Category Archives: small poems

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

~

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

~

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

~

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

 

 

 

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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

.

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