been published in recent months–I fell behind because real life called (as it does now and then). 

.

For those of you who have followed my blog over the past four years, thank you. I hope you will continue to do so.

.

With all best wishes,
Mary

 

Note: The article I refer to is About Tanka and Its History by Amelia Fielden. It appeared in Tanka Online.

kristin sanderson cardinal 1

Photograph (c) Kristin Sanderson

 

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

 

Unwanted touch …

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Presence Issue 61 (2018) / three haiku and one tanka:

 

1.

a shadow blocks the light    unwanted touch

 

2.

washed up –
this broken shell
once sang the sea

3.

far above
old cotton fields –
migrating swans

4.

thin curls of wood
fly away
from the lathe –
his memory slips 
away bit by bit

 

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Chopping carrots…

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failed haiku: A Journal of English Senryu, Volume 3, Issue 32

 

one haiku:

chopping carrots –
with each decisive cut
I think of you

 

and two pieces of tankart:

belladonna

 

 

an alligator glides by

 

 

Haiku and  Tankart are by Mary Kendall, (c) 2018

best journal and pen

Worry beads (Honorable Mention)

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I’m so honored to have had a Senryu receive an honorable mention in the
H. Gene Murtha Senryu Contest 2018.

 

Honorable Mention:

 

worry beads –
one by one I parse
your silence

 

 

Originally published in Under the Basho:  December 2016

 

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With breath so soft . . . (tanka)

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Redlights, June 2018:

 

a newborn fawn
hidden in tall grasses,
with breath so soft
not even a dandelion
stirs

 

Fawn by Carmen Sterba Russell

Photograph by Carmen Sterba Russell (used with her permission) (c) 2018

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.

 

.

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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