Category Archives: small poems

Melting snow (haiku)

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This haiku of mine placed in the Golden Triangle Haiku Contest in Washington, DC. Each poem selected appears on a placard in downtown DC. What delight to have this one accepted this past spring and what excellent company to have.

From their website:

The 2025 Golden Haiku competition set another record-breaking year, receiving over 4,750 haiku worldwide from all 50 states, D.C., and 66 countries. Youth participation reached an all-time high as well, with more than 600 haiku submitted by school-age poets. Winning and selected haiku were displayed on colorful signs throughout the Golden Triangle from March through May.

All entries were reviewed and judged by a distinguished panel of published haiku experts including Abigail Friedman, Lenard Moore, and Kit Pancoast Nagamura.

Golden Haiku follows the Haiku Society of America’s guidelines for modern haiku, which does not require the traditional 5-7-5 structure. Removing the strict structural requirements for syllables frees the author to use evocative language to capture a moment or expression of beauty in a short, descriptive verse.

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Soaring voices (three tanka)

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

~ ~ ~

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

~

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

~

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

~

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

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