Peripheral vision … (two tanka)

Redlights, Volume 16, No. 1, January 2020

 


a gradual loss
of peripheral vision
leaves it all unclear 
     why is it that the brain 
still searches for the edge
 

~

underlined passages
in a library book –
I idle away an hour
puzzling why a reader
chose those words

Snow melt (haiku)

 

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)

 

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 . . .

 

 

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)

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

 

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